Do NOT Go to Rock Island – Ep. 99

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Odd Trails contains adult language and content. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show!

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome everyone! This week we have a single story titled Do Not Go to Rock Island by Scary Third Eye.

[00:01:03] [SPEAKER_00]: We've broken this story up into two parts. I will be starting off with part one and Brandon will continue with part two after the break. Enjoy!

[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Rock Island is a state park located at the tip of Door County, Wisconsin on Lake Michigan. It's a difficult place to get to.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_00]: To get to the island you have to take a car ferry from Ellison Bay to Washington Island. Drive across Washington Island to Jackson Harbor

[00:01:52] [SPEAKER_00]: then take a pedestrian-only ferry to Rock Island. No vehicles or bikes are allowed on the island.

[00:01:59] [SPEAKER_00]: Even though the island is relatively small, at about 975 acres, it has an interesting history.

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_00]: In the early 1600s it was inhabited by a tribe of Potawatomi Native Americans as well as a small fishing village of European settlers.

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_00]: The two groups did not trust each other and did have a few bad encounters that almost led to violence, but for the most part they lived peacefully together on the island.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_00]: By the 1640s the Potawatomi had migrated to other parts of Wisconsin. Shortly after the Potawatomi had left the island some settlers from the fishing village reported seeing a new group of people on the island.

[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_00]: They seemed to be more white settlers, but they wore strange clothes and kept to themselves. No one from the fishing village was ever able to talk to one of these new settlers or even find where they were living.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: It was around this time that the strange things started happening in the village. Several animals, it's not mentioned what they were, maybe pigs or chickens,

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_00]: kept by the settlers were found slaughtered in the village and seem to have been used to make markings in blood on some of the buildings in the village.

[00:03:15] [SPEAKER_00]: On a different night, a building used for preserving meat burned down. The villagers felt that these things must have been done by these new people on the island and they intended to find them.

[00:03:27] [SPEAKER_00]: But after a thorough search of the island, including the wooded inland area, they never found a single person.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00]: These strange occurrences seemed to stop soon after the search and none of the other settlers were ever seen again.

[00:03:43] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1836 the Potawatomi lighthouse was built on the northern part of the island. After construction was finished the lighthouse was inspected

[00:03:52] [SPEAKER_00]: and it was reported back that the material which the lighthouse and dwelling are made of are the best quality

[00:03:59] [SPEAKER_00]: and that the work is done in a substantive and workman-like manner. David E. Corbin was appointed the first keeper of the lighthouse on December 19th, 1837.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: Only three years later in 1840, despite the apparent quality of construction of the lighthouse,

[00:04:16] [SPEAKER_00]: David Corbin started to complain that plaster started to fall off of the building

[00:04:21] [SPEAKER_00]: and some sort of liquid would ooze through the cracks, leaving the house constantly damp.

[00:04:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Corbin was completely alone most of the time at the lighthouse

[00:04:31] [SPEAKER_00]: and some said when visiting him that he would just stare at a certain wall

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_00]: and sometimes spoke vaguely of the other visitors.

[00:04:40] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1845, after eight years of relative solitude at the lighthouse

[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_00]: an inspector visited the lighthouse keeper and determined that while Corbin was fulfilling his duties he was acting strange.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00]: The official report says that the inspector ordered Corbin to take a 25-day leave of absence

[00:05:00] [SPEAKER_00]: to find a wife to live with him at the White House.

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_00]: However, some think that the inspector was startled by Corbin's mental state caused by years of solitude

[00:05:10] [SPEAKER_00]: and thought that it would be best if he spent some time away from the island.

[00:05:15] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1852, Corbin reportedly fell ill and died that December in the lighthouse.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: He was buried in a small cemetery just south of the lighthouse.

[00:05:26] [SPEAKER_00]: The next lighthouse keeper also reported the surprisingly quick deterioration of the lighthouse.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Some friends who had visited the new keeper say that he would talk of seeing strange things in the lighthouse at night

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: but he wouldn't elaborate on what he had seen.

[00:05:43] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1856, after only 22 years of service, the original lighthouse was torn down and a new one was built.

