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Speaker 1: That's alllbi rds dot com. On the night of October twentieth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty seven, journalist Betty Allen was working late at
Speaker 1: the offices of the Time Standard newspaper based out of Eureka,
Speaker 1: a vibrant seaport town at the northwestern edge of California,
Speaker 1: when a call came into the office. Picking it up,
Speaker 1: she was greeted by the urgent and excited voice of
Speaker 1: thirty four year old Roger Patterson. Patterson was calling from
Speaker 1: the Lower Trinity Ranger station out in Willow Creek, a
Speaker 1: small mountain town about forty miles to the east, a
Speaker 1: popular spot from which to venture out into the vast
Speaker 1: and ancient forests that surrounded it on all sides. Patterson's words,
Speaker 1: as Betty later described it, cascaded out between gasps as
Speaker 1: it did his best to precisely detail the events from
Speaker 1: earlier that day. It all started around one thirty pm
Speaker 1: that afternoon, when he and his friend thirty six year
Speaker 1: old Bob Gimlin, were riding through the Six Rivers Nation
Speaker 1: Forest along Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River,
Speaker 1: deep within the forest about forty miles north of Willow Creek.
Speaker 1: A few years previously, an almighty flood had forced a
Speaker 1: torrent of rain water through the narrow waterway, leaving behind
Speaker 1: fallen trees and branches that now littered the banks, strewn
Speaker 1: about in huge piles of bleached driftwood. Patterson and Gimlin
Speaker 1: were just approaching one such pile when they caught sight
Speaker 1: of something moving at the far side of it, about
Speaker 1: eighty to ninety feet away. To the pair's amazement, it
Speaker 1: was some kind of hominid, measuring well over six feet tall,
Speaker 1: with silvery brown hair all over its body, and it
Speaker 1: was just standing alone right in front of them. Patterson,
Speaker 1: who had a film camera, with him was just about
Speaker 1: to reach for it when his horse reared up, suddenly
Speaker 1: throwing him to the ground. With the horse agitating to
Speaker 1: get away, Patterson had just enough time to grab the
Speaker 1: camera from his saddle bag before the horse bolted into
Speaker 1: the trees. As the bizarre creature began to move away
Speaker 1: from them, Without thinking, Patterson ran toward it, hoping to
Speaker 1: get a better angle, wile Gimlin followed on horseback. Then
Speaker 1: Gimlin's horse also reared up, forcing him to dismount and
Speaker 1: let it go. With the two men now on foot,
Speaker 1: Patterson yelled for Gimlin to cover him with his rifle
Speaker 1: as he moved in a little closer and pressed the
Speaker 1: shutter release lever. With the blood rushing through their ears
Speaker 1: and only the sound of the film whirring round in
Speaker 1: the camera to break the silence, the pair could only
Speaker 1: stand all struck as they watched the creature slowly amble
Speaker 1: away from them, its arms hanging almost to its knees,
Speaker 1: swinging languidly by its side as it went. As Patterson
Speaker 1: put it. The two men then watched with disbelief as
Speaker 1: the creature turned to regard them for a moment before
Speaker 1: it simply sloped off and disappeared into the trees. As Patterson,
Speaker 1: who believed the creature was female owing to the shape
Speaker 1: of its chest, went on to say, she never made
Speaker 1: a sound. She wasn't hostile to us, but we don't
Speaker 1: think she was afraid of us either. She acted like
Speaker 1: she didn't want anything to do with us if she
Speaker 1: could avoid it. But she stunk like a dog coming
Speaker 1: out of the rain that smelled like it had been
Speaker 1: rolling in something dead. The footage that Roger Patterson shot,
Speaker 1: known today as the Patterson and Gimlin Film, was the
Speaker 1: first time that anyone claimed to have caught the mythical
Speaker 1: forest creature known to some as big footile sasquatch on camera.
