Portlock // Part One - podcast episode cover

Portlock // Part One

Jul 11, 202327 minSeason 4Ep. 1
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Episode description

In the thrilling Season 4 premiere of Bigfoot Classified, we embark on an extraordinary journey deep into the dense forests of Portlock, Alaska. Tune in to the Season 4 Part One to witness the gripping quest unfold before your eyes. Located on the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula the ghost town of Portlock Alaska. Once boasting a very modest population of 31 residents the small cannery town was home to various shops, businesses and even a post office.
In a story of disappearances, unexplained deaths and a town abandoned; this is PART ONE of the case of the Portlock Bigfoot.

Follow Woody G. Watts on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/woodygwatts

Transcript

Bigfoot Classified contains content that is graphic in nature, and listener discretion is advised. Bigfoot Classified relies largely on news documents, eyewitness accounts, press conferences, and interviews. Every episode is produced with respect the victims, families, and communities involved. Some of the interviews, quotes, and broadcasts have been recreated.

Numerous hours of research have been done regarding these stories, and if you have a theory question or feel that we've missed something, we encourage you to

visit Bigfoot classified dot com. This is Bigfoot Classified. For countless generations, the soup Piac people of the namwalik And program region have whispered tales passed on through generations of a captivating, an elusive entity known as not to Knock, whose presence is said to dwell within the impenetrable thickets of the southern Kenai Peninsula,

particularly the Portlock area. Passed down like folklore, these stories speak of a towering creature reminiscent of Bigfoot, renowned for its remarkable strength and uprooting trees, and its ability to produce knocking sounds that echo through the wilderness, and the terrifying occurrences of individuals vanishing without a trace in its presence. While the tales have stood the passage of time, the town of Portlocks it's empty,

with the last of the residents fleeing during the nineteen forties. This is the story of the Portlock Bigfoot. Nathaniel Portlock is believed to have been born around seventeen forty eight in Norfolk, Virginia, and hailed from a family with acestrel ties to the English Southwest dating back to his grandfather's immigration around sixteen eighty five.

Tragically, Nathaniel's father passed away in seventeen fifty two, leaving behind his wife, Rebecca previously known as Rebecca Valley, who had a daughter from a previous marriage. Following the death of Portlock's father, Rebecca quickly remarried for the third time to a man named Richard Scott, who became the guardian of her

three surviving Portlock children and had additional children with her. At approximately twenty four years old, Nathaniel Portlock joined the British Royal Navy forcibly recruited from the Merchant Marines. Nathaniel and his brother quickly aligned themselves with the loyalist colonists in America, commonly known as American loyalist. He later departed the country following the conclusion of the War of Independence. On March seventeen seventy six, Portlock began serving

as a master's mate on the Discovery captain by James Cook. During Cook's third and final Pacific voyage. In May seventeen eighty five, Nathaniel Portlock and George Dixon, originally from Cumberland and a former armorer, embarked on an expedition under the banner of the King George Sound Company. This venture aimed to capitalize on the lucrative sea otter fur trade, which had been identified during Captain James Cook's third voyage, when Cook's crew sold pelts on their return journey to Britain.

Equipped with two ships, the three hundred twenty ton King George and the two hundred ton Queen Charlotte, the expedition set sail from Britain in September seventeen eighty five. Both vessels had crew members who had sailed with Cook during his third

voyage, bringing valuable experience in navigating the North Pacific. It has been suggested that the choice of royal names for the ships might indicate some form of government approval, although the expedition possessed a five year license from the South Sea Company and relied on its authority when engaging with other traders they encountered, including John Mears. Additionally, the expedition benefited from the meticulous record keeping of William Beresford,

who documented the voyage in detail. At the Cape of Good Hope. Captain John Gore released Portlock from the resolution towards the end of Cook's journey.