[00:05:52] [SPEAKER_00]: From that point on, the lighthouse keepers were required to have an assistant keeper or a family with them at the lighthouse.

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: No strange occurrences were further reported in the lighthouse logbook outside of strong storms and occasional shipwrecks except on January 20, 1876.

[00:06:12] [SPEAKER_00]: The keeper at the time named Betz reported that he saw two men attempting to row to the mainland from Washington Island.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: He wrote, a terrible storm came up shortly after their departure and they never made it to their destination.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Over three months later, on May 3, 1876, Betz wrote,

[00:06:32] [SPEAKER_00]: The two men who were lost last January have been seen several times, once from Caney Lighthouse and once from Jacksonport.

[00:06:41] [SPEAKER_00]: The men were apparently frozen stiff and sitting upright in the boat among a mass of ice.

[00:06:48] [SPEAKER_00]: At last account, they were still adrift. There is not much hope that they will be found and buried.

[00:06:54] [SPEAKER_00]: By 1900, most of the island's inhabitants left four better fishing areas on Lake Michigan.

[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_00]: In 1910, a successful business owner and inventor, Chester Thornton, purchased all of the island except for the land that the lighthouse occupied in the north.

[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_00]: He used the island as a private summer retreat from his business in Chicago.

[00:07:18] [SPEAKER_00]: Thornton is responsible for the unique and mystifying buildings as well as the structures that are still on the island today.

[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_00]: On the south end of the island, he built a giant stone hall that has a boat house on the lower level.

[00:07:34] [SPEAKER_00]: A stone water tower was built on the east side of the island and an imposing wooden gate was constructed on the west end of the island.

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: The great hall was used to store Thornton's immense collection of books.

[00:07:48] [SPEAKER_00]: He had over 11,000 books and it is rumored that he possessed some very rare occult books.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Thornton died of heart failure on January 6, 1945, though some have speculated that he saw something that actually scared him to death.

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_00]: I couldn't find any writings on Thornton that mentioned him experiencing anything strange on the island.

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: After his death, multiple churches and universities were interested in his book collection, but he had willed it to the University of Wisconsin, Madison,

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00]: providing that they had to purchase it for $300,000, which they did.

[00:08:28] [SPEAKER_00]: Some of this history is hard to find on the internet, but there are a couple of binders in the great hall that have a lot of this documented.

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Thornton's personal papers are housed in the archives section of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

[00:08:44] [SPEAKER_00]: All of this history that I gave is to provide a little context for experiences that I have had directly or indirectly on Rock Island.

[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_00]: In August of 2021, I took my first and last trip to Rock Island.

[00:08:59] [SPEAKER_00]: After taking two ferry rides, I arrived on the island at about 2pm.

[00:09:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I had booked the remote campsite E, which was a backpacking site that is a little over a mile from the dock.

[00:09:13] [SPEAKER_00]: I took my time hiking out of the site to enjoy the scenery and took a couple of breaks just due to how heavy my pack was.

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_00]: I was definitely packed more for camping than hiking.

[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I got to my site, set up my tent, got everything situated and started gathering sticks and driftwood from the beach so that I could start a fire.

[00:09:33] [SPEAKER_00]: On my third trip back from the beach, before I got back to my site, I heard a single high-pitched squeal coming from the forest.

[00:09:42] [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't sound close, but it was such an unusual sound that I stopped in my tracks and waited for a good 30 seconds.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00]: I wanted to see if it would happen again.

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't, so I continued back to my site.

[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_00]: When I got back, I began working on getting the fire started.

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_00]: The remote camping sites on Rock Island are pretty well spaced out.

[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Sites C, D and E are grouped together, but there are probably 100 yards in between each site.

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_00]: There's not a real trail connecting the three sites directly, but enough people have walked along the ridge between the sites that there is an obvious path.

[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_00]: As I set some sticks up for my firing, something caught my eye and I looked up, fairly far away.

[00:10:31] [SPEAKER_00]: It looked like it might have been at site D or a little further, was a person running in my direction.

[00:10:39] [SPEAKER_00]: My first thought was, well that's odd because like I said, it's not really even a trail that they were on.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Then my mind went to, there must be something wrong, this person needs help.