Speaker 1: As a consequence the film, in particular, the still that
Speaker 1: was taken from it, known as frame three to five two,
Speaker 1: showing the precise moment the apparent creature turned to look
Speaker 1: directly at the camera, instantly transformed what was a local
Speaker 1: legend into a global phenomenon. Although the film failed to
Speaker 1: gain any credible support, leading to accusations that Patterson and
Speaker 1: Gimlin had faked the entire thing, supporters of its veracity
Speaker 1: are quick to point out that it hasn't been satisfactorily
Speaker 1: debunked either. As for Patterson, the film was the culmination
Speaker 1: of an eighty emission to find irrefutable evidence of the
Speaker 1: forest creature, which began after he first read about it
Speaker 1: in a True Magazine article in nineteen fifty nine. The
Speaker 1: author of the article was Ivan T. Sanderson, whose fascination
Speaker 1: with mythical creatures led him to coin the phrase crypto zoology,
Speaker 1: a portmanteau of three ancient Greek words which translates roughly
Speaker 1: to English as the study of hidden animals. In a
Speaker 1: later book, which also served as inspiration to Patterson, Sanderson
Speaker 1: made note of a number of footprints and strange occurrences
Speaker 1: that had been reported by forestry workers in the Bluff
Speaker 1: Creek region. Chief among them was the story of Jerry Crew, who,
Speaker 1: in August nineteen fifty eight, was helping to build a
Speaker 1: timber road through the surrounding forest of Bluff Creek when
Speaker 1: he apparently discovered a series of sixteen inch humanlike footprints
Speaker 1: in the dirt. A subsequent article detailing Crew's incredible story,
Speaker 1: written in The Humboldt Times by journalist Andrew Genzoli, is
Speaker 1: thought to be the first instance in which the term
Speaker 1: bigfoot was used in relation to such things. In truth,
Speaker 1: of course, tales of strange and terrifying creatures stalking the
Speaker 1: ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest had long been shared
Speaker 1: and traded, first by the Native American people of the
Speaker 1: region and later by the newcomers. For many bigfoot enthusiasts, however,
Speaker 1: there is one story above all others that they will
Speaker 1: often come back to, the one that really makes the
Speaker 1: hair st and up on the back of their necks.
Speaker 1: And for that we need to move a little deeper
Speaker 1: into the forest to a place known today as Ape Canyon.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McClane smith. We
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Speaker 1: Fred Beck always had the sense that he was a
Speaker 1: little different, as if strange things would just happen to him.
Speaker 1: One time, when he was playing in the pastures as
Speaker 1: a child, Fred realized he'd lost his precious beanshooter, a
Speaker 1: favorite toy that he'd worked weeks to save up the
Speaker 1: money to afford. As he began to cry over it,
Speaker 1: a mysterious woman appeared and told him not to be sad,
Speaker 1: because his shooter would be waiting for him when he
Speaker 1: got home, wiping the tears away. A somewhat unconvinced Fred
Speaker 1: swiftly made its way back home, where no sooner had
Speaker 1: he stepped inside he caught sight of the toy lying
Speaker 1: before him on the kitchen table. He never saw the
Speaker 1: woman again, and as it turned out, the bean shooter
Speaker 1: wasn't even the same one he'd bought. Born in eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty eight, Fred grew up in Kelso, forty miles north
Speaker 1: of Portland in Washington, USA, a small but bustling hub
Speaker 1: of the confluence of the Cowlitz and Columbia Rivers that
Speaker 1: was quickly establishing itself as the epicenter of the local
Speaker 1: logging industry. There, Fred would spend his days down by
Speaker 1: the banks of the Columbia, watching the giant steamers drift
Speaker 1: by or out roaming the surrounding countryside. While down week
Speaker 1: after week, trainloads of loggers piled in, who seemed to
Speaker 1: spend as much time frequenting the many taverns and other
Speaker 1: late night spots of the town as they did shifting wood.
