 Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour... We're all familiar with humans' desire to fly. There are many legends about flying horses in various parts of the world, and they all have common characteristics that make them difficult to dismiss as only aviation dreams of the ancient people. Do some myths and legends reveal ancient people had sufficient technical knowledge to produce sophisticated flying machines? A man in China claims to have been abducted by aliens, not just once, not just twice, but three times. But will you believe his story after hearing the details? There's an odd grave marker at Riverside Cemetery in Wapiton, North Dakota, and an odd story that goes along with it. I'll tell you about the strange obelisk draped in rope and chains. Those who walk along the wooded Hines Road in Gadsden, Alabama, should be wary, for there is a legend that residing there is a witch who sold her soul to the devil. But first, you may think that a ghost referred to as Humpty-Doo might be fun-loving and perhaps even a little goofy. However, Humpty-Doo is an Australian slang term that means everything is being turned upside down. And fittingly, it is also the name of the town where some bizarre poltergeist events took place. We begin with that story. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast which comes out 7 days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise, and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. It's August of 1997 in Australia, when Jill Summerville and her partner Dave Clark moved to a new rental property at 90 McMins Drive in Humpty-Doo, a town located near Darwin, Australia. For months, the couple enjoyed their new home in relative peace and normalcy. However, this changed when in January 1998, a new family moved in with them. Andrew and Christy Agius, along with their nearly one-year-old daughter Jasmine, moved into the home on McMins Drive in January 1998. Shortly after they moved in, activity began. Objects like glass, bottles, and even knives would fly through the air with an unseen force. Those in the home felt that these objects were directed at them and that they were under attack. In an oddly unique poltergeist moment, the couples witnessed gravel and seashells raining down from the ceiling. As time wore on, they believed the entity behind the attacks attempted to communicate with them by using scrabble tiles to spell out words. The activity increased and scratches could be heard from inside the walls. Appliances were destroyed and stones and gravel seemed to rain from the ceiling or show up in piles with no known source. Jill said, It completely freaked us out. It was like something was actually inside the walls right next to us. We couldn't sleep. We were crying. We would have left the house, but we had nowhere else to go. Soon, the media began to hear about the strange goings on at the house and rumors began to swirl. The couples decided to call a local priest, Father Stephen de Souza, for help. According to de Souza, as I walked away, one of the residents called Father. When he turned to respond, he saw a knife that had been on the kitchen counter flying straight for him and he felt he didn't have time to react. However, when it was just a few feet from him, the knife stopped just as though it had hit something and fell at his feet. But this was not enough to call him the poltergeist. So Father Tom English, the parish priest, was called upon four times. He noted that the behavior of the poltergeist seemed not to follow the laws of physics. He had no experience dealing with the poltergeist, so he blessed the home and spread holy water all around. On his last visit, the activity was overwhelming and he left a crucifix, Bible and some vials of holy water for the residents. This offering seemed only to drive anger to the poltergeist. The crucifix was thrown throughout the house and a container of holy water was thrown against the wall. The poltergeist kept the entire household up all night, with incessant noises. Several other religious figures came to the home, but they only seemed to further aggravate the Humpty-Doo poltergeist. As mentioned before, words began to be spelled out in gravel or with scrabble pieces. These words grew strange and even terrifying. Words like fire, skin, help and Troy were among them. The couple believed this to be a reference to their good friend Troy Raditz, who had died in a fire caused by a car accident just a few miles from their property in January 1998. Remember, this was a rental house and as the media began to cover the story, especially after the visit from the clergy, their landlord reached out. He was shocked by the amount of damage and decided to take the couples to court to have them evicted. Oddly enough, the judge deemed that they could not be evicted as the damage to the property was caused by the poltergeist, which seemingly the judge believed in. Despite the stay of eviction, the couples decided to move away from the home anyway. Cropster, behind the 40-in-blog, got the chance to attend the home and experience the madness for himself. Cropster writes, A few of my experiences at the house still puzzle me 20 years later. The first occurred as I was sitting at a table facing two of the female residents as they washed up at the kitchen sink only a few feet away. They were still talking when I heard two sounds. The first, a handful of gravel stones from their driveway hitting the corrugated tin roof of the house and then the kitchen floor where they scattered. Two loud, distinct and separate sounds. Neither of the women had thrown anything and the stones had fallen between me and where the girls were standing. It appeared that the stones had come through both the roof and the plaster ceiling. He also mentions his favorite story. One small segment I did record in the house is a personal favorite. Kirstie, Andrew, Tony, Healy and I are in the main room talking and you can hear Kirstie in the background saying, You don't know what it's going to do, it just does what it wants to do. Bang! A knife ricochets off a wall and everyone talks excitedly. Nobody in the room threw anything. Once cleared, the landlord had the home repaired and renovated. According to the local inquiry, no activity has occurred in the home since. One thing I think I find particularly interesting about this poltergeist tale is the lack of adolescence. In many cases, for example, the black monk of Pontefract, there are adolescent or teenage children in the home. It is believed that sometimes the energy created by these changing children can cause and or attract poltergeist activity. Additionally, these children are usually the focus of the attacks and are largely the focus of the poltergeist's attention. However, in this case, there were four mid-20s adults and a baby. It seems the baby, Jasmine, was never a pointed target. So is this activity an exception to the rule? Or is this a kind of non-adolescence poltergeist activity, something that deserves its own investigation? Perhaps the energy of the couple's friends untimely death creates the elements necessary. There are numerous legends about mechanical flying horses in various parts of the world. Could there be any truth to the stories? Plus, there is an odd grave marker at Riverside Cemetery in Wapiton, North Dakota, and it is very special to circus folk. These stories and more when Weird Darkness returns. Since we were not there, we cannot say what our ancestors created, witnessed or fantasized about. When we study myths and legends of ancient people, we can read those stories as entertaining fables or search for clues that are sometimes hidden between the lines. Now, suppose that in thousands of years from now, someone encounters a science fiction book written by one of our authors along with an article describing the launch of a space probe to Mars. How will the person be able to determine which events were real or our dreams about exploring space? This is what we are facing when we look for clues in ancient sources. Do some events offer proof of advanced ancient technology or are we merely exploring the dreams of our ancestors? We are about to explore some unusual ancient flying animals. Were they mechanical creatures or the products of ancient imagination? There was a famous Greek legend that tells about a beautiful, heavenly flying horse called Pegasus. The horse used to fly across the skies as free and easy as a bird. When he was on the ground, this amazing animal did not let any living soul come near him. This behavior changed when the young hero Balarathon, with the help of the goddess Athena, succeeded in calming the horse down. As Pegasus became more trustful, Balarathon began flying on the back of the horse. Together, the two of them conquered many deadly enemies. Then one day, it all came to an end. Balarathon decided that he'd had enough wars. He wanted to reach the heavens and join the gods who resided there. However, it turned out to be easier said than done. First, Balarathon had an argument with the great god Zeus and then he hurt Pegasus. Balarathon's flying experiences were not long lived after that. The flying Pegasus threw him off his back. The young Balarathon fell down to the ground and was badly hurt for the rest of his life. Pegasus continued his flight as if nothing had ever happened but without a rider. According to the legend, Pegasus, the flying beauty, served later for Zeus, who honored the horse with a constellation. There was also a Persian story about a fantastic flying horse that reminds of the Greek horse Pegasus. According to the ancient legend, one day a wise man visited Sheik Sabur, the ruler of Persia, and brought him a valuable gift, a black wooden horse. At first, the Sheik did not know what to think of this surprising and strange