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_00]: They got a little closer and it looked like maybe it was a woman in loose gray clothing, maybe in a hoodie.

[00:11:01] [SPEAKER_00]: It was still far enough away that I couldn't make out any other details.

[00:11:05] [SPEAKER_00]: I stood up quickly from the crouching position that I was in and just as I did, I heard that high pitched squeal noise again.

[00:11:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It was behind me and it was much closer this time.

[00:11:19] [SPEAKER_00]: This startled me quite a bit so I turned around and looked behind me.

[00:11:24] [SPEAKER_00]: I scanned the trees for a few seconds but I didn't see or hear anything.

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_00]: I turned back around and I knew the running person must be getting close but they were gone.

[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, I stood there and scanned the trees but I didn't see them anywhere.

[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I was so confused, I was kind of frozen for a few seconds.

[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_00]: It was all very strange but I was able to reason it out in my head that it was just a fellow camper from site C or D

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_00]: that was maybe running to the pit toilet.

[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The pit toilet was a couple hundred yards west of the campsite.

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_00]: I tried to forget about it but it was really bothering me.

[00:12:08] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't like whatever that squealing noise was and it all felt so strange.

[00:12:13] [SPEAKER_00]: With some effort, I decided to get started on my fire.

[00:12:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I had a quick meal and a couple of adult beverages then decided to take a little walk.

[00:12:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I hadn't seen sites C or D yet so I thought that I would check those out

[00:12:28] [SPEAKER_00]: and see if I did have some neighbors camping nearby.

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Site D was empty.

[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_00]: I did see the path that led from that site to the main trail and the pit toilet

[00:12:37] [SPEAKER_00]: so that made me feel a little less uneasy about the runner.

[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_00]: I figured it was maybe somebody from site C who took the strange way to get to the main trail by going through site D.

[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_00]: It didn't make a ton of sense because I probably still should have seen them

[00:12:53] [SPEAKER_00]: but it made me feel better.

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I continued on to site C and saw that there was a tent set up.

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_00]: I really didn't want to bother anyone

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00]: but I thought that I would go over with the excuse that I would introduce myself as a camping neighbor from site E

[00:13:09] [SPEAKER_00]: and see if anyone looked like they might have been the person that was running earlier.

[00:13:15] [SPEAKER_00]: I came up on the site and there was a couple sitting at a picnic table.

[00:13:19] [SPEAKER_00]: Neither of them looked like they would have been the person that I saw running.

[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_00]: I introduced myself and so did they.

[00:13:26] [SPEAKER_00]: They were probably in their mid 30s.

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_00]: They were very nice and both seemed to be pretty drunk but quiet drunk.

[00:13:34] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't ask about the runner or the squealing noises because I thought that it might be weird.

[00:13:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I wished them a good night and walked back to my tent.

[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_00]: When I got back I had a cigar and a few more drinks.

[00:13:45] [SPEAKER_00]: It got dark.

[00:13:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Everything started off as a perfect night.

[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_00]: The sky was clear and I was staring up looking at millions of stars.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00]: I felt better about everything from earlier and felt stupid about the whole thing.

[00:13:58] [SPEAKER_00]: I decided to get some sleep.

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00]: It was a long day so I fell asleep almost immediately.

[00:14:03] [SPEAKER_00]: However, at around 2.30 am I woke up to a huge boom of thunder.

[00:14:09] [SPEAKER_00]: It started downpouring.

[00:14:11] [SPEAKER_00]: The wind picked up and the temperature dropped.

[00:14:14] [SPEAKER_00]: I loved camping in the rain but I do not like camping in a lightning storm.

[00:14:19] [SPEAKER_00]: A pretty big storm came through and I was starting to worry.

[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_00]: The wind was whipping at my tent and the ground was shaking from the thunder and lightning.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't feel good about being out there in a tent and I felt very exposed.

[00:14:33] [SPEAKER_00]: The storm lasted for about an hour before it became a light steady drizzle.

[00:14:39] [SPEAKER_00]: I was just starting to fall back to sleep when I heard the squealing noise again.

[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_00]: I opened my eyes wide in the dark and just lay there, silent.

[00:14:50] [SPEAKER_00]: There was another louder squeal and it was pretty close.