Copies of the ship's journals and the news of Cook's passing were carried by Portlock as she sailed ahead and the HMS Portlock was given his lieutenant's commission in September of seventeen eighty Departing Britain in September seventeen eighty five, the expedition sailed down the Atlantic, making stops in Madeira and Cape Verde Islands before reaching the Falkland Islands in January of seventeen eighty six. After spending sixteen days in Port Egmont,

they rounded Cape Horn and ventured north along the Pacific coast. On May twenty fourth, they arrived off Hawaii near the kaya Laikakua Bay, where Cook tragically lost his life in seventeen seventy nine, seeking fresh provisions to combat scurvy which had afflicted the crew, Portlock hesitated to land due to the uncertainty about

the reception from Kameahmea, the island's overall chief. Consequently, he decided to bypass Malakai and nearly encountered the French explorer La Perouse, who had just arrived at Maui. Eventually, Portlock anchored at to Manlua Bay on the south coast of Oahu, with the eastern end of the bay now known as Portlock. Some of his men rode westward, catching a glimpse of Pearl Harbor's entrance beyond Wakiki. From there, the expedition made its way to Waimia in Kawaii,

where they obtained supplies of yams and pigs. They then proceeded to Kneehow, renowned for its abundance of these resources. Departing the Hawaiian Islands on June thirteenth, King George and Queen Charlotte set their course for Alaska. Here, Nathaniel and his crew stumbled upon what would later be Port Lock. The area had been inhabited for centuries by the Alayu community, who were divided between the US

state of Alaska and the Russian Administrative division of Kumkachi Krai. The Aliute are indigenous to the islands and the western part of Alaska Peninsula in present day Alaska. Picture of land of rugged coastlines, towering volcanoes, and a maritime climate that has shaped the lives of these resilient individuals for centuries. For the Alau people, the ocean has always been their lifeline. They were skilled hunters,

fishermen, and gatherers with an intimate connection to the sea. Their survival dependent on the abundant resources found in the waters surrounding their homeland. Seals, sea otters, and other marine mammals provided them with not only sustenance, but also materials for clothing, tools, and crafts. Their cultural heritage is a tapestry of artistry and craftsmanship, from intricately woven baskets to beautifully carved ivory and wood.

The Alloyou people expressed their creativity through various mediums. Their distinctive parkers, adorned with sea otter fur, are a testament to the mastery of their environment. The Alloute society thrived through close knit communities and complex social structures. Kinship systems played a significant role in their organization, with extended family networks forming the backbone of their communities. After Nathaniel left, the small settlement, Portlock continued

to thrive and was later named after the commander. Settlers discovered an abundance of salmon in the bay and exploited the catch long enough to establish a successful cannery operation, working with the natives to share resources. This attracted seasonal workers and brought economic prosperity to the community. Soon enough, by the turn of the nineteen hundreds, the community was thriving, but this is when things started to

go horribly wrong. In nineteen oh five, Indigenous Allute fishermen working during salmon season began claiming they were being harassed at night by a large animal. A cannery supervisor would note how the men quit their jobs over the hairy man bothering them and refused to come back to work. The Aute workers began speculating that the hairy man was nothing less than the angered ninety knock, directly translating to big hairy man in the Alloute Natives language. The ninety knock was described as

an evil sasquatch like creature. Covered in hair and walking on two legs, who wanted them to leave the settlement, angered that humans had destroyed his habitat. After months of back and forth and ceased operations at the cannery, eventually supervisors were able to negotiate with the alleutes for better pay, and the indigenous workers returned the next season. However, whispers of a mysterious creature they called the ninety nine remained. In nineteen twenty, a group of bow hunters made

a disturbing discovery on the banks of the Yukon River. The group were out hunting when they stumbled upon a houseboat that had drifted down streaming become stuck. Going over to see what they could do to help, they quickly noticed the boat was covered in what looked like blood. Fearing the worst, they hid it inside, armed and ready for whatever had made the mess to strike. Inside the boat, they found the owner, Albert Petka, covered in his