present, but then he learned of the horse's unusual abilities. The wise man explained to him that this wooden horse will take the Sheik further in one day than a real horse can do in one year. The Sheik was told that the reason why the animal can move so fast and far is because it flies in the air. No ocean is too big, no mountain is too high, the beautiful horse can go anywhere at any time. In order to demonstrate the animal's ability, the wise man got up on the back of the horse and touched a screw on the horse's neck, and then something extraordinary happened. Everyone looked amazed at the horse and its rider as they started to ascend higher and higher in the air. In the beginning, these two were the size of an eagle in the sky and then a pigeon. Later a small fly and then finally they vanished out of sight. After a while, the wise man returned riding on the flying horse and it was the Sheik's turn to fly high. He sat up on the horse back and waited, but nothing happened. The horse simply did not move. The wise man explained the flying mechanism of the horse and only thereafter did the Sheik succeed in getting it to move. The horse began ascending high up in the air with the Sheik on its back. The Sheik remained in the air for a very long time because he was unable to get the horse back to the earth. Apparently due to his excitement, he either forgot that he needed the special screw in order to perform a landing or he used it incorrectly. Then he suddenly noticed how the horse flew slower and began descending down to the ground. The legend says that the horse carried the Sheik to a distant country. A couple of years later the Sheik even traveled as far as China. In China he showed the exceptional black flying horse to the ruler who was unable to clearly observe its flight because of the huge and dusty cloud that it left behind. The legend says this fantastic history of the horse ended with that it was placed in one of the king's chambers where it stands until today and waits for somebody to open the doors and find it. In most myths and legends, the horse always has a certain device that enables it to fly. In the case of the Persian horse, it was a screw. The rider of the horse, or the pilot of the flying machine if you prefer, must know how to operate the device in order to make it work properly. No flight is possible until the pilot is acquainted with the horse's technical functionality. The technical equipment enables the horse to start, land and travel very long distances. The flight is mostly very calm and comfortable. When the horse starts it creates a huge cloud of dust. The mythological flying horses certainly do sound like advanced flying machines. A good example is the Chinese legend of the mechanical flying horse. It tells about how a certain man manufactured a very unusual wooden horse. What was so strange about this particular horse? It was the fact that it moved around with the help of 26 screws and could fly. The legend goes on revealing how a young prince could fly on the back of this beautiful horse and visit many countries far away. As it often is with young men and beautiful women, the prince met a lovely princess with whom he fell in love. However, there were some problems. First of all, the princess was held captive by her overprotective father in an air castle hanging high up among the clouds. Secondly, her father also had a flying horse which was used to guard the air castle. Luckily for the prince, the guards on duty used to fall asleep and he managed to slip through and rescue the princess. At the end of the story they travel across the sky until they find a safe place. At first glance, this Chinese legend seems like an ordinary love story. But after taking a closer look at it, we are able to discover certain characteristics that make the legend rather special. The wooden horse was equipped with screws enabling it to move and fly. This clearly implies that the horse was mechanical. We are told about an air castle protected by another flying horse and guards who constantly neglected their duties because they had a need to sleep. Those who favor the ancient alien theory will undoubtedly say the air castle was an orbiting mothership, a space station protected by a flying machine loaded with weapons. Solving this puzzle, we only have to find out the truth about the sleeping guards. It is known that insufficient training or equipment can make a person who spends time aboard a space station extremely tired and sleepy. That is also exactly what happened with the guards whose duty was to protect the princess. Those who oppose the ancient alien theory can say the air castle was a highly advanced building suspended high up in the air, or simply dismiss the curious story as a fantasy of our ancestors. Our myths and legends often leave us with many unanswered questions. We can attempt to find answers between the lines or read these ancient tales as entertaining stories. But think about it, one day in the future someone will read our science fiction stories and real rocket manuals and the person may have a hard time telling what really happened and what didn't. When Weird Darkness returns, there is an odd grave marker at Riverside Cemetery in Wapaton, North Dakota, and an odd story that goes along with it. I'll tell you about the strange obelisk draped in ropes and chains coming up next. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar, and if you consider yourself a part of this Weirdo family and you're proud of it, well, you can tell others in a fun way with Weird Darkness merchandise. You can find Weird Darkness t-shirts, buttons, hoodies, office supplies, clothes for your kids, stickers, magnets, coffee mugs, school stuff and more in the Weird Darkness store. We have dozens of designs there to choose from and a variety of colors to match your style. We even have tie-died t-shirts. Grab some Weird Darkness merchandise for yourself or maybe as a gift for the Weirdo on your gift list by clicking on Store at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Store. At Riverside Cemetery in the North Dakota City of Wapaton, one grave marker towers above the others. At first glance, the strange monument appears to be a crooked, misshapen obelisk, but as you walk closer, it becomes evident that it is something else entirely. A splintered pole draped in rope and chains. The names carved into the stone are those of two young men, Charles Walters and Charles Smith, who died on the very same day, 1897. It now becomes clear this grave marker memorializes some awful tragedy. Up close, the monument resembles the shattered mast of a ship, but what are the chances of a shipwreck on the North Dakota Prairie? If you ask one of the locals, they will tell you that the monument is a granite replica of a circus tent pole and the men buried here were two unfortunate laborers with the Ringling Brothers Circus. On the morning of June 10, the canvas crew of the Ringling Brothers Circus had just begun erecting the main tent when the skies darkened over Wapaton. One of the laborers was Eddie Williams, a 12-year-old local boy who was helping to hoist the main tent in exchange for a free ticket. Rain began to pour as Eddie and the boys struggled with the heavy canvas. To lighten the weight, foreman Charles Walters ordered the workers to cut holes out of the canvas. I was pulling on the rope when one fellow pushed me aside and said, This is a man's work, related Williams in 1960. A moment later, a bolt of lightening sizzled across the sky, striking the tent pole and knocking a dozen workers to the ground. The man who had pushed Eddie aside and took his place was aroused about, named Charles Smith. Smith, along with foreman Charles Walters, were killed instantly when the lightning shattered the pole. A third canvas man would die later of his injuries. Relatives claimed the body of the third victim, Charles Miller, but no one could find anyone who was related to Walters and Smith, so they were buried later that afternoon in the tiny graveyard of Wapiton, which at the time was known as the Bohemian Graveyard. As the saying goes, the show must go on and the circus performed just hours after the tragedy. Though every clown and acrobat's heart was filled with sorrow, they put on a good show, but the June 10th performance came with an added bonus, a double funeral, the likes of which Wapiton had never seen. Since circus folk are a tight-knit group, no expense was spared for the funeral. The night's bethias fraternal order attended in full regalia, while 7,000 guests looked on, and the circus workers took up a collection for a monument, raising $400. The monument which stands today was copied from a black and white photograph that had been taken immediately after the tragedy, and is astonishingly accurate in detail. Every rope, chain and pulley had been carved in painstaking detail, and one can even trace the path of the deadly bolt in the splintered granite pole. The circus has always played a big part in the history of Wapiton, which was an early railroad hub on the edge of the western frontier. Over the years, virtually every major circus stopped at Wapiton. Sometimes rival circuses would stop in the city at the same time, leading to the occasional fracas. In 1894, for instance, advanced men posting bills for the Four Paw Circus ran into bill posters from the Lehman Brothers Circus. A lively melee ensued, and one of the local newspapers reported that several of the men were so badly hurt that they can't leave town, and it was found necessary to draft a large force of extra police to preserve order. Rival circuses weren't averse to brawling with each other, but overall, carnies and circus folks stick together like one big, albeit dysfunctional, family. Over the years, the circus grave at Riverside Cemetery