[00:14:55] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew there were no real dangerous animals on Rock Island.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER_00]: There are deer and porcupines but nothing like bears or wolves.

[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Knowing that still didn't make me feel better though.

[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_00]: There was just something about that squeal that I didn't like.

[00:15:12] [SPEAKER_00]: I say squeal because that's the best I can describe it.

[00:15:15] [SPEAKER_00]: It sounded like maybe a pig squeal.

[00:15:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I honestly don't know that much about pig noises

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00]: but that's what I thought of when I heard it.

[00:15:23] [SPEAKER_00]: An injured or angry pig squeal.

[00:15:26] [SPEAKER_00]: I continued to lie in my tent and I started to hear footsteps outside.

[00:15:32] [SPEAKER_00]: It was still raining so the sounds were a little buried by the sound of the rain

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00]: but it definitely sounded like a somewhat large animal or human walking around.

[00:15:43] [SPEAKER_00]: I sat up in my tent and took out a knife that I had on me to feel better.

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00]: In my head I just kept saying, you know it's just an animal, it's fine.

[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing in these woods that can hurt you.

[00:15:56] [SPEAKER_00]: I listened as the footsteps started to move away from my tent.

[00:16:01] [SPEAKER_00]: I just sat there still holding my knife for maybe 10 minutes without hearing anything else.

[00:16:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I started thinking to myself, it's fine it was just an animal.

[00:16:34] [SPEAKER_01]: You're being stupid and you need to get some sleep.

[00:16:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I was just about to lie back down when there was a very loud squeal right outside my tent.

[00:16:45] [SPEAKER_01]: It felt like my heart just stopped and a shiver went down my spine.

[00:16:51] [SPEAKER_01]: My heart was beating so hard my entire body was pulsing and I felt it in my ears.

[00:16:57] [SPEAKER_01]: It took everything in me but I forced out a get out of here.

[00:17:02] [SPEAKER_01]: Not shouting but as stern and mean sounding as I could at that moment.

[00:17:08] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't hear any more squeals or footsteps that night but I also didn't sleep.

[00:17:14] [SPEAKER_01]: I just sat there in my tent for maybe an hour before I laid back down.

[00:17:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Eventually the rain stopped and I kept lying there until the sun came up.

[00:17:25] [SPEAKER_01]: All that time reassuring myself that I was being stupid, it was just an animal.

[00:17:32] [SPEAKER_01]: It was probably 7am before I decided I had to get out of my tent to relieve myself.

[00:17:38] [SPEAKER_01]: As soon as I stepped outside my tent, I saw that my picnic table had been turned over and was upside down.

[00:17:46] [SPEAKER_01]: When I saw this I surprisingly calmly thought, ok this is enough, I'm leaving the island today.

[00:17:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I checked my surroundings and nothing else seemed out of place.

[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I eventually reasoned with myself that the wind had blown the table over during the storm.

[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_01]: It still seemed a little strange because the table was pretty heavy and I felt like I would have heard the table flipping over but that might have made sense.

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_01]: I made some cold instant coffee, had a bite to eat, started to feel better about the whole thing and then decided to go for a hike.

[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I admit I get easily scared when I'm camping by myself in the woods, maybe that's natural.

[00:18:34] [SPEAKER_01]: After I had some coffee and food and the sun came out, I realized that nothing I heard or saw was really anything that couldn't be explained.

[00:18:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Other than not getting a good night's sleep, I was having a pretty good time.

[00:18:49] [SPEAKER_01]: The reason I came to the island in the first place was to hike the 7 mile Thordersen's Loop trail which has a lot of interesting things to see and I was excited to start the hike.

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_01]: I packed a few things in my backpack and started off.

[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Fairly close to my site is the water tower.

[00:19:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I have no idea how it originally worked or why it had to be a tower but it's an impressive building with a fireplace that looked like someone had recently had a fire in it.

[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_01]: A little further down the trail was a cemetery where two sisters and a few others were buried.

[00:19:28] [SPEAKER_01]: It's believed that there are still more buried here in unmarked graves.

[00:19:33] [SPEAKER_01]: These are likely some of the settlers from the old fishing village.