own blood and nearing death. Despite his injuries, Albert was able to tell the bow hunters what had happened to him. Between gasp He told them in how the night before he was inside the boat when he heard howling nearby, going out to investigate, Albert armed himself with a rifle and stirred his dogs to come along with him, searching the darkness for the source of the noise. Within minutes, he found himself face to face with a terrifying creature,

standing at seven feet tall and covered in fur. The creature shrieked at him as he approached, and Albert raised his rifle to strike at the beast. Within the blink of an eye, the creature attacked him, battling his rifle away with ease and lashing out at Albert, penning him against his boat. The dogs managed to scare the creature off, but the damage was done. Albert lay for hours, slowly dying, until the group came across him and

rushed him to a nearby doctor. Sadly, Albert would die from his injuries, and a doctor would later a note that he could not attribute any animal or human known to man for being responsible for causing such catastrophic injuries, and from there fear of the nineteen knock began to grow. Months after Albert's death

came a rise in miners and hunters going missing from the Portlock area. Bodies would be discovered in the creek or strown in the woods, with authorities having no idea who or what was causing the casualties, serial killer encrypted well, the locals had already decided they were being plagued by an angry nineteen knock. By nineteen thirty one, deaths were already at an all time high when Longer Andrew Camlock was found dead in the woods. Andrew and his extended family had

lived in Portlock, with the longer preferring solitude out in the wilderness. One day after Andrew failed to return home, a search party was sent out, and after scouring the dense wilderness, they came across him, face down in the with the back of his head completely shattered, close by a large piece of logging equipment covered in blood. Initially a thirties work to peddle the story

of a logging incident gone wrong, but the community knew better. Andrew was known for his safety precautions and had been on the job long enough to not make mistakes like this. His family argued that if an accident had happened involving the logging machine, Andrew would have been found next to it. Instead, he was over fifteen feet away with injuries that would have killed him. Instantly, How was Andrew so far from the machinery if he had simply fallen foul

of his bad planning. The distance between the body and the equipment strongly indicated that the machinery had been deliberately wielded to brutally strike his head before being cast aside. The sheer weight and size of the equipment required the strength of three to four men to lift and move it. So who or what killed him? In one incident, Thomas Wyene Larson, who moved to Portlock in nineteen twenty five to work on the mines, came face to face with the beast

as the creature destroyed fish wheels on the beach. Tall standing on two feet and covered in hair, the creatures stared down the miner, daring him to strike, as Larson mustered up the carriage to raise his weapon, But just as he was about to strike, an overwhelming force came over him, telling

him not to kill the beast. Powerless to stop himself, he lowered his weapon and walked away, spending the years up until his nineteen ninety four death questioning what had compelled him to spare the creature that had terrorized his town With instances continuing to ramp up. Town settlers felt like they were being picked off one by one. Cannery workers would go out in groups, never to return,

and only for their mutilated bodies to turn up months later. Hunters began tracking the beast and found footprints that resembled humans, the difference being this one was eighteen inches long, stretching out into the dense forest. The hunters attempted to find where the beasts sheltered, but the prince eventually trailed off and the deaths only continued. During a search operation, a hunting party stumbled upon a

disfigured corpse of a missing hunter in a creek. The injuries inflicted on the body were not typical of a bear attack, raising suspicions of a different culprit. Similar gruesome discoveries unfolded as bodies cascaded down from the mountains into a nearby lagoon or washed up on the shores of poor Chat, bearing unmistakable signs of being torn apart by an extraordinary, powerful creature. The alarming frequency of deaths

and disappearances sent waves of unease through the local community. The lagoon became a haunting spectacle, with lifeless body surface on a regular basis, causing residents to retreat indoors, gripped by fear of the eerie forest that surrounded them. These unsettling events coincided with a surge in sightings of towering, hairy beings and shadow entities. Settlers referred to these creatures as mountain apes, hairy men, or

devils, while the indigenous population identified them as the ninety nine. These entities became synonymous with the area's atmosphere of strangeness and death. As the incidents intensified, a mass exodus from Port Lock ensued. In the late nineteen forties. Settlers and natives combined all fled the area, searching for safety in neighboring towns.