became a shrine, visited by performers whenever a carnival or circus train pulled into Wapiton. And it remains so to this day. Discounting ancient stories that modern enthusiasts have reclassified as alien encounters, China was relatively late to the UFO craze. There was no Chinese equivalent of Kenneth Arnold, and I've never heard of Beijingers riding around with benevolent space brothers in the 50s or being pursued by shady men in black during the 60s. The birth of Chinese interest in UFOs might well be dated to the late 1970s as China ditched Maoism and opened itself up to American influences. Paranormal researcher Paul Dong identified the years 1977 to 1980 as the beginning of China's UFO fever, as the country set up research groups, studied sightings, and followed UFO cases in major newspapers. The case of Wang Yangqi, a farmer in a village in Hebei province, is possibly the first abduction story to come out of contemporary China. On the night of July 27, 1977, Wang, a 21-year-old man about to be married, vanished from his village. In the morning, another village next door got a telegram that Wang was being held by the authorities in Shanghai. For a man with no car or private jet, this was an astonishing distance. Wang had somehow gotten 700 miles away, even though the nearest express train was in Handan, a city that was over 27 miles away from his village. Baffled, the folks over in Wang's village had to wait three days before they got confirmation from Shanghai that it was indeed their missing man being held in custody. After his cousin and neighbor came to retrieve him, Wang's explanation for his bizarre disappearance and trek was a bit of a head scratcher. On the night he vanished, Wang claimed that he fell asleep in his room. When a loud noise woke him up, Wang found himself lying in a big flashy city. Passersby told the bewildered farmer that he was in Nanjing, more than 500 miles away from home. How would he get back to Hebei? Wang was so confused and worried that he started to cry. In his hour of need, two traffic cops approached Wang and gave him a train ticket for Shanghai. They made him board the train immediately and after arriving in Shanghai a few hours later, Wang was shocked to see the two traffic cops at the train station's police station. The pair then escorted Wang through the city, dropping him off at a deportation center. He had no idea who these good Samaritans were and was equally mystified on how he ended up in Nanjing. Wang's tale was the talk of the village. A month later, just as things began to settle down, the young husband-to-be disappeared again. On the night of September 8th, Wang drifted off to sleep at home but woke up at a train station in Shanghai. As a violent storm pounded rain over his head, Wang's first thought was to find a soldier that he met in the city last time. Never mind that Wang didn't know the man's address. Another pair of good Samaritans, calling themselves soldiers, took Wang to the necessary barracks. When they finished their duty, the men stepped out, unseen by any troops at the camp. Disappearing under mysterious circumstances just once is all fine and dandy but Wang's village was more concerned the second time around. When Wang returned on September 11th, some suggested that he was being haunted by ghosts. His fiancee, admirably patient up to this point, begged local officials for a divorce. Yet his earlier adventures would prove to be tame. When on September 20th, Wang fainted and materialized in a hotel. Once again, there were two men inside the room who informed Wang that he was now hundreds of miles away in a city of Lanzhou. The men revealed to Wang that they were responsible for his disappearances and had disguised themselves as the traffic cops and soldiers Wang had encountered earlier. They wanted to take their sleepy abductee on a nine-day trip around the country, starting with Beijing. Their method of travel was unorthodox but highly efficient. Wang hopped on one of the stranger's backs and the man flew him into the air, crossing hundreds of miles in only an hour. There was no wind involved in their flight and Wang described their pace as being like running. His magical hosts took Wang to Tiananmen Square, hotels, restaurants and even a movie theater where they were allowed to enter without tickets. They ate three meals a day, could speak a number of Chinese dialects and always had a letter of introduction for whatever and whoever they wanted to see. Unfortunately, the trip of a lifetime came to an end on September 28th when Wang woke up under a jujube tree at home. Local reception to his third and final adventure was cold. His fiance's family canceled the wedding and the authorities at one point launched an investigation into Wang, accusing him of hurting village production and spreading superstition. The flight of Wang Yangkai has since entered the holy annals of Chinese euphology. His flying companions have been deemed aliens and the far distances he traveled have been attributed to UFO rides. Nonbelievers argue that Wang was lying or delusional, while one CCTV program offered the imaginative solution that Wang was sleepwalking. An online poster suggested that Wang's trips were perfectly doable by train at the time. Even if it took 22 hours to get from Handan to Shanghai in 1977, Wang was always gone long enough to take the ride and nobody ever confirmed seeing his gifted friends. On the cynical side of things, should we also really ignore the fact that Wang was a young groom who just happened to get involved in this when he was about to be married? I venture that disappearing and hanging out with extraordinary flying men is a foolproof way to cancel a wedding that you don't want to go through with. Up next on Weird Darkness, those who walk along the Wooded Hines Road in Gadsden, Alabama should be wary, for there is a legend that residing there is a witch who sold her soul to the devil. Those who walk along the Wooded Hines Road in Gadsden are likely to run across a woman who is said to have sold her soul to the devil. Legend says that supposedly, in Gadsden, Alabama, a woman sold her soul to the devil and now she is a witch who lives in a shack, steals souls, and has fun scaring the crap out of people. Legend says she lived in a tiny shack back in the woods off Hines Road. Hines is very hard to get to, but when you do, you feel like you're in a different world and it's been told that she was an old mystic that went by the name Torbott that sold her soul to the devil. Around the turn of the 19th century was her reign and what a reign it was. For twenty years she terrorized the citizens of Gadsden and especially their children, mainly those foolish enough to venture up to Hines in search of her. It is said that she would kill them and drink and bathe in their blood to keep her young and decorate the outside of her shack with their bones. For years children went missing and for years the adults were far too afraid to venture up to Hines to call out the witch. Until about 1939, when the current mayor supposedly said enough was enough and sent a mob up together, what they found turned their hair white and drained all blood from their faces. They first found a pond or what would have been a pond had it not been completely filled with blood, body parts and some still whole bodies of children of all ages. When they were able to get their bearings and their stomachs back they ventured further up the winding dirt road and on the side of the road they saw a cave with foulest of stenches coming forth. One brave soul went in and let out a spine-shattering scream and came out stark white. The man never spoke of what he saw. As a matter of fact he never spoke again after that. No one else was brave enough to go in. Even though some nerves had faltered, a smaller band went on to the cabin where they found her at her front door and they were amazed to see a young, beautiful woman with long black hair and emerald eyes naked and covered in blood. They asked the woman are you the one they call the witch Torbett? It is said that she replied yes and without hesitation they threw their flames on her and her den of death. They watched as she burned and the cabin turned to ash. As this all went on it is said that those down in the city could hear her cackling laughter and see the white hot flames and smoke rising from the mountain. The claims now are that you can still see her ghostly cabin in the woods when the moon is full and the light shines down on the abandoned lot that to this day nothing will grow in and some have even seen her dancing still young and beautiful covered in blood and laughing casting her spells on any child that is brave enough to come up there. The pond is now full of water and looks quite beautiful. It is said you can see orbs of light dancing across the water which is said to be the spirits of the children that were never put to rest on hallowed ground lost between this world and the next. And sometimes Torbett herself will make an appearance in the woods across the pond at the water's edge, dipping her hands down in the pond water and pouring it over herself as if it was still her blood fountain of youth. The cave still has a foul stench coming from it. No one will go too far into it and those who do will not tell of what they see. There has been one exception to this. Supposedly a young woman went back far enough to see a still live and standing, skinned dog smelling of rotting flesh and growling at her. Smack dab in the middle of Park County, Indiana, the crossroads of America, rests the quiet town of Rockville. Just shy of 2,500 residents, the area is well known for its annual covered bridge festival and its proximity to the derelict Indiana State Sanatorium, 3.9 miles away to be exact, attracting ghost hunters and