[8] In recent years, the community has considered the possibility of re-establishing Portlock as a village. It all began almost from its very start. Apparently since the establsihment of the town and its subsequent abandonment there have been ominous events. Alaska is larger than life, with overwhelming landscapes offering adventure. Now, an expedition returns to the abandoned fishing village to reclaim the land and its resources from the terrifying beast locals call Nantinaq. By the 1920s, Portlock was booming, yet while the town thrived for some years, in the background it seems that there were dark and mysterious forces lurking in the periphery. [4] Seldovia is located c. 16 miles (26km) north of Portlock; a chromite mining camp, known as Chrome,[10] was also located near Portlock, which operated in the early-twentieth century.[11]. Whereas Hollywood often depicts pioneer life as violent and filled with hired gunmen and frequent gun play the Old West and pioneer life were not as violent as todays condensed big city populations with the shootings that occur in places like Chicago, Baltimore, or Detroit. Some said when anyone cornered him, he could become violent, changing into an animal. Would any of you out there risk it? Indias Haunted Village: Why was Kuldhara Abandoned? i believe people are seeing and hearing and smelling exactly what they say they are. Are there any other Alaskan ghost towns that youve visited? Settlers came to the region around 1787 when the British Royal Navy arrived with Captain Nathaniel Portlock, exploring the southern Alaskan coastline. After this, things began to get rather sinister. The town of Portlock, AK is a ghost town due to all the citizens moving away. The victim, John Mire (some reports say McQuire), or "The Dutchman" as he was called by the local Native Americans, was killed by an assailant thought to be "the bushman." I felt the same way, but I do feel like its improving as the episodes continue. The Disturbing Incidents at Portlock, Alaska. Yet, for numerous reasons many of these once flourishing towns met with hard times and gradually lost population and retail services that made living there impossible. If we have a serial killer in the area at the time, they took out a lot of people in the course of say 20 years. In the 1920s and 30s there were several mysterious deaths in the area that seemed to have been caused by something very large and powerful. On the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula you'll find Portlock, a whole town that disappeared in Alaska. [4][1][5] Many villagers blamed the unexplained deaths and disappearances on a Bigfoot-like creature referred to locally as Nantinaq. Whether or not this is a stronghold of Bigfoot in Alaska, you can decide for yourself. The disappearances and the bodies found were too horrible for anyone to continue living in this small town. Thank you! iv. Travelers Tip: Have you ever wondered if you can physically see Russia from Alaska? These were not people who were easily scared by wildlife, and furthermore they would be well aware of the local predators in the area. But with the isolation and the vast areas free from human habitation comes its fair share of spooky stories and unexplained happenings. Many people use the term Port Chatham when referring to Portlock. Salmon was plentiful in the bay and a cannery operation was established, attracting seasonal workers and bringing in money. What seemed the stuff of camp fire tales and horror stories emerged to grip the community when hunters that had gone into the foothills of nearby mountains never returned. Isn't this the place to be if you want to settle the question whether Bigfoot exists or not--Portlock, Alaska. I watched the first episode of this show last night. What Still Remains of Portlock, Alaska, Today? 1944 and 1945, the Japanese launched more than 9,000 bomb-rigged balloons across the Pacific . To this day, Alaskans steer clear of Portlock and Port Chatham. A mine tunnel, house pilings, and rusted cannery equipment are all that remain of Portlock. In the 1940s the village was abandoned after the occupants were attacked and in some cases brutally killed by something which came from the woods. This Nantiinaq creature wasnt your usual Sasquatch, but more of a shapeshifter, keeping away from people. Something was killing the inhabitants and leaving their dismembered corpses to be found by the villagers, washed up on the banks of the bay or out in plain sight, left where they had been killed. There are many abandoned towns in Alaska that have been left to be reclaimed by the earth. The loss of these lives took a toll on the small community and fear set in. He barely escaped with his life and he was convinced that it was a bigfoot. I enjoyed it. Its a hike to get to Portlock, Alaska, these days, but if you have the opportunity, dont pass it up. The series, Alaskan Killer Bigfoot, follows a scout team exploring the ruins of the abandoned village. So, what can be said for sure about the attacks? by with a free trial. We know when the town and post office shut down. The villagers would hear something and then she would disappear back into the cliff face, History writes Seventy years ago, a murderous Bigfoot-like creature sent residents fleeing from Portlock, Alaska. REMAINS: Mine tunnel, house pilings, . Bipin Dimri is a writer from India with an educational background in Management Studies. This thriving town remained until everyone abandoned the village in 1950, with most residents moving to nearby villages down the coast. $549,900 2 bds2 ba1,096 sqft - Condo for sale Price cut: $19,100 (Jul 11) 96 Hunter Rise, Chatham, MA 02633 JOHN C RICOTTA & ASSOC. However, these stories generally paint a very different picture to what happened at Portlock. Hope to get a chance to see your follow ups, good luck on the Quest for BigFoot.id love to be a part of it all, but, id have tp say i too am a tad bit scared, jtw. This