Homes were abandoned, with personal effects left untouched for decades. One by one, families picked up and left, and by the close of the nineteen fifties, the post office, one of the last remaining hints of civilization, closed, with the postmaster fleeing his post. By nineteen fifty one, the town stood desolate and forsaken, leaving behind structures, equipment, and even an abandoned cannery. The god daughter of Andrew Camlock and the local elder from Nawallack,

Milania. Helen Kell gave an insightful interview that was published in the Homer Tributes October two thousand and nine issue. She gave light on the causes of the village's disappearances because she was born there in nineteen thirty four. According to her, her parents and the other villagers were wary of experiencing the dread brought on by a creature known as the ninety nine, which translates to half man,

half beast. Numerous locals eventually came to the point of refusing to go into the nearby woodlands, and over time they left their homes, the local school, and moved up the coast to Port Graham. Though Portlock now stood abandoned, that didn't stop tales of strange encounters from the area emanating. In nineteen sixty eight, a hunter who was in search of goats claimed to have

been pursued by a mysterious creature while out in the hunting grounds. Another incident occurred in nineteen seventy three, when three hunters sought refuge in the same area during a severe three day storm. They reported that each night something circled their

tent, producing the distinct sound of walking on two feet. Fast forward to nineteen ninety, when the Anchorage paramedic was called to provide medical assistance to a seventy year old Native individual who had suffered a heart attack while incarcerated in the Eagle River Jail. During the treatment, the paramedic mentioned previous hunting experiences near Portlock. To the paramedic surprise, the elderly man abruptly sat up, grasped

the medic shirt, and urgently inquired, did it bother you? Did you see it? The paramedic ed later shared his encounter on the Bigfoot Encounter's website, documenting this intriguing interaction. I don't belong to any UFOL group or anything like that, but this actually happened to me. I've told a few trusted friends about it, but never bothered to write it down, So I'll try

to relate it as accurately as memory allows. In ninety ninety, while I was working as a paramedic in Anchorage, we got called out on an alarm for a man having a heart attack at the state jail in Eagle River. He was a Native man in his seventies, and after I got him stabilized with IVS, O two and cardiac drugs. My partner and I began to

transport him to the Native hospital in Anchorage. En route to the hospital, I had time to talk to this gentleman, who was a Elliott from the Native village of Port Graham, a remote village on the lower end of cook Inlet. Well, as usual with me, the topic eventually drifted to hunting and fishing, and I casually mentioned to him that I and two other hunting buddies were once weathered in at the Upper Lagoon at Dogfish Bay, only a

few miles from his home in Port Graham. The lagoon was about as beautiful and wild a place as I ever seen in my thirty five years in Alaska. Well, when I said that I had spent some time in Dogfish the salt Man sat up on the gurney and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He got right up to my face and said, did it bother you? Well, with that question, the hair just stood up on the back of my head. I said yes, did you see it? Was his next question. I said, no, did you see it? He

said no, but my brothers seen it. It chased him. A salt Elliott and I were talking about the same thing. But we never mentioned the word bigfoot or legend or anything like that. But we both knew what we were talking about. You see, in August of nineteen seventy three, three of us were bow hunting for goats and blackies and what was then the remote wilderness of Lower cook Inlet when a storm forced us to take shelter in Darkfish Bay Lagoon. We beached our skiff and let the tie run her dry.