urban explorers alike. But the town itself is worthy of investigation, as Justy Beth tells us. The town's old jail inn was built in 1879 to accommodate the sheriff and the county crooks, operating for over 140 years before it shut its doors in 1998. Remodeled in 2009, the nine cell jail became a themed bed and breakfast with colorful accommodations for honeymooners, birthday parties and weekenders. Guests can stay in themed cells, including a Thelma and Louise themed cell, gangster themed cells, an Elvis Presley paraphernalia cell, and even a former booking cell themed Indian motorcycle garage. Guests can enjoy a spacious shared kitchen, TV lounge area and patio, free Wi-Fi and a beauty shop on the first floor. All cells include original barred jail cell doors, a bare bones stainless steel shared bathroom, and a double or queen sized bed. Even the benches in the lobby are original jail cell cots. For those who want a king sized bed and a private bathroom, top floor suites, aptly named the Harley Davidson suite and the Bonnie and Clyde suite, offer an added level of privacy and historical authenticity. Their repurposed iron doors are from a World War II battleship. The privacy comes with a bit of a catch though. These suites used to house seven to ten of the worst offenders at a time. Think murder, burglary, arson, hence the iron doors, and are rumored to be haunted. With hundreds of occupants doing time over its 140 years in operation, it's not at all surprising that the old jail in has its fair share of paranormal activity. Paranormal investigators and regular visitors alike have witnessed light orbs, disembodied voices, footsteps, and cell doors slamming shut on their own. One of the owners of the inn often hears her name being called when nobody else is present in the building. There's one documented suicide in the jail from 1978 when an inmate known only as Earl lit himself on fire in a padded cell upstairs, which is now a privately owned apartment. One of the most unique aspects of the Italianate style old jail is the thousands of colorful monikers guests have scribbled throughout the space. Encouraged to leave their mark, visitors from over 20 different countries have left behind both silly and sinister messages with colorful sharpies on the walls throughout the jail. If you look closely, you'll find many messages on the walls left for Earl by visitors over the years. Considered one of the top three historic places on TravelIndiana.com and top five unique sleeps on VisitIndiana.com, the inn also operates a speakeasy style wine tasting bar in the basement. The drunk tank winery is open to the public and visitors can still see the original underground tunnel which connected the jail to the courthouse across the street. The old jail inn is a one-of-a-kind, pleasantly spooky and surprisingly affordable place to be booked for the night, whether you're bar hopping, honeymooning, or urban exploring down the road. As Elvis once said, the band's still jumping and the joint still swings. If you listen carefully, you can still hear the knocked out jail birds sing. Thanks for listening. If you missed any part of tonight's show or if you'd like to hear it again, you can subscribe to the podcast in your favorite podcast app at WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash listen, or search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact social page on the website. And please tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. If you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on tell your story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes, which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show has ended. Ancient Mechanical Flying Horses is by Ellen Lloyd for ancient pages. The Humpty-Doo poltergeist is from Astonishing Legends. Flying on an alien's back is by Tristan for Bizarre and Grotesque. The Wapiton Circus Grave is from Journal of the Bizarre. The Gadsden Witch of Alabama is by Christina Skelton. And Haunted Rockville, Indiana is by Kirsten Beth at Paranormality magazine. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Psalm 42 verse 11. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. And a final thought from Maya Angelou. People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Antarctica may not be the place most people associate with ancient history, but this remarkable continent still holds many secrets. This virtually uninhabited, ice-covered landmass seems to offer little evidence of once being home to ancient civilizations. However, we do not know what's hidden beneath the thick ice. Or do we? Why did the Nazis launch an expensive expedition to the South Pole in 1938? Could there be an ancient lost city under the ice of the Antarctic? What are the mysterious high-energy particles detected coming up from under the ice? And what did a group of researchers come across that they to this day can't explain in simple scientific terms? And what of the numerous phantoms and specters claimed to have been seen on the ice and in the waters of the Antarctic? And what about the ice that's bleeding? I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness Radio, where every week you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up this hour, we travel to the Antarctic, on to it, over it and under it, and find some strange and often terrifying things during our trip. If you're new here, welcome to the show. And if you're already a member of this Weirdo family, please take a moment and invite someone else to listen in with you. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And while you're listening, be sure to visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Contact Social to follow Weird Darkness on social media. And also on the website, you can find the daily Weird Darkness podcast, which comes out seven days per week. You can enter monthly contests, find Weird Darkness merchandise, and more. You can even send in your own true story of something paranormal that has happened to you or someone you know. You can find it all at WeirdDarkness.com. Now, bolt your doors, lock your windows, turn off your lights, and come with me into the Weird Darkness. Many scientists who have witnessed something unusual while being at Antarctica are reluctant to share their stories. And those who admit not everything is as it seems on this remote outpost often wish to remain anonymous. What the scientists witnessed is truly amazing, but what was it, really? As the hours passed, the researchers became convinced that they were confronted face to face with a phenomenon of non-human origin. They felt as if they were being spied upon by an intelligent force that for some reason desired to remain anonymous and whose next move was utterly unforeseeable. The scientists later explained that they were under the impression as if an alien craft had always been there, watching them right from the start. The unknown vehicles appeared almost as if they were part of the sky itself. At the beginning of January, 1956, a group of Chilean scientists arrived by helicopter to Robertson Island in the Weddle Sea, Antarctica. Their mission was to study geology, fauna, and other features of the region. Due to bad weather and a raging storm, they lost all radio communication and contact with the outside world. However, they were not particularly worried because they knew a helicopter would return and pick them up on January 20th. During their stay in Antarctica, they experienced something very unusual. The nature of the sighting forced them to remain anonymous and the witnesses are therefore referred to by the substitute names of Dr. Tagle and Professor Barrows. On January 8th, Dr. Tagle, who had the habit of studying anything of meteorological interest in the heavens, suddenly spotted two objects that did not belong in the night sky. He quickly went and woke up Professor Barrows. Together, late at night, they observed two metallic, cigar-shaped objects hovering in the night sky. The UFOs were perfectly still and completely silent. Some hours later, at 7 a.m., Dr. Tagle and Professor Barrows were joined by the other members of the party. Now, all of the scientists were watching these two hovering craft. In the Flying Saucer Review, Volume 14, Number 2, Gordon Creighton, the late magazine's editor, published a detailed article featuring the Chilean scientist's remarkable story. At about 9 a.m., Object Number 1, the nearest to the zenith, suddenly assumed a horizontal posture and shot away like a flash toward the west. It had now lost its metallic brightness and had taken on the whole gamut of visible colors of the spectrum from infrared to ultraviolet. Without slowing down, it performed an incredible acute angle change of direction, shot off across another section of the sky and then did another sharp turn as before. These vertiginous maneuvers, the zigzagging, abrupt stopping, instantaneous accelerating, went on for some time right overhead. The object always following tangential trajectories with respect to the earth and all in the most absolute silence. The demonstration lasted about five minutes. Then the object returned and took up position beside its companion in almost the same area of the sky as before. But now it was the turn of Number 2 to show its paces and do a weird zigzagging dance. Shooting off towards the east, it performed a series of 10 disjointed bursts of flight, broken by brusque changes of direction and marked by the same color changes when accelerating or stopping and so on. After about three minutes of this, Object Number 2 returned and took up its station near its companion and re-assumed its original solid and metallic appearance. The scientists had with them two Geiger-Miller counters of high sensitivity, one of the auditory and the other of the