Speaker 1: With little other work to be found, it was only
Speaker 1: natural that Fred would one day end up in the
Speaker 1: logging trade too. By nineteen eighteen, however, he had his
Speaker 1: sights set on something a little more financially rewarding. It
Speaker 1: was Back in eighteen ninety one the two farmers, on
Speaker 1: a hunting trip near Spirit Lake, fifty miles east of Kelso,
Speaker 1: discovered what they recognized to be mineral deposits of black
Speaker 1: tormaline and hematite minerals that were often found near rich
Speaker 1: veins of precious metals. Their discovery triggered a minor gold
Speaker 1: rush in the area that by nineteen ten had seen
Speaker 1: thousands of prospect pits and eleven thousand feet of tunnels
Speaker 1: dug out of the area, yielding several thousand tons of gold, silver,
Speaker 1: and copper or A geological review soon after, however, suggested
Speaker 1: the region was in no danger of becoming the next Klondike,
Speaker 1: and by nineteen sixteen most attempts to develop substantial minds
Speaker 1: in the area had been all but abandoned. There still
Speaker 1: remained a few hardy individuals, however, for whom the dream
Speaker 1: of striking it rich had yet to evaporate, and soon,
Speaker 1: having tired of the usual odds and sods jobs back
Speaker 1: in Kelso, fred Beck decided it was high time that
Speaker 1: he gave it to go to in nineteen eighteen, Fred
Speaker 1: teamed up with his father in law Marion Smith and
Speaker 1: Marion's son Roy, along with their friends Gabe Lafeva and
Speaker 1: John Patterson, to stake out an area of forest known
Speaker 1: as the Lewis River area, located just south of Spirit
Speaker 1: Lake at the foot of Mount Saint Helens, a breathtaking
Speaker 1: cone shaped volcano that loomed high over the surrounding landscape.
Speaker 1: Those early days would be spent scouring the area together
Speaker 1: for the perfect place to begin prospecting. They trekked endlessly
Speaker 1: through the forest with rifles in hand, should they find
Speaker 1: themselves suddenly in the path of a big black bear
Speaker 1: or a hungry cougar, occasionally chancing upon the eerie sight
Speaker 1: of a long forgotten mining cabin. Whenever the men found
Speaker 1: a good spot, they would put up camp, then spend
Speaker 1: the days blasting into bedrock or tunneling into cliffs looking
Speaker 1: for the telltale signs of gold, while nights would be
Speaker 1: spent gathered round the camp fire with a pot of beans,
Speaker 1: smoking pipes, and gazing up at the endless night sky
Speaker 1: as they were serenaded by the nocturnal movements of the forest.
Speaker 1: It is one of the many mistaken assumption about the
Speaker 1: great outdoors that it is a quiet, peaceful place, when
Speaker 1: in truth it is an eternal cacophony of unhuman things,
Speaker 1: from a hooting and chirping of birds, to the chitter
Speaker 1: of insects and the many barks and howls of unseen,
Speaker 1: fur covered creatures. One night, however, Fred's group heard something
Speaker 1: else that none of them had heard before, a strange
Speaker 1: thumping sound coming from somewhere far off that was met
Speaker 1: by another similar sound soon after, coming from some other
Speaker 1: distant place. It sounded for all the world as if
Speaker 1: they were responding to each other. The men thought little
Speaker 1: of it until the next day, when they heard it again,
Speaker 1: this time in broad daylight, with one of the men
Speaker 1: later describing it as sounding as though there was a
Speaker 1: hollow drum in the earth somewhere and something was hitting it.
Speaker 1: Having all heard the tales of strange, apelike creatures that
Speaker 1: were said to roam the surrounding hills, the men were
Speaker 1: quick to joke about just what might be out there,
Speaker 1: but Fred didn't see the funny side. Back in the
Speaker 1: nineteen hundreds, while working at a logging camp just outside
Speaker 1: of Kelso with his brother, he and Fred were just
Speaker 1: bedding down for the night when they heard something snorting
Speaker 1: and kicking about outside their tent. Then it started pushing
Speaker 1: against the side of the tent. As the men cowered inside,
Speaker 1: doing their best to stay completely still, They took it
Speaker 1: in turns to keep watch outside through a small slit
Speaker 1: in the canvas, through which they could just about make
Speaker 1: out something large, covered in dark hair, ambling about under
Speaker 1: the moonlight. The following morning, Fred's brother couldn't hide his
Speaker 1: relief but their luck he escaped from a possible bear attack.