[00:19:38] [SPEAKER_01]: The island has three cemeteries.

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_01]: There is one by the beach where Chester Thordersen is buried.

[00:19:45] [SPEAKER_01]: There is one on the eastern part of the island where the two sisters are buried.

[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_01]: And there is one on the northern part of the island where the original lighthouse keeper, David E Corbin is buried.

[00:19:57] [SPEAKER_01]: There is also at least one Pottawatomie burial area on the island but no one knows exactly where it is.

[00:20:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I kept walking on the trail until I came to a nice scenic overlook area with a bench where I sat down and drank some water.

[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_01]: I started to hear some talking on the trail ahead of me but I couldn't see anyone yet.

[00:20:19] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a bend in the trail and the trees were thick so I sat on the bench waiting for these people to come around the bend.

[00:20:28] [SPEAKER_01]: The voices were coming closer and I could tell that they weren't speaking English but I couldn't place what language it might have been.

[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Both voices were very, very deep and guttural.

[00:20:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Then back deep in the woods I hear a loud and quick deep moaning sound.

[00:20:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Immediately both the voices I was listening to responded with their own even more sinister moaning sound.

[00:20:59] [SPEAKER_01]: I kind of smiled because it sounded like these two heard whatever it was in the woods and they were trying to be funny and mock it by responding.

[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_01]: I got off the bench, put my backpack back on and started walking in the direction farther down the trail where the voices were coming from.

[00:21:18] [SPEAKER_01]: But I never did find these people.

[00:21:21] [SPEAKER_01]: The rest of the hike went very well.

[00:21:25] [SPEAKER_01]: I visited the cemetery where David E Corbin is buried.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_01]: I took a self-guided tour of the Pottawame lighthouse.

[00:21:33] [SPEAKER_01]: I passed the wooden gate that apparently used to be part of a larger structure.

[00:21:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I walked by the Great Hall and dock area from where I arrived on the island, visited some of the other structures, came across the cemetery where Chester Thordersen is buried and then finished the loop by returning to my campsite.

[00:21:53] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a very nice hike with a lot to see and wasn't especially difficult but I was tired.

[00:22:01] [SPEAKER_01]: I did walk down to campsite sea to ask the couple I spoke with the night before how they did with the storm during the night.

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_01]: But they had packed up and left.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I was disappointed because I also really wanted to ask them about the squealing noises during the night.

[00:22:20] [SPEAKER_01]: The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful.

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_01]: I built a fire, made some meals, had a cigar and some drinks.

[00:22:29] [SPEAKER_01]: As soon as it got dark I was ready for bed since I had so little sleep the night before.

[00:22:35] [SPEAKER_01]: I got in my tent and quickly fell asleep.

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I might have been out for about three hours when I suddenly woke up and was immediately fully alert.

[00:22:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing that I was aware of caused me to wake up but I felt something was wrong.

[00:22:55] [SPEAKER_01]: I sat up in my tent and this part is a little hard to explain.

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_01]: A feeling of complete dread washed over me.

[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_01]: It was unlike anything I had ever felt before.

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_01]: It felt like there was something in the tent with me and I could feel that it was angry, seething with rage and I could feel its hatred for me.

[00:23:19] [SPEAKER_01]: It felt like something very bad was about to happen and I couldn't do anything about it.

[00:23:26] [SPEAKER_01]: I started to shiver uncontrollably.

[00:23:30] [SPEAKER_01]: There was a smell of garbage or rotten meat and it got stronger and stronger to the point where I wanted to throw up but I couldn't because I was frozen.

[00:23:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I had never felt so exposed and helpless.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I stared forward at nothing, just frozen and the weird thing was I accepted what was about to happen to me.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01]: It was like my brain telling me that whatever is about to happen, even if its death, will at least be a relief.

[00:24:04] [SPEAKER_01]: Then I passed out.

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: At least I have to assume I passed out.

[00:24:09] [SPEAKER_01]: That's all I remember until I woke up at about eight in the morning.

[00:24:14] [SPEAKER_01]: When I woke up, I was lying outside of my sleeping bag on top of it and my legs were in an unnatural and uncomfortable position.

