You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address. The timing also coincided with the extension of Alaska Highway Route 1 to Kenai and eventually Homer, diverting much of the traffic to the road system. [4] The population largely consisted of Russian-Aleuts. Very interesting. In addition, various groups of gold miners and hunters used to head to the mountains for their work. The locals believe these deaths were caused by the Nantinaq, a bigfoot-like creature lurking on the That's the unhappy story of Portlock. Around the same time, elder Simeon Kvasnikoff of nearby Port Graham (present-day Nanwalek), said that a gold miner headed out for the day and just disappeared. According to local history, an unexplained hairy creature continuously assaulted and stalked the villagers, murdering them and leaving their bodies, until they finally all abandoned the area. I think she was also not happy when they would go down and see that it (Port Chatham) was all different. He had sworn that if he had not had time to row out into the coastal waters they would have killed him with ease in short order! The facts are that there really are no facts. The once bustling cannery community of Portlock, Alaska now lies unoccupied on the Kenai Peninsula. Other rumors include specifics of the beasts features. Available at: https://www.anchoragepress.com/news/framing-nantiinaq-alaska-s-best-known-cryptid-homicide-case-debunked/article_ed6facfe-a1f9-11eb-b7fc-0bba856ee2fe.html, Bipin Dimri is a writer from India with an educational background in Management Studies. Your email address will not be published. Well filmed and edited. Anchorage, Alaska (KINY) - U.S. Today these two ghost towns located on the Kenai Peninsula remain uninhabited. That being said, hopefully expedition bigfoot stays away from from investigating this area. Explore the latest news & podcasts. Those items were then scanned at a high resolution and shared with the public. Historic Mysteries is an Amazon Associate and earns from qualifying purchases. Where in the World with Delta Air Lines ONLINE SIGN UP, Juneau Radio Center - Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce - Congressional Candidate Forum 2022, The Mandy Massey Real Estate and Home Show brokered by EXP Realty, Extreme Expeditions Northwest LLC on YouTube. Cannery workers refused to come to work one season and were begged to return the following season with promises of armored guards protecting the camp around the clock. In an interview that ran in the October 2009 edition of the Homer Tribune, Nanwalek elder Malania Helen Kehl, who was born in Port Chatham in 1934, gave insight into the demise of her hometown. One resident saw a huge, hairy man destroying fish wheels along the beach. Apparently, the season prior to this encounter, a trappers body had been found torn to bits and partially eaten by an unknown beast which left enormous human foot tracks in its wake.. When I was raised the BIA school was here and things were slowly turning into a different culture, but for her (Malania) it was still deep inside her. He was instantly struck by a wild-beast stench and saw the outline of a huge body in the darkness at the opening of their lean-to. If you follow him he will hide and he could turn into different animals, Sally describes. We were brought up in a way where we cant tell our elders they are wrong., And that was her story, Sally giggles we knew it. For some this is a step too far. The village of Nanwalek still maintains private ownership of Portlock today. He came back to us with a collection of research on strange happenings in the town of Portlock that is south of Homer. That's true. But hey, all I can do is share the facts and let people reach their own conclusions. But the events at Portlock are not so easily explained. Locals moved away to the surrounding villages of Nanwalek and Port Graham. Yet, these kinds of questionable deaths became common place. 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. In the 1920s, Albert Petka reported running off a peculiar animal with his dogs before receiving a fatal blow from the creature. Portlock, also known as Port Chatham, is an abandoned town on the Alaska coast. Throughout the United States is a great heritage of abandoned towns serving as a testament to a past that no longer exists. Nathaniel Portlock, a member of the British Royal Navy, found sanctuary here in 1786 during his Alaska expedition and praised the site. When they found his body, there was blood on the crane and he was a good ten feet from it. Portlock's death sentence was signed when, along the opposite edge of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska Route 1 was completed during the 1940s, finally allowing efficient transportation between Anchorage and all of the many towns along the peninsula. Checkmate, skeptics. As my intrigue on the subject was growing, I kept getting side-tracked by the idea of a murderous bigfoot; finding myself investigating dozens of additional aggressive bigfoot reports. 2009-2021 Historic Mysteries. It was on Port Chatham Bay, 16 miles south of Seldovia, near the chromium mining settlement of Chrome. When we go down we are not looking for things. 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. Maybe she was grieving and still in pain for the lost old way that she grew up compared to how it became. Web+254-730-160000 +254-719-086000. One group hunting a moose reported finding giant footprints also stalking the same animal. Well, yes, the inhabitants did leave town. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet or see on sensationalist TV shows. As the local population started recovering bodies, speculation regarding the deadly beast started to rise. Those people did leave the town. they are from a demonic realm which cannot be physically discovered. What is left of Portlock. Heres a rundown of some of the states most enchanting ghost towns, Portlock, Kennecott, Portage, and Dyea. By 1950, the town of Portlock, Alaska was mysteriously abandoned despite being still rich in resources and a huge commercial center. Folklore says that the town was abandoned due to bigfoot attacks. By then, locals spoke of a Yeti-like monster that walked the beaches of Portlock, destroying fish wheels and leaving giant 18-inch-long footprints. Sign up for our newsletter so you don't miss a thing! Portlock is still mostly uninhabited to this day; the town was dissolved as a census designated place in the 1980s and has not been reported again since then. "A logger was out working and something or someone hit him over the head with a huge piece of logging equipment, something that one man couldn't have lifted. A goat hunter in 1968 claimed to have been chased by a creature while he was hunting in the area. Hes right, its not a mystery. It reads like a Scooby Doo plot. Beliefs do not enter into it. For an adrenaline-pumping excursion, look no further than tales of this now-abandoned town on the Alaska coast. The Exorcism of Anna Ecklund, How Old is the Sphinx? Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. It looked like a man, but he was all hairy and he looked really scary. Malania told the reporter that the entire town evacuated Port Chatham in 1949 due to this murderous Nantiinaq. I think the 1949 date is when the post office closed. There really was no killing of people.. Monster or no, people abandoned Portlock en masse. What to Know Before Visiting Fairyland Caverns, Explore North Georgias Beautiful Wine Country, 8 Amazing Scenic Drives in Central Florida, 7 Best Antique Shops in Corpus Christi for Treasure Hunting, The Big Easy: The Truth Behind This Strange City Nickname, Soul Food You Have to Eat When Visiting New Orleans, Why Wisconsin May Not Be the Cheese Capital of the World, Get Hopped Up at the 7 Best Breweries in St. Louis. It's mildly frustrating when native folklore gets appropriated and hammered until it fits the bigfoot myth. This could not be some bear or else they would have identified it as such. However there really are several strange death and disappearances associated with the area. People went into the woods and turned up later as mutilated bodies. One man who was a true bastion of respectability, well trusted by the local people ended up being brutally murdered when his head was crushed by a heavy piece of mining equipment by what many of the towns folk said had been wielded by a very powerful and large brute of a man if it had been possible at all. 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. The people of Portlock knew what a bear looks like and this was no bear. Thanks for sharing your investigating results . Source: GARETH / Adobe Stock. Sometime later, Tom Larsen went out to chop wood for fish traps when he saw something large and hairy on the beach. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. It's the basis for TV shows like 'Alaska Killer Bigfoot', numerous Internet articles and YouTube videos, and at least one (not very good) book. In 1973, three hunters took shelter there during a three-day storm and claimed that each night something walked around their tent on what sounded like only two feet. (LogOut/ The last residents fled in 1950, and the village lay abandoned. I listened to the Bedtime Stories YouTube video about this yesterday. Image courtesy of Extreme Expeditions Northwest LLC via YouTube. Portlock, also known as Port Chatham, is an abandoned town on the Alaska coast. Tags: Alaska, missing persons, Port Chatham, Portlock. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Residents found enormous tracks and saw a huge, hairy man-beast in the woods. The area around the footprints was torn up with tree branches destroyed and blood found at the scene. Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The City Borough of Juneau Parks & Recreation will offer several weeklong day camps throughout the summer for children ages 5 11. WebMany villagers blamed the unexplained deaths and disappearances on a Bigfoot-like creature referred to locally as Nantinaq. For the locals that grew up in the area, this thing has apparently existed for hundreds of years. According to the stories, Petka survived to explain what happened, but died to his wounds soon after. Read. By 1910 there was enough interest in opening a cannery at Portlock that the town became official with the opening of its post office in 1921. Alaska has been the source of lore for travelers for centuries. Several residents who grew up there and moved out still talk about its beauty. Nathaniel Portlock, a member of the British Royal Navy, found sanctuary here in 1786 during his Alaska expedition and praised the site. Last Updated on Apr 6 2023, 3:53 pm AKDT. Thats when hes walking around. What was out there? Invalid password or account does not exist. 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. But the events at Portlock are not so easily explained. Hes not hanging around waiting for people.. Ten years later, a piece of logging equipment hit a logger in the head, even though it would have taken more than one person to lift it. So thats why we respect it and stay away from it. document.write(year) Dont Miss the Frankenmuth Snowfest This Year, Youll Never Guess Where the Ice Cream Capital of the World Is, Everything You Need to Know About Neahkahnie Viewpoint, Sip Sophistication at the Best Wineries in Colorado, The Creepiest Abandoned Places in Colorado, The Best Hot Springs in Alaska to Warm Your Bones, Feast Your Eyes on These Unique New Mexico Mountains, Everything You Need to Know Before Visiting Killpecker Sand Dunes, The History of the Haunted Captain Grants Inn, Well Never Know Why the Bells Mansion Was Abandoned, Add Brandywine River Tubing to Your Bucket List, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. 1887-1926. The Mystery of Portlock, Alaska. 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