was where the terrifying tales seemed to align with the untimely deaths of those citizens now lived in Portlock and Port Chatham. This could not be some bear or else they would have identified it as such. There's probably at least a half dozen already. You can even take a road trip to discover the most haunted places in Alaska. Regardless of his skepticism, there is something uncanny about several groups of people being fearful of this monster. Fishermen turned up missing after boating down the nearby coastline and camping inland never to be seen again! ASL-PCA-66 | Alaska State Library - Historical Collections, UAF-1991-18-155 | Arnold Granville photographs | Alaska Digital Archives, ASL-P237-1-18 | Carl L. Hubbs Photograph Collection, 1939, ASL-PCA-237-1 | Alaska State Library - Historical Collections, UAF-1991-18-153 | Arnold Granville photographs | Alaska Digital Archives, ASL-P237-1-17 | Carl L. Hubbs Photograph Collection, 1939, ASL-PCA-237-1 | Alaska State Library - Historical Collections, Head To This Eerie Island For A Real Life Adventure In Alaska. Why? On the southern tip of the Kenai Peninsula, you'll find Portlock, Alaska, a whole town that disappeared within the state, with only a few rotting houses left of the once-vibrant village. All rights reserved. Portlock grew steadily, with its economy fueled by fishing and the nearby chromium mine. The villagers would hear something and then she would disappear back into the cliff face.". I would NOT spend the night onshore, only overnighting in the boat, well offshore. On seeing him coming, a fearful commotion amongst the females, and a kind of supernatural terror among the men took place. They described her dress as being so long that she would have to drag it. For some this is a step too far. FBI officials Sunday were traveling to Kenai. Bigfoot, Vanishings, Strange Deaths, And The Cursed Abandoned Town of Alaska Even before Portlock had even existed there had long been sinister stories told by the Natives of the area. From the start, the show seemed highly scripted, and once the group arrived at the site of Portlock, the first nights cornucopia of cliched Bigfoot phenomena just seemed way too convenient. Nathaniel Portlock, a member of the British Royal Navy, found sanctuary here in 1786 during his Alaska expedition and praised the site. In the 1970s, fisherman forced to take refuge from a storm reported something strange walked through their camp on two feet. Publications. They had long told of a creature stalking the wildernesses of the region, which they referred to as a Nantiinaq, roughly translating to half man- half beast. The Natives were apparently terrified of these creatures, and would avoid any area in which they were known to lurk. Available at: https://www.kinyradio.com/news/news-of-the-north/mysteries-of-portlock-alaska-and-the-abandonment-of-the-small-town-in-the-1900s/, Smith, D, 2021. The town began in the early 1900s as a cannery for salmon. they are from a demonic realm which cannot be physically discovered. On Jan. 9, the group organized bags with those items inside. The first bizarre incident allegedly happened in as early as 1905, just a few years after the cannery had opened. In 1949 hunters found mutilated. The history of this alleged 'creepiest place in Alaska' is indeed remarkable. Also while I would love an opportunity to see one, would prolly be better to errect a structure in portlock and place tree cams on booies, or on one of the still standing structures in the waters surrounding the beach there. Yet, a common pattern in the Pacific Northwest seems to manifest itself in people being chased, murdered, or vanished in the presence of what we now call, Bigfoot. Something had partially dismembered and beaten them. The full story with Brian Weed can be found ON DEMAND on our website. Maybe you're seeing it from a strange angle or it's too close to trees so you can't see its whole shape.". . Cuz the actual story of Portlock is one of if not the most fascinating in bigfoot lore, and the hairy man stories from alaska are likewise terrifying and seem to be consistent with what happened there. What he saw threw him into a panic as a group of vicious hairy men began converging on his position. This left Portlock as on abandoned town in Alaska, and one many people never wanted to return to. The work continued in the next season and the cannery workers came back, but the issue remained and whatever was out there returned as well. There are somethings in this world we just cant explain. The first of the strange occurrences started in 1905, when people from the village were harassed by a large animal, which bothered their camps in the night. Many believe that the town and Chrome are haunted. It made its linear cable television debut on Travel Channel on June 26, 2022. This area has been home to the Sugpiaq people for centuries. Maybe set up some sort of loud speaker mimicking a community of people, and sit on a boat waiting for evidence of bigfoot. If you travel to the southern side of Alaska's Kenai Peninsula today, you'll find little more than ruins and wildlife. Yet this place was also at some time forsaken, the inhabitants held under siege by strange forces they could not understand and could not cope with, leading to strange phenomena, mysterious deaths, vanishings, and a mass abandonment and unsolved mystery discussed to this day. The Big Foot t.v show should come to Togiak Alaska 99678. 