flash type. When the two objects had finished their dance and re-assumed their stations in the sky, someone discovered that the flash type Geiger counter now showed that radioactivity around them had increased, as had the anxiety felt by the four men as may be imagined. Although they had no telescopic lens, they did however have cameras with them and they took numerous photographs of the objects, both in color and black and white. What later happened to these photographs is unknown. Professor Barros felt no fear that he or his colleagues were in danger of being attacked by these unknown objects, but he admitted that with his severely rational scientific mentality, he found the idea of being confronted with such a phenomenon from beyond the realms of any known earthly science was anything but soothing. As the hours passed, the conviction was born in all four men that they were face to face with a phenomenon of non-human origin, that they were being spied upon by intelligence that for some reason or other desired to remain anonymous and whose next moves were utterly unforeseeable. We'll continue with our story of strangeness in the Antarctic when Weird Darkness returns. Welcome back to Weird Darkness, I'm Darren Marlar, and you can stay up to date on everything associated with Weird Darkness and also maybe win some cool prizes at the same time by signing up for my email newsletter. It's free and often I'll draw a name at random to win a cool creepy prize. Sign up for the Weird Darkness newsletter for free at WeirdDarkness.com slash newsletter. Professor Barros and his colleagues, they didn't feel they were in danger, but they definitely felt that they were being spied on by an incredibly intelligent non-human group of entities. What the four scientists experienced while staying at Antarctica is highly unusual. According to those who study the UFO subject, in most cases the extraterrestrial craft can only be observed for some minutes or hours at best. Yet in this case the two unidentified flying objects disclosed their presence and demonstrated their technological superiority for two days. On the second day, at about 11 p.m., the Antarctic Blizzard, a wind capable of reaching velocities of 300 km per hour, began to get into its stride and the sky clouded over. At about 2 a.m. at the height of the storm, the scientists were able to establish that radioactivity had dropped. The two UFOs were now gone. The extraordinary tension raining among the scientists had suddenly dropped too. According to their testimony, even before they were able to prove it visually, the party was certain that the objects had gone. The next day they could confirm that the radioactivity level was back to normal. When the storm cleared, they could see with their own eyes the unknown flying craft were no longer there. On January 20th, the helicopter picked up the party. Though they did not report their experience officially or fear of ridicule, they did decide to tell one man, a high-ranking officer in the Chilean army who heard their story calmly without surprise. This officer knew of many sightings of UFOs, registered in almost all the expeditions to Antarctica, but he had never heard of one that lasted so long and was so precise in all its details as this. There are many conspiracy theories regarding Antarctica. Some researchers and authors have suggested that this cold and dry continent was once home to an ancient lost civilization. Others maintain flying saucers were secret Nazi weapons launched from an underground base in Antarctica, and yet another theory indicates Antarctica is a UFO outpost for extraterrestrial craft. Whatever might be true, one thing can be said with certainty. Over the years, there have been and still is a high concentration of reported UFO sightings over Antarctica. But let's move away from the skies over Antarctica and to the layers beneath. Is it possible that a remnant of a highly advanced civilization still remain in warmer underground caverns of Antarctica? Why did the Nazis launch an expensive expedition to the South Pole in 1938? What shocking discovery did the British soldier make when they found the entrance to an ice cave? Have Antarctic scientists discovered an inhabited lost city under the ice? According to the teachings of conventional science, Antarctica has been embedded for millions of years under ice layers that are more than a mile thick. However, modern as well as old discoveries give us several reasons to question this theory. If Antarctica had been covered under ice for millions of years, how can American scientists fish up from the bed of the Antarctic oceans specimens which show that in recent times the rivers of Antarctic had borne down to the sea the alluvial products of an ice-free area? Officially, Antarctica was discovered first in 1820. At the time the entire continent was already covered with ice. Yet thousands of years old maps prove an ancient unknown civilization did visit an ice-free Antarctica much earlier. Cartographers have long been baffled by the astounding map of Admiral Peary Rice. It was made at Constantinople in 1513 AD and discovered in 1929. The map shows what Antarctica looks like without ice, a condition which has not occurred for thousands of years. Peary Rice cannot be credited for the original cartography of this map. He could not have obtained the necessary information from contemporary explorers because in his time, no one knew about the existence of Antarctica. Peary Rice's map was a compilation of various considerably older maps. According to Professor Charles H. Hapgood, who researched the subject of ancient maps and an ice-free Antarctica in the near past, the maps used by Admiral Rice were in fact based on even older sources. The maps had been drawn by an unknown and highly advanced civilization that used superior navigation instruments. The map of Orontius Phineas Philippe Bausch and Haji Ahmed also show an ice-free Antarctica. All of the maps were created with help of very ancient source maps. In addition, all of the mentioned map makers acknowledged that their information came from ancient maps, probably going back to about 4000 BC. The idea that an ice-free Antarctica was inhabited by an unknown advanced civilization only 6,000 years ago has fascinated many people. One of them was Adolf Hitler. Hitler and the Nazis strongly suspected that Antarctica was once home to a lost Atlantean civilization. In 1938, Hitler launched an expensive expedition to the South Pole. At the same time, Germany was also busy with all the military preparations for launching World War II. And it is astounding that Hitler would find it necessary to explore and lay claim to a cold, frozen continent halfway around the world with no apparent military significance. What were Hitler's motives? Why was Antarctica so important to him? According to the somewhat controversial Omega file, beginning in 1938, the Nazis commenced to send numerous exploratory missions to the Queen Maud region of Antarctica. A steady stream of expeditions were reportedly sent out from, at the time, white supremacist South Africa. Over 230,000 square miles of the frozen continent were mapped from the air, and the Germans discovered vast regions that were surprisingly free of ice, as well as warm water lakes and cave inlets. One vast ice cave within the glacier was reportedly found to extend 30 miles to a large, hot water geothermal lake deep below. Various scientific teams were moved into the area, including hunters, trappers, collectors and zoologists, botanists, agriculturalists, plant specialists, mycologists, parasitologists, marine biologists, ornithologists, and many others. As soon as the Nazis reached Antarctica, they dropped hundreds of swastika-adorned flags all over Queen Maud land to establish their claim over the area. Queen Maud land is part of what used to be called New Schwabenland, New Swabia land. It was a title given by the Germans under Captain Ritzker, who claimed the region for the Nazis flying to Donier Wall or Whale float planes from the survey vessel Schwabenland. Some older atlases still carry the name in parentheses. James Roberts, a British civil servant and World War II historian, maintains that the Nazis succeeded in building an underground base in a massive cave. According to Roberts, British soldiers from the secret Antarctic-Modheim base discovered the entrance in late 1945. The soldiers followed the tunnel for miles, and eventually they came to a vast underground cavern that was abnormally warm. Some of the scientists believed that it was warmed geothermally. In a huge cavern were underground lakes, however, the mystery deepened as the cavern was lit artificially. The cavern proved so extensive that they had to split up, and that was when the real discoveries were made. The Nazis had constructed a huge base in the cavern and had even built docks for U-boats, and one was identified supposedly. Still, the deeper they traveled, the more strange visions they were greeted with. The survivor reported that hangars for strange planes and excavations galore had been documented. Nushwaubinland was treated as part of the Third Reich. In 1942, it became a site of intense secret scientific and military research under the name Base 211. The United States launched Operation High Jump after learning from the British intelligence about a secret underground base at Antarctica. Admiral Richard Byrd, a legendary polar researcher, was in charge of the expedition which was fully funded by the U.S. Navy. The Operation Force consisted of aircraft carrier USS Casablanca, an icebreaker, 12 warships, a submarine, 25 airplanes and helicopters, and almost 5,000 soldiers. We'll continue with our story of strangeness in the Antarctic when Weird Darkness returns. I'm Darren Marlar. Welcome back to Weird Darkness. You can get more Weird Darkness seven days a week through the Weird Darkness podcast, which you can find wherever you listen to podcasts. Or visit WeirdDarkness.com slash listen and find a list of all the apps where you can listen to the show. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash listen. We continue now talking about the strangeness in Antarctica, and the United States launched Operation High Jump after learning from British intelligence about a possible secret underground base located there. In a press release given on November 2, 1946, Admiral Byrd said, the purpose of the operation are primarily of military nature, that is to train naval personnel and to test ships, planes and equipment under frigid zone conditions. Shortly before the expedition's departure, Secretary of the Navy James Forstahl gave Admiral Byrd last instructions. Byrd did not reveal any details. Officially, the expedition's goal was to find coal deposits and other valuable resources, an objective that was contradicted earlier in Byrd's press release. The White House declared Operation High Jump the greatest polar expedition in history. Operation High Jump was planned by and under the command of war hero Admiral Chester W Nimitz. This strongly suggests that the real purpose of the mission was to destroy the Nazi Antarctic base. High Jump was scheduled to be a six-month mission, but it was mysteriously aborted after only three months. What did Admiral Byrd mean when he warned of a threat from the Poles? Did Admiral Byrd and his team encounter hostile UFOs near the South Pole? Were these UFOs piloted by non-humans? Or were they part of the secret Nazi Flying Saucer program? Did the members of the High Jump expedition discover an entrance to the inner Earth? Was it perhaps the reason why Admiral Byrd warned of a threat from the Poles and why the operation was unexpectedly aborted? The most intriguing question of all remains unsolved. Is there an ancient, inhabited lost city hidden under the ice? We will now continue to explore ancient secrets of Antarctica focusing on the significant mysterious high energy particles detected coming up from under the ice. One researcher who investigated the discovery of these high energy particles suggests they offer evidence of usage of nuclear technology thousands of years ago. After reviewing scientific data and talking to specialists, he concluded the high energy particles might be traces of advanced ancient civilizations in Antarctica, or possibly something even more frightening. Modern scientific discoveries clearly show our knowledge of Antarctica is incomplete. The Ice Cube Lab at the Amundsen-Scott Station in Antarctica is a highly sophisticated detector, specifically designed to observe the cosmos from deep within the South Pole ice. Ice Cube searches for nearly massless subatomic particles called neutrinos. These high energy astronomical messengers provide information to probe the most violent astrophysical sources, events like exploding stars, gamma ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars. The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna, a NETA experiment, has also been designed to study ultra-high energy UHE cosmic neutrinos by detecting the radio pulses emitted by their interactions with the Antarctic ice sheet. Some years ago, astrophysicists from Penn State University discovered a large number of high energy particles moving upward. A study of results delivered by Ice Cube and NETA revealed that these mysterious high energy particles were bursting from beneath the thick ice covering Antarctica. This discovery made scientists curious. As Hawking M.G. explains in the book Earth's First Civilization, Antarctica 55 million B.C., if the mysterious high energy particles coming from under the ice of Antarctica are statistically extremely unlikely to have originated from cosmic rays coming in from space, then from what source could they be coming? The decay of dark matter existing in the Earth's interior? Possibly, yet our understanding of dark matter is so severely limited that such an idea cannot even be postulated as a theory. Dark matter is a mysterious substance that manifests itself through its gravitational pull. It remains one of the greatest enigmas of astrophysics and cosmology. Over the years, scientists have tried to unravel the mystery of dark matter, and many theories have been presented, but we are still having trouble solving the riddle of this unusual substance. Is it possible the high energy particles detected from beneath the ice of Antarctica could be somehow related to traces of an ancient, advanced civilization? This was a question Hawking decided to investigate, and its conclusions are interesting to say the least. One possibility was that the high energy particles were coming from radioactive materials, but what was the source of this nuclear waste? All radioactive waste emissions weaken over time, and yet here we have a case where something appears to be still active beneath the thick ice, or wasn't it? Hawking writes, certain radioactive elements such as plutonium-239 emit particles energetic enough to be hazardous to humans and other creatures for hundreds of thousands of years. Other types of radionucleides emit high energy particles for much longer. I found this situation so interesting that I took the time to discuss it with several physicists at both Berkeley and Caltech. They were all fascinated as well, and after reviewing the data from IceCube and Anita had some intriguing opinions. First, if the civilization associated with the complex of rectangular and pyramidal structures under Antarctica's ice utilized any type of nuclear process, circa 96,000 B.C., the high energy particles detected coming up from under the ice would absolutely be evidence of that type of technology once existing there. If the civilization was far more ancient, say 55,500,000 B.C., the detected particles I was surprised to learn could still represent evidence of nuclear technology usage. Apparently there are many radionucleides that have an incredibly long half-life, scores them actually. For example, Bismuth-209 has a half-life of 19 quintrillion years, over a billion times longer than the age of the universe, and Tolerium-128 has a half-life of 2.2 septillion years, over 160 trillion times greater than the age of the universe. It was also pointed out that an extraterrestrial culture that had the ability to travel here from a planetary system belonging to another star obviously possessed either a propellant-based propulsion system capable of highly efficient interstellar travel, i.e. very fast travel, a propellantless field propulsion system, perhaps based on the Mach effect or something similar, the means to utilize Einstein-Rosen bridges for interstellar travel, so-called wormholes, or some other type of far-advanced technology of which we currently don't have the faintest idea. The production of the amount of energy required for any of those technologies would very likely utilize some kind of process to convert nuclear mass into energy. The arrivals, long-term presence and or departures of a vehicle or vehicles that used any of those types of technologies could leave a lingering footprint, like the emissions detected by the ice cube and Anita instruments. Such discoveries have left many alternative researchers wondering whether there is an ancient lost city buried beneath the ice of Antarctica, or possibly a crashed extraterrestrial craft emitting radiation. Could this explain why the Nazis launched an expensive expedition to the South Pole in 1938? To all truth-seekers, Antarctica remains a fascinating place to explore. The frozen continent is a window to the past, and we will keep investigating many more mysteries that have been reported by those who have studied and continue to study curious discoveries made in Antarctica. When Weird Darkness returns, it is the most remote, desolate place on Earth, and undoubtedly one of the coldest as well. But did you know that Antarctica is also purportedly the most haunted place on the planet? We'll take a look at some of the Antarctic haunts that will give you some cold shivers when Weird Darkness returns. Paranormal experiences, encountering extraterrestrials, extraordinary states of consciousness, spiritual phenomenon, encounters with non-human entities that can't be explained by science. These stories of what people have come across are ubiquitous here on Weird Darkness, and often those who have had these encounters choose to stay quiet and not even tell close friends or family out of fear of ridicule, and they suffer silently, trying to deal with the internal horror of what they have experienced. If I am describing you, or maybe somebody you know, there is now a place that you can turn to for professional counseling from experts who, unlike others in their field, are open to the paranormal, supernatural, and extraterrestrial experiences of others. And they're there not to explain away your experience, but to help you recover from it and move forward with your life. I'm referring to the Opus Network, and if you'd like to reach out for help or learn more, look for the Opus Network towards the bottom of the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash Hope. Antarctica is touted as one of the most haunted places in the world. Sure, this is based on the number of ghosts per capita, but with a population fluctuating between around 1,100 brave folks in the winter to 4,400 during the summer, there is said to be roughly one perturbed spirit for every nine people that inhabit the desolate continent. The spirits of explorers, scientists, and tourists are believed to wander the icy wasteland and the abandoned buildings they once inhabited during their lifetimes. Whether by