Speaker 1: But Fred couldn't share his elation. He'd seen enough bears
Speaker 1: in his time, and whatever that thing was, it was
Speaker 1: no bear. One morning, a few years after they began prospecting,
Speaker 1: Fred's group were camped out in the eastern shadow of
Speaker 1: Mount Saint Helen's, in an area known as Pumis Butte,
Speaker 1: when Fred's father in law, Marion, set out early to
Speaker 1: fetch water from a nearby creek. When he returned soon after,
Speaker 1: he hurriedly woke up the others and told them to
Speaker 1: follow him immediately. Twenty minutes later, the bleary eyed men
Speaker 1: were stepping grumpily through the trickling waters of the creek,
Speaker 1: demanding to know what all the fuss was about. As
Speaker 1: Marion led them on to a sand bar running through
Speaker 1: the middle of it and pointed toward the ground. The
Speaker 1: men stared down in disbelief at what looked like two
Speaker 1: huge footprints, similar to a humans, but far far bigger,
Speaker 1: each pressed about four inches deep into the sand. Fred
Speaker 1: looked up and scoured the surrounding hills, gripping his rifle
Speaker 1: a little tighter. By nineteen twenty two, having thankfully seen
Speaker 1: no further evidence of anything untoward, the men had decided
Speaker 1: to focus their efforts on a portion of cliff on
Speaker 1: the eastern side of Mount Saint Helens, in an area
Speaker 1: known as the Plains of Abraham. According to Fred many
Speaker 1: years later, they'd apparently been led there by a Native
Speaker 1: American spirit guide with the tantalizing promise that their fortune
Speaker 1: would be found within it. Having spotted a ledge part
Speaker 1: way up the cliff, the men swiftly levered themselves up
Speaker 1: to it, and, with the use of explosive powder, blasted
Speaker 1: out a much larger ledge, from which they were able
Speaker 1: to start tunneling into the cliff face. Soon sensing they
Speaker 1: could be onto something, the men staked a claim on
Speaker 1: the land, and soon after built a log cabin at
Speaker 1: the base of the cliff where they could stay. Though
Speaker 1: not especially big and with no windows, it was a solid,
Speaker 1: cozy construction comprised of pine logs, with a stone fireplace
Speaker 1: and enough room to comfortably sleep all five of them.
Speaker 1: It wasn't long after they moved into the region, however,
Speaker 1: that strange things began to happen. One afternoon, after working
Speaker 1: the tunnel, the men returned to the cabin to find
Speaker 1: their items had been interfered with. At first, they suspected
Speaker 1: a bear had just passed by looking for food, until
Speaker 1: Fred discovered that their food store had been left completely untouched.
Speaker 1: Another time, they found an entire sack of canned food
Speaker 1: emptied onto the ground, with the bag tossed at the side,
Speaker 1: but no sign of claw marks to be found anywhere.
Speaker 1: What they did apparently find, however, were a number of
Speaker 1: strange footprints that looked just like the others they'd seen
Speaker 1: in the creek. For the next two years, the men
Speaker 1: spent their time chipping away at the vein of ore
Speaker 1: inside the cliff, then walking the chunks of it down
Speaker 1: in bags to Marion's ford, which he kept parked at
Speaker 1: the foot of the mountain. The ore would be driven
Speaker 1: back to the nearest town and analyzed for its mineral content.
Speaker 1: Though they never hauled anything life changing, they found enough
Speaker 1: to suggest that something big might be just within their grasp.
