1 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,400 Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of 2 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of 3 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:22,119 Speaker 1: of these amazing tales are right there on display, just 5 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:28,840 Speaker 1: waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. 6 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:39,639 Speaker 1: Drive across America and you'll find a landscape haunted by 7 00:00:39,680 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 1: the past. Off lonely stretches of highway. There are ghost 8 00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: towns that went suddenly boom and bust, or that just 9 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:49,320 Speaker 1: dried up like desert sand. Many are no more than 10 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:53,080 Speaker 1: a mile marker with an unusual name, like filed Town, Alabama, 11 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:56,600 Speaker 1: or Isaacs, California. And the state of Texas has no 12 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,960 Speaker 1: shortage of bizarrely named ghost towns of the rhwont Turpentine, 13 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:04,480 Speaker 1: even bucksnort But take a drive through hill country in 14 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: central Texas and you just might stumble on an odd 15 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,319 Speaker 1: little ghost town with an even odder name. We're talking, 16 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: of course, about Blowout, Texas. A group of settlers from 17 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,759 Speaker 1: Kentucky reportedly set up shop in the area way back 18 00:01:17,760 --> 00:01:21,839 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty four. Comanche Creek flowed nearby providing fresh, 19 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:25,440 Speaker 1: clean water for cooking and irrigation. But farming wasn't the 20 00:01:25,480 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: primary reason they chose the area. Instead, it was the bats. 21 00:01:30,319 --> 00:01:33,520 Speaker 1: This area of the Texas Hill Country is dotted with caves, 22 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:37,160 Speaker 1: the perfect home for millions of Mexican free tailed bats. 23 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: Even today, the creatures practically black out the sunset when 24 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: they emerge from their caves at dusk. You can only 25 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:45,280 Speaker 1: imagine what it must have looked like back in eighteen 26 00:01:45,360 --> 00:01:48,800 Speaker 1: fifty four, when there were barely any people nearby. And 27 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: where there's millions of bats, there's millions of pounds of guano. 28 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:57,800 Speaker 1: Bat feces, also called guano, is a hugely valuable natural fertilizer. 29 00:01:58,040 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: It kills dangerous fungui and is rich nitrogen, which crops 30 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: need to thrive. So when the settlers founded a town 31 00:02:04,800 --> 00:02:07,160 Speaker 1: in the center of all these caves, they were sitting 32 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: on a very smelly gold mine. They began collecting guano 33 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: from a nearby cave and packaging it to sell as 34 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 1: fertilizer all throughout hill country. This business enterprise was going 35 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:20,560 Speaker 1: well until a sudden storm rolled in sometime in the 36 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: eighteen sixties. While batguano is rich in nitrogen, It's also 37 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: rich inflammable compounds, and decades of guano building up and 38 00:02:28,560 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: decomposing in the same cave produces a heck of a 39 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:35,040 Speaker 1: lot of methane gas, so when a lightning bolt struck 40 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: the cave, the whole thing went sky high. The explosion 41 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,600 Speaker 1: blew a hole into the mounds of guano inside the cave, 42 00:02:41,880 --> 00:02:44,720 Speaker 1: and was loud and bright enough to be seen for miles. 43 00:02:45,200 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 1: The nearby residents didn't yet have a name for their 44 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:50,239 Speaker 1: small settlement, but they did have a sense of humor, 45 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:54,680 Speaker 1: and so Blowout, Texas was born. The community built on 46 00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 1: bat guano continued to grow throughout the late eighteen hundreds. 47 00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,679 Speaker 1: By eighteen seventy five, it had several businesses and even 48 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: opened its own post office. But Blowout didn't really blow 49 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: up until eighteen ninety six. That year, a local rancher 50 00:03:08,800 --> 00:03:10,920 Speaker 1: by the name of Frank Lacy was kneeling by a 51 00:03:10,960 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: creek when he noticed something glimmering in the water. He 52 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:16,680 Speaker 1: reached in and retrieved a small flake of metal. When 53 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: he rubbed the creek mud off of it, the shine 54 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:23,480 Speaker 1: was unmistakable. He had found gold. Miners rushed to town 55 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,639 Speaker 1: and began panning around the clock. With them came more 56 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:29,840 Speaker 1: settlers and more business. The town even grew big enough 57 00:03:29,880 --> 00:03:32,880 Speaker 1: for its first real scandal, gaining them a mention in 58 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:36,520 Speaker 1: the Galveston Daily News. A mail carrier was caught stealing 59 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,920 Speaker 1: money from the town's mail and was jailed for postal tampering. 