[00:24:24] [SPEAKER_01]: I was on my back with my left leg straight out and my right leg was bent so that my foot was up against my left knee.

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_01]: My heart started pounding but I kept thinking to myself,

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_01]: it was a dream.

[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm leaving right now.

[00:24:41] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a dream.

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm leaving right now.

[00:24:45] [SPEAKER_01]: I packed up everything very quickly and started back toward the dock to catch the first boat off the island.

[00:24:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Since the first boat from Washington Island didn't arrive until about 10.30 in the morning,

[00:24:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I had to kill a little time around the Great Hall and dock area.

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_01]: I wanted to get off that island so bad but I did feel a little better just being out of the woods and I could see other people.

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_01]: I sat down on a bench, a little to the east of the dock and lit a cigar just to give me something to do while trying not to think about the night before.

[00:25:22] [SPEAKER_01]: I was sitting for a few minutes and scanning out over the water when I was startled by someone behind me saying hi.

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I jumped and was embarrassed when the person came around saying,

[00:25:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.

[00:25:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I saw you smoking and just came over to ask if you had a lighter.

[00:25:43] [SPEAKER_01]: I felt like an idiot and told him that's fine.

[00:25:47] [SPEAKER_01]: I just didn't sleep well last night and was kind of zoned out and I handed him my lighter.

[00:25:53] [SPEAKER_01]: He thanked me, lit a cigarette then handed it back to me.

[00:25:57] [SPEAKER_01]: We started talking about the usual things you might talk about.

[00:26:01] [SPEAKER_01]: He said he was from the Madison area.

[00:26:04] [SPEAKER_01]: We talked about the storms.

[00:26:06] [SPEAKER_01]: He seemed to be a real outdoorsy kind of guy and talked about his plans to move to Washington Island.

[00:26:13] [SPEAKER_01]: It was a nice normal conversation and kind of took my mind off the night I just had.

[00:26:20] [SPEAKER_01]: He seemed like a pretty nice guy.

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_01]: Then naturally he asked me what campsite I'd been staying at.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I told him I was staying at site E the last two nights and he said he usually books that site,

[00:26:35] [SPEAKER_01]: but I must have reserved it before him.

[00:26:38] [SPEAKER_01]: He said he had booked site D for the last two nights.

[00:26:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I was surprised by this because no tent or anything was at site D the two times I walked past it.

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I told him this and he said he comes to the island a few times a year

[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_01]: and you have to book a site, but he actually camps at different areas on the island.

[00:27:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I asked him where he camps and he told me that most of the time he camps in the East Cemetery

[00:27:06] [SPEAKER_01]: but he also likes to camp in the woods south of the lighthouse.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_01]: He told me that he hikes about halfway down the Fernwood trail

[00:27:15] [SPEAKER_01]: and just heads north into the woods where he finds a place to camp.

[00:27:20] [SPEAKER_01]: He said that one time he found the ruins of a small log house

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: and that he plans to find it again and camp inside of it.

[00:27:28] [SPEAKER_01]: At this point I started to change my opinion about this guy and wanted to change the subject

[00:27:34] [SPEAKER_01]: but then he asked me if I had heard the screeches in the woods.

[00:27:40] [SPEAKER_01]: I took a second to reply and knew he was talking about the squealing I had heard.

[00:27:46] [SPEAKER_01]: I told him I had and asked him if he knew what it was.

[00:27:51] [SPEAKER_01]: This time he took a second to reply and I saw his face change.

[00:27:56] [SPEAKER_01]: He looked like he was debating telling me something like a secret.

[00:28:02] [SPEAKER_01]: With no expression at all on his face he said matter of factly,

[00:28:06] [SPEAKER_01]: a demon lives on this island.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Under any other circumstance I would have laughed this off

[00:28:13] [SPEAKER_01]: but not after what I experienced the night before.

[00:28:18] [SPEAKER_01]: He looked at me and must have seen the anxiety and fear I was feeling.

[00:28:24] [SPEAKER_01]: He surprised me by letting out a quick laugh.

[00:28:27] [SPEAKER_01]: He asked me if I had seen anything that night.