Speaker 1: One morning in July nineteen twenty four, Marion was chipping
Speaker 1: at the rock face when a large chunk of it
Speaker 1: fell to the ground. Marian picked it up and smiled
Speaker 1: as it sparkled in the light. This is it, he
Speaker 1: told the others. I think we're getting close. Fred was
Speaker 1: unable to share his enthusiasm, however, having been suffering with
Speaker 1: throbbing too fake for the last twelve hours. But when
Speaker 1: he asked Marian to give him a lift into town
Speaker 1: to get it seen to, Marian refused, too excited by
Speaker 1: the prospect of that morning's fined. By the end of
Speaker 1: the day, however, the team had failed to uncover anything
Speaker 1: else significant, and eventually returned more or less empty handed
Speaker 1: to the cabin. After another meal of hot cakes and beans,
Speaker 1: it was spread and Marian's turn to fetch more water.
Speaker 1: The pair grabbed their guns and water bottles accordingly, and
Speaker 1: promptly headed off down the mountain to the nearest spring.
Speaker 1: Moments later, having just stepped through the tree line. Marion
Speaker 1: froze suddenly and raised his rifle. Don't move, he whispered sharply.
Speaker 1: Then Fred saw it too, about a hundred yards ahead
Speaker 1: of them, on the other side of the narrow canyon,
Speaker 1: poking out from behind a pine tree. It was hard
Speaker 1: to make out what it was exactly, only that it
Speaker 1: was some kind of huge, apelike creature, standing at least
Speaker 1: seven feet tall and covered in dark fur. Fred was
Speaker 1: just stepping round to get a better look when Marian
Speaker 1: suddenly opened fire, sending bark flying from the pine tree.
Speaker 1: As the creature made a break for it, The men
Speaker 1: watched incredulous as it ducked and weaved between the trees,
Speaker 1: clearly moving on two legs, before it eventually disappeared out
Speaker 1: of sight. Don't worry about that devil, fred I got
Speaker 1: him right in the head, said Marian proudly. When Fred
Speaker 1: and Marion returned to the cabin, they wasted no time
Speaker 1: in telling the others what had just happened, warning them
Speaker 1: that the creature could well return, much to their dismay. However,
Speaker 1: the men were a little less than impressed, accusing the
Speaker 1: pair of being drunk or mistaking a black bear for
Speaker 1: something else, and before long Fred and Marian were questioning
Speaker 1: their own account, too, agreeing that it probably was just
Speaker 1: a bear after all. After a quick smoke around the fireplace,
Speaker 1: the men decided to call it to night, and each
Speaker 1: made their way to their beds, with two sharing a
Speaker 1: long bunk bed and the others sleeping on pine boughs
Speaker 1: that they'd scattered on the floor. It had just gone
Speaker 1: midnight when Fred was awoken by a tremendous thud ringing
Speaker 1: out from the cabin wall, followed by Marion screaming as
Speaker 1: he sat up, suddenly frantically waving his gun around in
Speaker 1: the air. As the rest of the group jumped up
Speaker 1: from their beds, Fred hurriedly lit a lamp, revealing a
Speaker 1: large pile of chinking next to Marion, which had just
Speaker 1: been knocked loose from the wall. Then another almighty thump
Speaker 1: rang out around them. Marion hissed for Fred to put
Speaker 1: out the light. In the pitch black silence, As the
Speaker 1: men's breathing settled, they soon began to hear things shuffling
Speaker 1: about outside the cabin, like a small herd of horses
Speaker 1: loping about. Marion held his finger to his lips, then
Speaker 1: bent down and peered out of the gap in the wall,
Speaker 1: then threw his head back in horror. There's three of them,
Speaker 1: he whispered, but was suddenly interrupted by another round of
Speaker 1: thumps against the wall, this time from what sounded like
Speaker 1: rocks being thrown against the cabin. Just then, a flurry
Speaker 1: of rocks tumbled down the chimney, causing the men to
Speaker 1: jump back into the room, and then something heavy was
Speaker 1: heard moving about above them. They're on the roof, said
Speaker 1: Fred aghast with the sound above moving closer to the