60 00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:43,480 Speaker 1: But just as fast as the boom started, it sputtered 61 00:03:43,480 --> 00:03:46,200 Speaker 1: to a stop. Despite all the people panning for gold 62 00:03:46,280 --> 00:03:49,120 Speaker 1: or digging mine shafts, the ground was not giving up 63 00:03:49,160 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: its treasures. It seemed. There wasn't any rich deposit in Blowout, 64 00:03:53,280 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: just a few scattered pockets of gold flakes. As the 65 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,280 Speaker 1: gold rush dried up, so too did the town. By 66 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:02,760 Speaker 1: nineteen eighteen, the post office closed and Blowout was taken 67 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,880 Speaker 1: off the postal route, and the last few residents left 68 00:04:06,200 --> 00:04:09,560 Speaker 1: either in cars or in coffins, and Blowout faded into 69 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,000 Speaker 1: the dust of the hill country. Today, all that remains 70 00:04:13,000 --> 00:04:16,320 Speaker 1: of Blowout, Texas are a few scattered markers. There are 71 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,600 Speaker 1: some foundations, and the post office is somehow still standing. 72 00:04:20,040 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: And of course there are the bats. They were there 73 00:04:22,720 --> 00:04:25,440 Speaker 1: before Blowout existed, and I'm willing to bet that they'll 74 00:04:25,480 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: be there long after it completely fades from memory. Even so, 75 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: It's certainly an interesting legacy that all this came from 76 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: one group of settlers in eighteen fifty four who thought 77 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:39,400 Speaker 1: the sweet, sweet smell of success stink like a lot 78 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:56,839 Speaker 1: of batpoop. In January of nineteen forty five, an army 79 00:04:56,880 --> 00:05:00,520 Speaker 1: plane touchdown in Kansas City, Missouri. This was not so 80 00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:03,080 Speaker 1: unusual at the time. The state was home to an 81 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:06,559 Speaker 1: airfield and an army base. But this flight wasn't carrying 82 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: any soldiers or prisoners. In fact, it was carrying only 83 00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: one man. He was the Vice President of the United States, 84 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: Harry S. Truman. Although he grew up in Missouri and 85 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: began his career there, this wasn't a typical social call. 86 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:23,680 Speaker 1: Once landed, he drove from the airport to his ultimate destination, 87 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,880 Speaker 1: a church. Inside he found a family in mourning. He 88 00:05:27,960 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: greeted a few of the people there, and then made 89 00:05:30,080 --> 00:05:33,200 Speaker 1: his way to the casket. Inside was a large man 90 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:36,360 Speaker 1: with a round face. Harry would have recognized his drooping 91 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,200 Speaker 1: jowls and big nose anywhere. It was Tom Pendergast, the 92 00:05:40,240 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: man who had made him vice president back in nineteen 93 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:47,480 Speaker 1: twenty two. Harry had been the struggling owner of a habdasherie. 94 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: He had survived World War One being placed in command 95 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: of an artillery regiment. Harry ran the regiment with precision, 96 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: forcing his men to always stay alert and do everything 97 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:00,240 Speaker 1: by the book. This ensured that when they did take fire, 98 00:06:00,480 --> 00:06:03,120 Speaker 1: they always made it out alive. But what had it 99 00:06:03,160 --> 00:06:05,159 Speaker 1: all been for if it was Harry's fate to just 100 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: return to Kansas City and not be able to earn 101 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:10,760 Speaker 1: a living. Q the arrival of his old army buddy, 102 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 1: Mike Pendergast, who entered the store one day and offered 103 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:16,880 Speaker 1: Harry a job. You see, Mike's older brother, Tom was 104 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: the boss of the local Democrat political machine. He was 105 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:22,599 Speaker 1: looking to spread his influence to the rural parts of 106 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:25,839 Speaker 1: the country and needed a candidate to run for county judge. 107 00:06:26,200 --> 00:06:29,160 Speaker 1: Mike remembered how Harry conducted himself in the war and 108 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,000 Speaker 1: thought that he would fit the bill. This was quite 109 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,960 Speaker 1: the dilemma for Harry. He needed the work. He wasn't 110 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,599 Speaker 1: making any money at the Habitasherie and he had a 111 00:06:37,640 --> 00:06:41,080 Speaker 1: wife to support. But Tom Pendergast had a reputation. He 112 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:44,560 Speaker 1: owned all the local saloons and gambling parlors, and some 113 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,279 Speaker 1: people said that When it came time to vote, Tom's 114 00:06:47,279 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: candidates always seemed to receive more votes than there were voters, 115 00:06:51,560 --> 00:06:54,120 Speaker 1: but Harry was prepared to write this off as rumor. 