4/5 stars signed by each SEC school from 2019-22 (bulk of this year's roster): Alabama 89 Texas A&M 76 Georgia 73 LSU 58 Florida 51 Auburn 42 Tennessee 38 Kentucky 27 Ole Miss 24 South Carolina 22 Arkansas 22 Mississippi State 22 Missouri 13 Vanderbilt 7. Alaska is Sasquatch land - or Nantinaq, as Bigfoot is locally known around Portlock. According to Steve on his You Tube Channel How to Hunt there are incidents still going on there even now. We know that there are reported murders in the area. Find the most current and reliable 7 day weather forecasts, storm alerts, reports and information for [city] with The Weather Network. One of them is from the Portlock village, in Port Chatham Bay only 200 km (124 miles) south of the states most populous city, Anchorage. By 1950, every single resident had left the town, leaving it abandoned. Portlock, Alaska Teacher and his wife at English Bay stated hunters from Portlock sometimes failed to return. It is strange & extremely rare, though, to hear of violent or murderous bigfoots. Some of them never came back, but accidents were not uncommon and nothing was proven until 1931. The murdered man was only the first sign of an unknown threat in the woods surrounding the village. If youre what I can only refer to as smart, then you understand that isnt and never was anything to really worry too much about, but it is a pretty alarming rate (5 out of every 1000) for people to regularly be eaten by mythological monsters in the woods and it doesnt just happen once in one outbreak, it happens continuously every year. Alaska is full of stunning vistas, beautiful animals, and ghost towns. In 1931, one man that was chopping wood was found murdered, seemingly by a single blow that seemed stronger than a human could manage. These ghost towns are reminders of the efforts of pioneers, settlers, and mining operations that once made it profitable for people to establish a city in the frontier and make trade possible that would perpetuate residency. The Chilling Stories Behind Portlock, Alaska. Thats the best and most realistic show on TV right now pertaining to Bigfoot. This town experience over 50 years of hauntings, murders, and disappearances before the townspeople gave in and left. After a series of unexplained events and deaths, the town was suddenly abandoned en-masse around . Residents in the nearby villages of Seldovia, Nanwalek, and Port Graham also report that the area is haunted, including Portlock (also called Port Catham,) Catham Bay, and Chrome, the site of a chromium mine. I cannot be positive but I believe two separate accounts from the same area are being rolled into one. There has to be more living on that land still. :-). Rumours of a strange creature abound - oh no! This incident was scary enough to traumatize the entire village. According to the stories, Petka survived to explain what happened, but died to his wounds soon after. Just watched the first episode. Which effectively means that its less dangerous than covid for people who were already dying of cancer to go for a walk in the woods in certain regions of Alaska, but more dangerous than covid for young healthy people to try it. We are planning an Expedition to the place next summer. They're right to be scared Where are the Bigfoot researchers? One resident saw a huge, hairy man destroying fish wheels along the beach. Over the last few weeks, Watseka Kiwanis Club has been collecting items for children for Harbor House. I wonder if Robert Alley has heard of this, or has some information on it. Many people started to blame this on a killer cryptid! The village of Portlock was established when Captain Nathanial Portlock of the Royal British Navy landed there in 1787. I think it would be a fantastic film if done right. There was an air of fear and mystery that began to pervade the small town. The sightings became common and uneasiness began to prevail in the village. Around 1900, an American firm brought in a fleet of fishing boats and built a cannery to take advantage of the calm waters and the healthy run of salmon. One group hunting a moose reported finding giant footprints also stalking the same animal. A film crew was there not too long ago and a cameraman took off running out of no where and disappeared. Thank you for recommending it ???? In the 1920s, a man by the name of Albert Petka supposedly scared off the hairy creature with his dogs, but not before receiving a fatal blow to the chest. [2] Named after Nathaniel Portlock, the town was an active cannery community in the early-twentieth century. It terrified them, and they left as soon as possible. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. $3,100,000 A few scarier ones would be Ukivok near Nome, the Kennicott Mine in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Portage, near Whittier, the Slide Cemetery in Skagway, and the Treadwell Gold Mine near Juneau. Required fields are marked *. Sign up for our newsletter and get notified of the best travel destinations for your next trip. This was once the little paradise away from it all that one would think, a bustling seaport that managed to grow and thrive at one point. For now we do not know, and the decrepit ruins of what was still sit upon the bay, with the only ones knowing the true answers being the trees and perhaps ghosts. In some cases, the town was bypassed by a railroad or highway. The size of the found footprints was more than 46 cm (18 inches) long. According to the stories, Petka survived to explain what happened, but died to his wounds soon after. Image courtesy of Extreme Expeditions Northwest LLC via YouTube. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices More Episodes 2022 Decoding The Unknown [6][7], Most of the people who fled Portlock in the 1940s moved to the nearby Native Alaskan villages of Nanwalek and Port Graham. Weed told us that he hopes to visit Portlock to do some exploring. Basically, like Im sure everyone here is already aware of, it sounds like the bigfoots up there, just like bears and all large predators in those harsh environments become, are more carnivorous, independent, massive, aggressive, and dangerous. So long that she would disappear back into the cliff face. `` Japanese... He could become violent, changing into an animal show on TV now. Pervade the small community and fear set in, hairy man destroying fish wheels along the.... 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