[00:28:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I told him I hadn't seen anything and he stared at me

[00:28:34] [SPEAKER_01]: like he was trying to figure something out.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I felt like he could tell I had experienced something.

[00:28:42] [SPEAKER_01]: At this point I was ready for the conversation to be over.

[00:28:47] [SPEAKER_01]: Then he told me he had seen something in the cemetery that night.

[00:28:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Now his face and mood kind of changed like mine,

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_01]: like he was trying to confide in me.

[00:28:57] [SPEAKER_01]: I really did not want to ask the question

[00:29:00] [SPEAKER_01]: but I knew he wanted me to ask it.

[00:29:04] [SPEAKER_01]: So I asked him what he saw in the cemetery

[00:29:07] [SPEAKER_01]: but my voice was shaky.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Then I could tell he had changed his mind about telling me.

[00:29:14] [SPEAKER_01]: He actually looked at me with empathy

[00:29:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and told me that what he saw was hard to explain.

[00:29:21] [SPEAKER_01]: He also said if I was afraid of the screeching noises

[00:29:24] [SPEAKER_01]: he didn't think I should go near the cemetery.

[00:29:27] [SPEAKER_01]: I didn't say anything right away

[00:29:30] [SPEAKER_01]: but he said four words without any context.

[00:29:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Keepers of the flame.

[00:29:38] [SPEAKER_01]: I looked at my cigar and the ash was long.

[00:29:42] [SPEAKER_01]: I put it out and told him I was going to wait by the dock for the boat.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_01]: He nodded and I started to walk away.

[00:29:50] [SPEAKER_01]: After a few steps he said,

[00:29:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Hey!

[00:29:54] [SPEAKER_01]: And I turned around to look at him.

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_01]: He just said, Don't come back here.

[00:30:00] [SPEAKER_01]: I turned around and started walking again.

[00:30:04] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that was a warning or a friendly suggestion

[00:30:08] [SPEAKER_01]: but I took it to heart.

[00:30:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I was definitely not coming back to Rock Island.

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_01]: When I got home I looked up Keepers of the Flame

[00:30:17] [SPEAKER_01]: as it pertained to Rock Island.

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I found three things that he could have been referring to.

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_01]: The name of the Native Americans that lived on the island,

[00:30:27] [SPEAKER_01]: the Potawatomi, could be translated to Keepers of the Flame.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_01]: The lighthouse keepers on the island were sometimes referred to as

[00:30:36] [SPEAKER_01]: the Keepers of the Flame.

[00:30:38] [SPEAKER_01]: There was also a 19th century coal

[00:30:41] [SPEAKER_01]: that was said to visit the island from time to time

[00:30:44] [SPEAKER_01]: that called themselves the Keepers of the Flame as well.

[00:30:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I know that hundreds of people visit Rock Island every year

[00:30:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and have a great time camping, hiking the trails

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_01]: and exploring Chester Thorterson's buildings.

[00:30:58] [SPEAKER_01]: My humble suggestion is this,

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Do not go to Rock Island.

[00:31:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Wow! Our longest story yet.

[00:31:30] [SPEAKER_00]: I thought that it would be fun to do things a little differently

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_00]: and pass the torch to you midway.

[00:31:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel like there's an easy pun to be made about being Keepers of the Flame

[00:31:41] [SPEAKER_01]: but I'll just acknowledge that and move on.

[00:31:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I really liked this Rock Island story a lot.

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any armchair analyses?

[00:31:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah it was a really good story and kind of hard to pin down.

[00:31:54] [SPEAKER_01]: There isn't much online about Rock Island being haunted

[00:31:57] [SPEAKER_01]: but based on the story we have both residual and intelligent hauntings

[00:32:02] [SPEAKER_01]: which I'll briefly explain.

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_01]: Residual hauntings are basically recordings of past events.

[00:32:09] [SPEAKER_01]: The entities don't interact with the living

[00:32:12] [SPEAKER_01]: but they'll just repeat certain actions or events from their lifetime.

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_01]: So I'm thinking that child's footsteps and laughter could be some remnant of a past event.

[00:32:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And intelligent hauntings are basically more active and engaged with the present.

[00:32:28] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, active in the sense that the spirits or whatever are aware of the living

[00:32:34] [SPEAKER_01]: and can interact with us.