Speaker 1: middle of the cabin. The men backed up against each other,
Speaker 1: their rifles pointed at the ceiling, when Marion suddenly let rip,
Speaker 1: sending a flurry of bullets through the roof. Then something
Speaker 1: pounded at the front door. Quick grab, something, yelled Marion,
Speaker 1: as Fred pulled a pole from the bed and hurriedly
Speaker 1: pushed it up against the door as the other three
Speaker 1: backed further away into the cabin. When another thump came
Speaker 1: against the door, Fred fired off a few more rounds
Speaker 1: at it, sending splinters of wood everywhere and filling the
Speaker 1: cabin with gunsmoke. Just then, something dark and hairy through
Speaker 1: the hole in the cabin and grabbed hold of an
Speaker 1: axe that was lying against the cabin wall. Fred was
Speaker 1: just quick enough to twist the head of it so
Speaker 1: it couldn't be pulled out. Then another shot rang out
Speaker 1: from Marion, missing Fred's hand by inches. As quick as
Speaker 1: it had appeared, the hairy limb dropped the axe and
Speaker 1: retracted through the hole, giving Fred just enough time to
Speaker 1: kick the axe away from the wall. Things then calmed
Speaker 1: for a moment before another flurry of bangs from outside
Speaker 1: was met with another volley of bullets from Marion and Fred,
Speaker 1: until finally it was all over and everything stilled, And
Speaker 1: so things remained until the first light of dawn crept
Speaker 1: in through the gap in the chinking and the numerous
Speaker 1: bullet holes that covered the wall. Satisfied that the cabin
Speaker 1: was no longer surrounded, Fred removed the poll from the
Speaker 1: door and cautiously stepped out into the fresh morning air.
Speaker 1: Then he saw what he took to be one of
Speaker 1: the creatures, standing about eighty yards away on the edge
Speaker 1: of the gorge. Grabbing his winchester, Fred darted out toward it,
Speaker 1: then took aim and fired three times, watching with satisfaction
Speaker 1: as the thing stiffened for a moment and then tumbled
Speaker 1: down into the canyon below. Is there something interfering with
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Speaker 1: This podcast is sponsored by better Help and Unexplained. Listeners
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Speaker 1: charge of their mental health with the help of an
Speaker 1: experienced professional better help wants you to start living a
Speaker 1: happier life today. At the first opportunity that morning, the
Speaker 1: men grabbed everything they could and high tailed it to
Speaker 1: Marion's truck at the bottom of the mountain, running off
Speaker 1: in such haste that they were forced to leave almost
Speaker 1: two hundred dollars worth of supplies behind to half thousand
Speaker 1: in today's money. Once in the truck, Marion did its
Speaker 1: best to keep it steady as they bumped and skidded
Speaker 1: over the rutted earth, while the others kept their rifles
Speaker 1: trained on the forest either side of them at all times.
Speaker 1: It was about half an hour later when they pulled
Speaker 1: into the Spirit Lake Ranger station to inform Ranger William
Speaker 1: Welch about all that had happened, with Marion insisting they'd
Speaker 1: been attacked by some kind of mountain devil back in
Speaker 1: their hometown of Kelso. Although Fred told the others not
Speaker 1: to mention anything about it, it wasn't long before word
Speaker 1: of their bizarre encounter with an apparent race of terrifying
Speaker 1: hominid creatures got out. On July twelfth, the story hit
Speaker 1: the press, appearing in an article published in the Portland Oregonian,
Speaker 1: A few days later, Fred Beck returned to the cabin,
Speaker 1: this time accompanied by rangers as William Welch and J. H. Huffman,
Speaker 1: where first he pointed out the spot that he shot
Speaker 1: one of the creatures before it tumbled into the gorge.
Speaker 1: But when the three men peered over to look at
Speaker 1: the four hundred foot drop below, there was no sign
Speaker 1: of anything matching Fred's description. At the cabin, however, they
Speaker 1: found a number of large rocks scattered about the building.