116 00:06:54,480 --> 00:06:57,039 Speaker 1: He needed the work, and Mike always seemed like a 117 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:01,040 Speaker 1: good guy. His brother couldn't be that bad. So Harry 118 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,320 Speaker 1: ran for county judge that year. With Tom's money and endorsement. 119 00:07:04,760 --> 00:07:08,520 Speaker 1: He won, beginning a historic political career, but right away 120 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:11,520 Speaker 1: he surprised the Pendergasts when he refused to favor them 121 00:07:11,560 --> 00:07:14,600 Speaker 1: with his political power. Jackson County was in need of 122 00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: new roads, and the penter Gaests wanted their construction company 123 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: to get the contract, but Harry believed in running everything 124 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,200 Speaker 1: above board. As the county judge. He awarded the road 125 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:28,040 Speaker 1: contracts to the lowest bidder, saving the taxpayers money, but 126 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,920 Speaker 1: this also meant that the pender Gaests barely profited. The 127 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:34,720 Speaker 1: taxpayers came to trust Harry so much that they approved 128 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,679 Speaker 1: several bonds that were used to support the local school 129 00:07:37,720 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: district and other public projects. By nineteen thirty one, when 130 00:07:41,480 --> 00:07:44,200 Speaker 1: the Great Depression was in full effect, Harry had raised 131 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,080 Speaker 1: enough taxpayer money to where Kansas City was able to 132 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:51,239 Speaker 1: take full advantage of President Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration funding. 133 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:54,600 Speaker 1: The WPA, as it was called, required a city to 134 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:58,760 Speaker 1: pay for the majority of any project that took federal funds. Now, 135 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:00,960 Speaker 1: you would think that Tom Pendergan Guest would be angry, 136 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,120 Speaker 1: but as it turns out, having a candidate who actually 137 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: does a good job is just as useful as having 138 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,360 Speaker 1: a candidate that gives you special favors. You don't have 139 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:13,080 Speaker 1: to buy legitimate votes. By nineteen thirty four, Tom was 140 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:15,440 Speaker 1: able to get Harry elected to the United States Senate, 141 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:19,800 Speaker 1: now representing Missouri, and the pender Guests at a national level. 142 00:08:20,160 --> 00:08:23,240 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty four, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for 143 00:08:23,320 --> 00:08:26,760 Speaker 1: president for a fourth time, the Democrat Party, including Tom 144 00:08:26,800 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 1: pender Guest, selected Harry to be his running mate. They 145 00:08:30,200 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: won the election, and Harry became Vice president. But Tom's 146 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,720 Speaker 1: history of running a foul of the law finally caught 147 00:08:36,800 --> 00:08:39,079 Speaker 1: up with him in nineteen thirty nine when he was 148 00:08:39,160 --> 00:08:42,600 Speaker 1: sentenced to fifteen months in prison for tax evasion. So 149 00:08:42,800 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: you can see why in nineteen forty five, when Tom 150 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:49,559 Speaker 1: passed away, Harry's Democratic colleagues in Washington didn't want him 151 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:53,079 Speaker 1: to attend the funeral. But Harry went anyway. Even though 152 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:55,439 Speaker 1: Tom had been a criminal, he had also put Harry 153 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:58,040 Speaker 1: in a position to do a lot of good. As 154 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:00,720 Speaker 1: Harry later said at the funeral, he was always my 155 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:04,120 Speaker 1: friend and I have always been his. It's a shame 156 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:06,840 Speaker 1: that Harry's friend didn't live just a few more weeks. 157 00:09:07,200 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: If he had, he would have seen the county judge 158 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:13,240 Speaker 1: from Missouri become President of the United States. But that, 159 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:21,000 Speaker 1: my friends, is another story. I hope you've enjoyed today's 160 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free 161 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:27,360 Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by 162 00:09:27,440 --> 00:09:32,439 Speaker 1: visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by 163 00:09:32,480 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I 164 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:40,000 Speaker 1: make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, 165 00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:43,040 Speaker 1: book series, and television show, and you can learn all 166 00:09:43,080 --> 00:09:47,120 Speaker 1: about it over at the Worldolore dot com. And until 167 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 1: next time, stay curious.