[00:32:36] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, basically it could be anything as far as the story goes.

[00:32:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Right, yeah. Waking up outside of the sleeping bag in that weird position

[00:32:44] [SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to just say it was aliens.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_00]: Always aliens, always always.

[00:32:50] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm thinking maybe a skin walker.

[00:32:53] [SPEAKER_01]: They've been known to make high-pitched squeals

[00:32:55] [SPEAKER_01]: plus with the Native American history on the island.

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_01]: I think it checks out.

[00:33:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe a spirit or entity that's unique to the island itself.

[00:33:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, definitely. I gotta say though,

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_00]: poltergeists seem like the type to throw a squealing tantrum

[00:33:12] [SPEAKER_00]: and flip over picnic tables.

[00:33:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They're so toxic.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, for real.

[00:33:17] [SPEAKER_00]: I was intrigued by the strange man.

[00:33:21] [SPEAKER_00]: For some reason in my mind

[00:33:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I visualized him as the mystery man from Lost Highway.

[00:33:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Pops out of the bushes holding a video camera just to say hi.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[00:33:31] [SPEAKER_01]: I liked how he just had to be like,

[00:33:33] [SPEAKER_01]: and don't come back after the author already started walking away

[00:33:37] [SPEAKER_01]: about as passive aggressive as a poltergeist.

[00:33:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he's somehow connected to all of it.

[00:33:45] [SPEAKER_00]: He just walked up to him

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_00]: and started talking about the haunted cemeteries.

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if some NPC walks up to you

[00:33:52] [SPEAKER_01]: and starts corroborating your paranormal experiences

[00:33:55] [SPEAKER_01]: they're either in on it

[00:33:56] [SPEAKER_01]: or they're about to give you a quest.

[00:33:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Man, I wish people still gave quests.

[00:34:01] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I miss it too.

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, back to the keepers of the flame stuff.

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_00]: I actually looked up the group.

[00:34:09] [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know for sure if they're a cult.

[00:34:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Definitely just very new agey on the surface.

[00:34:14] [SPEAKER_00]: They have 33 steps of initiation

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_00]: and you can start reaching your full potential

[00:34:20] [SPEAKER_00]: for as low as $9.95 per month.

[00:34:23] [SPEAKER_00]: Only $9.95.

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, you can't put a price on spiritual salvation, can you?

[00:34:30] [SPEAKER_01]: Apparently you can if you're the keepers of the flame.

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe he pressured the other campers to sign up for auto-pay

[00:34:36] [SPEAKER_01]: and that's why they packed up and left so abruptly.

[00:34:40] [SPEAKER_01]: Solicitors out in nature, your worst nightmare.

[00:34:43] [SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, with my luck I could be camping in a hot desert

[00:34:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and somebody would try to sell me a snow blower.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_01]: You can never have too many snow blowers.

[00:34:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Fair point.

[00:34:51] [SPEAKER_00]: So, would you camp at Rock Island?

[00:34:54] [SPEAKER_01]: I'd visit during the day for sure

[00:34:56] [SPEAKER_01]: and at the very most I could end up taking a spontaneous nap.

[00:35:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Would you?

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_00]: Only with you, honey.

[00:35:03] [SPEAKER_00]: Aw, let's go.

[00:35:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Alright, I'll pack my things.

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks so much everybody for listening.

[00:35:08] [SPEAKER_00]: This week you have heard

[00:35:09] [SPEAKER_00]: Do Not Go To Rock Island by Scary Third Eye.

[00:35:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Make sure you send your stories and to stories at oddtrails.com

[00:35:15] [SPEAKER_00]: if you'd like to hear them on the show.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_00]: The story you heard this week was narrated and produced with the permission of its respective author.

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[00:35:32] [SPEAKER_00]: Don't forget to check out the new episodes of my other podcasts.

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's not meet a true horror podcast.

[00:35:37] [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Paradise It Sucks and the old time radio cast.

[00:35:39] [SPEAKER_00]: All at crypticcountypodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

[00:35:44] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll see you guys next week, everyone stay safe.

[00:35:46] [SPEAKER_00]: Peace out.