Speaker 1: Then Welch spotted something in the earth and motioned for
Speaker 1: Huffman to come over and take a look. It was
Speaker 1: what appeared to be a gigantic human like footprint. Huffman
Speaker 1: studied the shape of it for a moment, then bent
Speaker 1: down on his haunches and pressed his palm into the
Speaker 1: ground next to it. Then, with his knuckles, he placed
Speaker 1: five indentations at the top of the first impression and
Speaker 1: stood back up. Side by side, the prince looked almost identical.
Speaker 1: Over the next few days, rumors swirled about the men's story,
Speaker 1: with some accusing them of making it up, while others
Speaker 1: suggested that some boys from a local YMCA group had
Speaker 1: been responsible. This theory was quickly quashed However, when all
Speaker 1: the boys were later accounted for on the night in question,
Speaker 1: and soon people were flocking in from all over the
Speaker 1: country and even from abroad in the hope of capturing
Speaker 1: one of the so called mountain devils. Despite numerous hunting trips, however,
Speaker 1: no evidence of the creature was ever found, though Ranger
Speaker 1: Welch remained convinced that a rational explanation would be forthcoming,
Speaker 1: As he stated in The Oregonian Old Man, Smith, who
Speaker 1: started this ape stampede, absolutely believes it. Something happened up there,
Speaker 1: But I can't imagine what. Another funny thing is that
Speaker 1: you can't shake the stories of the other men either.
Speaker 1: The mystery to me is who put up the job
Speaker 1: on Smith and his companions and why in the world
Speaker 1: they did it. A few days later, Fred finally had
Speaker 1: the chance to visit the dentist to have his tooth extracted.
Speaker 1: Returning home afterwards, he was approached by a stranger in
Speaker 1: the street who asked if he was one of the
Speaker 1: men attacked by the creatures in the forest. When Fred
Speaker 1: said yes, the man told him there was someone who
Speaker 1: wanted to talk to him about it, and then invited
Speaker 1: Fred to accompany him to a tavern across the road. Inside,
Speaker 1: Fred was introduced to ten or so Native Americans of
Speaker 1: the local Yakama tribe who wanted to hear more about
Speaker 1: his apparent encounter. When Fred had finished telling his story again,
Speaker 1: the other looked to each other, then one of them
Speaker 1: began to speak. In their culture, they knew them as
Speaker 1: the Salartic, a race of outcast Native Americans who had
Speaker 1: retreated to the forest, where they'd evolved to better suit
Speaker 1: their environment, becoming superhumanly strong, with huge bodies much bigger
Speaker 1: than ordinary humans that were covered in hair to survive
Speaker 1: the cold. Since they could no longer see in daylight,
Speaker 1: the Salatic, who lived in deep secluded caves, preferred to
Speaker 1: hunt at night and had a long history of abducting
Speaker 1: the members of other Native American tribes. Fred and his compatriots,
Speaker 1: it seemed, who'd had a lucky escape. So what are they, exactly,
Speaker 1: asked Fred. Are they human or spirits? Neither replied the
Speaker 1: Yakama men, there were something in between. Thank you to
Speaker 1: Neil McRobert for suggesting this week's story. Neil has a
Speaker 1: brilliant podcast called Talking Scared, interviewing writers and advocates of
Speaker 1: horror which are thoroughly recommends, so do check it out
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy Unexplained and
Speaker 1: would like to help supporters, you can now do so
Speaker 1: via Patreon. To receive access to ad free episodes. Just
Speaker 1: go to patron dot com Forward Slash Unexplained Pod to
Speaker 1: sign up. Unexplained, the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories
Speaker 1: that have never before been covered on the show, is
Speaker 1: now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon,
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements
Speaker 1: have Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me
Speaker 1: Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in
Speaker 1: touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've
Speaker 1: heard on the show. Aps you have an explanation of
Speaker 1: your own you'd like to share, you can reach us
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