plane crash or exposure to the extreme temperatures, many have involuntarily included themselves among the Antarctic ghosts. The schooner, Jenny, left port in 1823 and was never seen again until a whaling ship made a horrifying discovery years later. Apparently, the Jenny had become trapped in the ice and the entire boat was frozen. Crew from the whaling ship noticed people on Jenny's deck, but when they boarded, they realized the people had been frozen solid and perfectly preserved. According to the legend, they discovered a journal entry written by Jenny's captain. His last entry is nothing short of chilling. May 4, 1823. No food for 71 days. I am the only one left alive. Jenny was left to sail on as a ghost ship. In the early 1900s, the race was on to be the first to reach the geographic South Pole. In 1911, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his team set out on the Taranova expedition and set up camp at the edge of the Great Ice Barrier. While some men stayed behind with supplies and shelter, the rest of the team ventured onwards. The expedition did not go completely as planned. A rival reached the pole about a month before his team. In 1912, Scott and four other men he had selected to join him on the expedition perished on their way back to the hut. Frostbite, gangrene and starvation plucked them off one by one. On March 29, 1912, Scott recorded his final journal entry. Every day, we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door, the tent, it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker. Of course. And the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R. Scott. Last entry. For God's sake, look after our people. Scott's hut still stands, and people who have visited said they felt uneasy and uncomfortable. Voices and footsteps have been heard, and some people felt like they were being watched. There is also a cross placed close to the hut in memory of a member of the Scott expedition who passed. Sir Edmund Hillary was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer who climbed Mount Everest with Sherpa Norge Tenzing. In May 1953, they became the first known people to reach the summit. Seeking an even more extreme exploration, Hillary reached Antarctica five years later and found himself at explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's abandoned hut. Shackleton passed in 1922. In the hut, Hillary believed he saw Shackleton's ghost, saying later, I'm not a person who really sees things very much, but when I opened the door, I distinctly saw Shackleton walking towards me and welcoming me. Antarctica became a frequent tourist destination in the 1970s. Tourists booked day trip flights from New Zealand and enjoyed a leisurely aerial view of the harsh icy continent. One such trip turned fatal due to low visibility and pilot error. The plane crashed into the side of Mount Araba set 300 miles per hour and the impact instantly killed all 257 passengers. Apparently the corpses were stored at McMurdo Station, an American base on Antarctica's Ross Island, and many visitors to the site believe the ghosts of the people are still hanging around. Visitors claimed to hear voices, see short trails of unexplained footprints and feel strange presences. One McMurdo station worker remembers, as soon as I entered, something was weird. I took a couple of steps in and the hair on the top of my head stood on end, footsteps upstairs, undeniably, footsteps, a slow cadence of footsteps. I froze. It went from the back of the building to the front. The wordy hut is named after James Wordy, chief scientist on Sir Edmund Shackleton's 1914-1917 endurance expedition. It was built in 1947 after the previous building was destroyed. It is no longer used, but it is considered a historic site and monument. After hearing several reports of a haunting, paranormal researchers from Destination Truth spent a night exploring the area. To make things even more creepy, the hut was still set up with furniture and canned food, as if the explorers from the early 20th century still inhabited it. Members of the team heard the frantic flipping of a light switch and the slamming of doors while staying in the hut. Items like jar lids fell off of shelves on their own. One member of the crew noted he felt a presence, and the rest of the team nodded in silent agreement. Deception Island once housed an old whalers station, and the bones from their slaughters can still be found on the beach. The station was abandoned during the Great Depression when oil prices fell, and it was repurposed as a British base during World War II. The station still stands, along with the containers used to boil whale fat which are now coated with rust. Some visitors to the island have claimed to see apparitions and light orbs, and a few have heard voices. Paranormal researchers from Destination Truth visited the site and heard a few very unusual loud bangs and saw a shadowy figure. They also caught a thermal signature in a window and heard what sounded like an SOS code being tapped inside a shack. Ever since humans have attempted to conquer Antarctica, they have left evidence that they were there. Because of the continent's inhospitable conditions, failed industries like whaling and geographical inaccessibility, parts of Antarctica are littered with abandoned buildings and other structures. Military bases, research stations, huts and whaling factories transformed into creepy ghost towns covered in rust and ice. Even a few abandoned ships can be found in the bays. People who have visited these abandoned buildings describe the environments as some of the creepiest they have ever seen. To add to the creepiness of these abandoned sites, many of the structures still contain artifacts of the humans who once dwelled there. Sometimes the residents died or decided to leave without taking everything they had brought, such as furniture, books and blankets. Because of the cold temperatures, the food items explorers or researchers brought with them have been preserved. Thanks to warmer temperatures in the polar regions, the stored seal blubber in some cabins has started to go rancid, only adding to the spooky hostile vibes of Antarctica's many ghost towns. The gamberstove mountain range can be found in Antarctica, and even though they are similar in size to Europe's Alps, no one has ever seen them. A group of Russian explorers who traveled to the continent in the 1950s observed strange gravity fluctuations coming from below the ice. The cause of these bizarre fluctuations? An entire subglacial mountain range, hidden below a three-mile layer of ice. The mountains are extremely old and part of a rift that was formed years ago. A long time ago, the Antarctic ice sheet started forming, completely encapsulating the 1800-mile-long range. Had the ice not preserved the range, erosion would have played its part. Scientists are still studying the subglacial range today. Fausto Ferriccioli of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, England said it is as exciting as exploring another planet. Or terrifying. There is no telling what forms of life were also preserved in the freezing Antarctic Isis so long ago. free. Plus, I have some bonus content about Antarctica that I did not have time for in the show tonight, which I'll also include in the podcast version. That's weirddarkness.com slash listen. Or search for Weird Darkness wherever you listen to podcasts. Again, the podcast is free. You can follow Weird Darkness on social media by visiting the Contact social page on the website. And please, tell others about Weird Darkness who love the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. Doing that helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show. And if you'd like to be a part of the show, you can send in your own paranormal experiences by clicking on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. You can also email me anytime at darren at WeirdDarkness.com. Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes, which I will upload to the Weird Darkness website immediately after tonight's show is ended. Antarctica Strangeness was written by Ellen Lloyd for ancient pages, and Ghostly Shivers at Antarctica is by Aaron McCann for ranker. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Psalm 112 verse 4. Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. And a final thought. A secret to happiness is letting every situation be what it is instead of what you think it should be and then making the best of it. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. From the historic first explorers of the 1800s to the bold scientists of today, we continue to be captivated by the wonders held within Antarctica's icy plains. As the world's last unexplored wilderness, Antarctica is shrouded in mystery, and as a land of extremes, it's also great at keeping its secrets. The harsh conditions, freezing temperatures, and barren landscapes make Antarctica inhospitable to humans. The frozen continent is about one and a half times the size of the United States, and 99% is covered in ice, making up 90% of all the ice on Earth. Despite this, scientists have forged on, trying to find answers to some amazing mysteries and oddities. It's difficult to imagine anything beneath the thick layers of ice in Antarctica, yet scientists have discovered a number of underground lakes. First uncovered in 1970 with radars, there are estimated to be around 400 lakes sitting under three kilometers of ice in the regions that were explored. The lakes don't freeze because of the pressure from the weight of the ice sheet. Lake Vostok, discovered in the 1990s by Russian scientists, is the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica. It's also the third largest lake by volume in the world, lying three and a half kilometers below the ice. Scientists have since drilled deep holes into the ice to extract a sample of the lake water, and one sample showed the water to be around negative three degrees Celsius, but still in liquid form due to the pressure of the ice above. In 2014, scientists had a major breakthrough at Lake Wilhouns, discovering a diverse and active ecosystem of microorganisms in the lake, nearly a kilometer under the ice sheet. These incredible species have never seen fresh air or sunlight, yet they flourish, using methane and ammonium as energy to grow. Deep Lake is an inland lake in east Antarctica that has fascinated scientists for years. The lake sits 55 meters below sea level, with water salinity increasing as it gets deeper. Its salty waters are comparable to the Dead Sea and are 10 times saltier than the ocean. This means the water does not freeze, despite temperatures reaching negative 20 degrees Celsius at its deepest point. The lake is practically uninhabitable, with one of the least productive yet most remarkable ecosystems in the world. Scientists have found four microbe species living in the waters, although it is dangerous even deadly for most other animals. Some penguins have been spotted swimming the waters, but they can easily die as the lake is much colder than the ocean. Antarctica is a barren, icy desert, with very little rain, fierce winds, and the coldest temperatures on earth. The coldest recorded temperature was negative 89.4 degrees Celsius, yet it is also home to a myriad of unique wildlife. It was previously thought that nothing could survive beneath the massive ice sheets. However, scientists have discovered a number of unusual species that have adapted to the harsh environment. There are microbes, prostations, colossal squid, leggy spiders the size of dinner plates, giant worms with shiny golden bristles, and a large sharp-toothed jaw. You can even find see-through icefish. These strange creatures have large eyes and their internal organs can be seen through their translucent skin. The fish have anti-freeze glycoproteins and cannot survive in warmer waters. They also don't have any hemoglobin, a protein that makes our blood red. Speaking of red blood, in the McMurdo Dry Valley, a bright crimson five-story waterfall pours out of Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney. It looks like a gush of blood from a wound in the ice, but scientists have recently discovered the cause behind this mysterious phenomenon. The water that feeds blood falls was once a salty lake that is now cut off from the atmosphere due to the formation of glaciers on top of the lake. The water is preserved 400 meters underground and has become even saltier over time. It is now three times saltier than seawater and can't freeze. The salt water is also extremely rich in iron and completely devoid of oxygen and sunlight. As the iron-rich water seeps through a fissure in the glacier and comes into contact with air, the iron oxidizes and rusts, staining the water a dark red color. This eerie site is only accessible by helicopter or cruise ships visiting the Ross Sea. Antarctica is an ancient land that has undergone some incredible transformations over millions of years. Before it became a frozen desert after the ice age, Antarctica was actually a warm region with rainforests and possibly even civilizations. The theory developed from the discovery of fossilized wood, signs of tropical trees and leaf impressions that show the existence of rainforests in Antarctica. Scientists have also found a ton of fossils from marine animals, birds and dinosaurs from the Cretaceous period. Among the smaller species, they have uncovered the fossilized four wings of a beetle species that lived in a warmer climate and tiny single-celled fossils that have been a great source of debate among scientists. They have also found sperm cells on the egg case of a long extinct species of worm an extraordinary discovery. A hole the size of Ireland opened in Antarctica in 2017. Known as a Polina, the hole is nothing new except with a span of 78,000 square kilometers it is the largest hole to be observed since the 1970s and the first one to open in 40 years. Found in the Weddle Sea of the Southern Ocean, the Polina was formed due to the warmer saltier water found in the deeper parts of the sea. The warm water is pushed up by ocean currents melting the ice on the surface. As the water comes in contact with the cooler surface water it sinks again only to be reheated and pushed back to the surface. Scientists aren't completely sure why the Polinas are created but believe it may be marine mammals using the openings to breathe. They are still working to understand the impacts of these strange giant holes. Despite the freezing conditions, Antarctica is home to a number of volcanoes. There are four volcanoes on Ross Island although all are inactive except Mount Erebus which has actually increased in volcanic activity in the last 30 years. Mount Erebus is an extreme natural wonder with liquid magma and ancient lava lakes that have been boiling for around 1.3 million years. It is the world's southernmost active volcano and Antarctica's second highest volcano towering to 3,800 meters high. Scientists cannot often visit Mount Erebus due to the remote location and dangerous weather conditions although a team of scientists managed to climb the volcano in 2013. They hiked through snow, rocks and glaciers to the peak where they found organisms living in the heat of the volcano. They also discovered a number of ice caves with thriving microorganisms in the soil and it is believed that these extreme creatures are some of the most unique in the world. The southern ocean was named the world's fifth ocean in 2000. It is the fourth largest ocean in the world surrounding the entire continent of Antarctica. It plays a major role in driving global ocean circulation and also consists of the southern parts of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. With a maximum depth of about 7,300 meters it is nearly twice the size of the United States. This mysterious ocean may hold the secret to carbon emission absorption. Scientists have found that the southern ocean has absorbed 15% of carbon emissions created by humans. That is an incredible amount and scientists are working quickly to uncover how this process works. The thought of a desert usually conjures up images of hot, sandy plains yet Antarctica is the largest desert in the world. It is incredibly dry and windy with as little as 50 mm of rain annually while 99% of the continent is covered in ice. In the remaining 1%, you will find the McMurdo Dry Valleys where massive sand dunes reach up to 70 m high and 200 m wide. Although you can't go sandboarding down these dunes, they are an incredibly important site for researchers. The Dry Valleys have a similar climate to Mars and scientists believe the region could hold the secrets to life on other planets. However, the dunes are moving at an alarming rate, migrating at an average of 1.5 m per year. Many microorganisms and extremophiles have been discovered throughout Antarctica, including an endemic species of fungi. Although fungi typically flourish in warm, wooded regions, this Antarctic fungi survives in the freezing conditions by feasting on the centuries-old wooden huts abandoned by the first explorers. Another type of fungi has been discovered gorging on the petroleum leaking from fuel containers left by explorers. Scientists are studying these fascinating creatures to see if the fungus could be used to clean up larger oil spills around the world. Antarctica is a gold field for meteorites. Although meteorites can fall all over the earth, they are easier to find in Antarctica, as the cold, dry conditions preserve the rocky fragments. The dark meteorites are also easier to spot on the stark white surface of the ice, and they are almost always extraterrestrial rocks, as few rocks form naturally on the ice sheets of Antarctica. The East Antarctica is particularly ripe for meteorite findings, as the massive ice sheet has stayed still long enough to have its top layers evaporated by sunlight and strong winds. This reveals the older ice and huge concentrations of meteorites. There have been more than 20,000 extraterrestrial meteorite samples collected since 1976. In 2013, a team of Japanese and Belgian scientists discovered the largest meteorite found in East Antarctica in 25 years. The extraterrestrial rock weighed an incredible 18 kilograms. The team searched for meteorites for 40 days, finding 425 meteorites with a collective weight of 75 kilograms. The discoveries included a piece of the asteroid Vesta and a meteorite from Mars. And I have saved this oddity for last, simply because it is my favorite. A massive slab of ice in Antarctica is singing. Yes, you heard that right, a massive slab of ice in Antarctica is singing. The Ross Ice Shelf is the largest ice shelf in Antarctica. It is several hundred meters thick and covers an area of over 500,000 square kilometers, which is about the size of France. Scientists have recently discovered that the Ross Ice Shelf sings an eerie melody caused by the winds blowing across the snow dunes. The winds create surface vibrations and almost non-stop seismic tones. This is what it sounds like. The vibrations aren't actually audible to human ears, and scientists use seismic sensors to listen to the mournful tune. The song was discovered by accident after seismic sensors were installed on the ice shelf to observe other behaviors. Scientists have since discovered that the song changes in response to the environment, such as melting or storms shifting the snow. They are now using the song as a tool to monitor the ice shelf in real time, tracking its stability and vulnerability for collapse through the seismic humming.