After a dinner of broiled salmon, we turned into our tent. Back in those days, the best tent I had was a dark green canvas job with a center pole and no windows or floor. We left the fire burning and cleaned the pots and pans so as not to attract bears during the night, and turned in. The sky was clear, but the wind was howling through the old growth timber that lined ashore. Sometimes around two AM, my friend Dennis woke me up by squeezing my leg and I could dimly see his face

in the tent. His finger was across his lips. I listened. Then I heard it a step. A man was quietly walking outside of our tent, taking very deliberate steps. Not a bear. Scenes from the movie Deliverance flashed through my mind. So we woke Joe, the third member of our party, with the same leg grab and finger to the lips. The walking, or rather the sneaking, continued until it half circled our tent, and

then all was quiet except for the wind. We had our bows and the O six leaning against the tree outside of the tent, so somehow we talked Joe into belly crawling out the tent to get the rifle. We were scared shitless, I tell you. The next day and night, the storm continued to blow. We saw several black bears on the salmon stream at the end of the lagoon during the evening hunt, but had no chance for a shot.

We didn't talk about what had happened last night, too embarrassed, I guess, to be scared by a black bear that sounded like a man. We got back to camp early, built a big fire, sat around it, and ate dinner until around midnight in August. There were still some light in the sky until about ten or eleven. I recall that we all were embarrassed about being afraid about the coming night. We had a flashlight and a rifle and the tent between us locked and loaded. I finally dozed off,

but woke right up when Dennis squeezed my leg. The illuminated hands of my watch showed it was two thirty. Joe was already sitting up and had a rifle in hand. I heard the first step not more than about ten feet from the back of the tent, slowly, then another and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet. It made the same semicircle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turned the flashlight on, we saw nothing, no

tracks, nothing. The third night, we've decided if it bothered us again, we would come out of the tent shooting. We were actually scared. It never came back the third night, and the following day we had a break in the weather and got the heck out of there. Never told anybody about the experience for several years until about nineteen seventy nine, when I happened

to be reading an old Alaska Sportsman magazine published in nineteen thirty five. In the letters to the editor, a woman wrote that she recently found a letter written by some distant relative of hers who was a schoolteacher at a canary in Portlock Bay, a rugged ford adjacent to Dogfish Bay. The year was nineteen o five. She quoted from the letter. It said that the Canary employed a small group of alliots from a small village in Portlock Bay during salmon's season.

Their camp was about a mile away from the canary buildings. One day, all the alliots moved out of the village and paddled there by darkness back to Port Graham. The letter said that the alliots claimed that a hairy man was bothering and frightening them to the point where they had to leave. I have since done some research into the subject and found written histories of natives from Sildovia to Port Graham being frightened and bothered by something. They even have a

native name for it. It doesn't translate into English very well. These accounts mostly take place during the first half of the nineteen hundreds and a native related, but not all. I talked to one white guy who in nineteen sixty eight got the bejeebers scared out of him while coming down an all their choked gully while on a goat hunt in Port Clark, Alaska. Most of These accounts proceed the big foot hype that began to appear in the sixties and seventies

in the Northwest. Well, anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Native American cultures have a long history of creating hybrid creatures that are equal parts and human. The Allute people sincerely believed that, in the instance of the ninety knock, this monster was once an ordinary human who sadly underwent a hideous transformation that were cruel curse wrought by dark spirits. The evil being is not the only unexplained occurrence connected to the Kenai Peninsula's wind battered cliffs.

The Allute tribe also tells tales of a vengeful spirit and a young woman who was attacked and killed by an unidentified assailant. Returning hunters would tell stories of meetings with a pale faced woman with flowing black hair who tried to trap them

with see hands and drag them into the grasp of death. With new technology and a thirst for answers, in twenty twenty one, and expedition took place in the abandoned towns, with searchers hoping to catch a sight of the ninety nine when modern myths meet native folklore, what did they discover that sent searchers fleeing? In Part two, we will explore the recent events surrounding Portlock, including the infamous Alaskan Bigfoot Killer expedition, as well as sightings out of town.

This is Bigfoot classify as the Boy

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