A Ship Stranded in the Desert: 5 Unsolved Mysteries of the Wild West

In the spring of 1879, the priests of the Catholic Mission in St Albert, Canada, were greeted by a strange sight. A large man wandered into the mission alone, behaving strangely. The man, a member of the Cree tribe named Swift Runner, told the priests that his family had starved to death the previous winter. He was the only survivor.

Though the winter of 1878-1879 had been particularly brutal to the Cree tribe, the priests were suspicious. The man would often scream during his sleep, experiencing what were apparently terrifying nightmares.

Despite the claim that his family starved to death, Swift Runner seemed to be in good health (the priests estimated that he weighed roughly 200lbs). Finally, Swift Runner confessed to something that chilled the holy men to the bone; he admitted to being possessed by an evil spirit, Wendigo.

The Wendigo is known in many northern indigenous tribes as a spirit of violence and cannibalism. People lived in fear of being possessed, and those who were suspected of harboring a Wendigo spirit were often killed to protect the rest of the tribe.

Belief in the spirit was so strong that European and Canadian observers developed the term “Wendigo psychosis” to describe seemingly random acts of attempted cannibalism amongst several tribes, particularly the Cree...

[dontbelieveeverythingyouhe]

I have a Navajo friend. Good friend. I was whistling while doing dishes and he threw his hand over my mouth and said "never whistle after the sun has gone down. Ever. You're telling it where you are."

[coolestmonkeyinthejungle]

Dark 5's been doing it over 8 years. Still holds up since highschool

[MamaPinks]

I can't say enough how much I absolutely LOVE the narrator's voice! His tone, eurythmics, and balance make me feel relaxed but with a little bit of fear deep down inside about the story being told, all at the same time! 🥰

[michaelburgoyne]

During the summer of 1975, I worked at Lucerne Marina on Flaming in Utah. I met a man that claimed as a child he had seen Butch Cassidy. Before the Flaming Gorge dam filled the valley with water, there was a small community and a store there. The man related that while shopping with his father he met a man sitting in a chair on the wood porch and the man was running his spurs in the wood. After leaving the store, he asked his father why the man was allowed to dig his spurs into the floor. His father replied, "That was Butch Cassidy. He can do anything he wants to."

[seandelap]

The wild west looks pretty tame compared to the insanities of the world in 2024

[iHaveTheDocuments]

Thanks for the red arrow. I had no idea where to look in the thumbnail

[JohnWeber-vuvi]

WOW, I've never heard of those lost ships. That's a fascinating story ! This is why your still one of my favorite channels ! 👍🏼😎

[jonathanjimmyshearman]

Well Dark 5, these were really interesting and immersive archives you've found here🙂😉.

[CherylDawnEvans]

Whoever makes these deserves a raise !

[Donner]

My family always vacationed on Lake "Windigo" in Wisconsin. The Windigo creature was created to explain away cannabalism of bodies found during the harsh northern winters - no one else was to blame.

[carguybikeguy]

This first story is awesome. Funny side note: The film, ‘Ravenous’ is a particularly hilarious tale involving the Wendigo.

[NearEarthOddity]

Very nice vid dude. New insights i had not been aware of..

[PmBoyle]

What do you call a happy cowboy? A jolly rancher.

[tonyjohnson]

Thank you so much for doing a story on your actual thumbnail. How refreshing.

[homesweetesthome]

Whoopsie, the Tombstone newspaper is called the Epitaph, not the Epigraph.

[BLAISEDAHL]

The Pearl ship story is awesome. Imagine if it was rediscovered!!!

[AlanCringLtd]

It's worth watching these videos even when only one segment is new to me. The measured, matter-of-fact narration is reminiscent of broadcasts from long ago. Another in my series of requests in comments is quite a bit more diffuse and without a unified set of accounts. It comes from the backwoods of the continental United States, although stories like it are told in other countries, as well. It has to do with groups of people who live in the vast, remote regions of national parks like the ones out West and in some parts of the Tennessee Valley and even along the East Coast. One story I heard was told by two soldiers who had been tasked to do a survey in a heavily wooded, huge region of a national park that I recall was in the Rocky Mountain region. They got lost far away from their vehicle, and as they were working their way back to it using GPS devices, they got the feeling that they were being followed or even tracked. As night fell, they used a night vision scope to keep going, but the scope was illuminating a large number of people not far from them. The two soldiers moved as they could away from the direction in which they were seeing the figures, and it took them quite awhile to get back to their truck and drive away, but they managed to do so, with the group following them getting perilously close. Such stories have led to speculation that they are somehow related to at least some of the infamous 411 disappearances in national parks. It would be interesting to hear what Dark5 can find and reveal about these rumored groups (or tribes or whatever).

[elgrandediko]

Youtube is the television of yesterday. My wife and I gather to see and listen to stories shows etc. Amazing how technology can do that. Great content keep up the good work 👏

[sashamama]

There was another photo, too, of a different pteradon spreadeagled against a barn with some cowboys posing with it.

[acyd]

I love this channel and this amazing video has been seared into my annals forever!