ALASKA'S DYSTOPIAN ABANDONED CITY (6000 people once lived here - over 99% are GONE) #Adak Island

[Music] the uan islands stretching 18800 kilm from the city of Cold Bay on the Alaska Peninsula to the former World War II battleground of ATU Island its Western most point closer to Tokyo Japan than Seattle Washington this chain of rugged volcanic is islands is truly America's final frontier seldom visited and largely unknown to the average American after visiting America's largest fishing port of un Alaska Dutch Harbor in last week's episode I decided to continue my adventures in the uan islands by booking Alaska Airlines twice weekly flight to adak the Western most inhabited island in the United States closer to Russia's kamek Peninsula than Alaska's largest city of Anchorage this abandoned Cold War Naval Base truly feels like the edge of the known world with no hotels crumbling infrastructure and a population of only 177 residents adex seemed like an adventure destination like no other and I was eager to become one of the few lucky people that get to visit this remote island in the North Pacific each year what I didn't anticipate was that adak would prove to be one of the most fascinating Islands I've ever visited offering a variety of unique experiences from its fascinating Cold War era buildings to some of the best hunting fishing and hiking in the world it goes without saying that traveling to an abandoned military facility does come with its share of risks and I need to take care to watch out for unexploded ordinance and other hazards during my time on the island with that in mind I'd first need to connect with an experience local Outfitter company to help me safely explore in preparation for my visit I teamed up with the amazing guides at aluan Outfitters to organize my Logistics on the island and redeemed 15,000 Alaska Airlines miles to help me avoid the $1,500 roundtrip airfare from Anchorage with my ticket in hand it was time to head to the Ted Stevens International Airport and fly to what is truly one of the most remote Islands on the planet where I'd have to wait a minimum of 4 days before the jet would return weather permitting I knew that I was in for the adventure of a lifetime getting dropped off in the middle of the Pacific by the only plane that Services the island and to say that I was nervous would be an understatement all right good morning from Anchorage International Airport I'm on my way right now to uh security I'm heading to adak Islands today so this place is I've always wanted to go here it is closer to Japan than Seattle I can't wrap my hat around that but uh I can't wait to see it it's supposed to be kind of Jurassic Park Vibes amazing Green Mountains uh probably more orange this time of year but uh should be a fun Journey to the Western most point in the United [Music] States welcome to aak everyone the local time is 12:55 there has been a 1hour time change from CR all right just arrived here in adak Alaska Western most point in the US almost inhabited point at least huge jumbo jet comes in here twice a week so it's really comfortable service but uh it is pricey to get here so I'm glad I used points all right so this is adx tiny little airport it's actually a old Naval Air Base basically so the reflections pretty bad on these but uh plenty of information panels about 8X World during the Cold War this was the major hair base basically in the Pacific Ocean so it's kind of cute they have a game center where you can take games and play while you're waiting in this tiny little airport all right I am picking up my rental car here it is a Ford Expedition and it's going to serve me well here to explore beautiful adak island lovely day today too so going to head to my Lodge so incredibly kind staff here at uan Outfitters they are hosting me here in adak free of charge I provided me with this amazing rental car so I really look forward to exploring all of the amenities that they offer here so far I highly recommend this company they're very organized they introduced themselves right away at the airport hooked me up with the information for my stay and had the car ready to go so really organized amazing staff and I'm really looking forward to the next 4 days here on Ada Island so this is my neighborhood if you want to call it that here in adak this is uh I think one of the newer subdivisions I think looks like it was around about the late 70s early 80s from what I would estimate and this is my unit right here so uan Outfitters I guess bought up or leased a lot of these buildings and they use them as lodges so pretty comfortable you can see it's heated with this uh heating oil tank there is a Japanese style uh space heater inside the house so there's no furnace but uh it is pretty toasty warm so that's good so I would definitely recommend uan Outfitters everything seems to be pretty high quality in terms of lodging the rental vehicle and the level of support that you get here so really comfortable place to state so this is my Lodge it's definitely warm well appointed beautiful furniture and uh lovely wall decor really comfortable two coaches and this is the kitchen so very spacious you have a full house at your disposal so washer and dryer Vacuum Cleaner full kitchen see a pretty comfortable place I definitely approve and there's a map here of ADA Island on the wall and uh bedrooms down here so looks like it has two bedrooms very spacious like this is a steel if you're coming here with your family not bad it is definitely a cozy place to stay so thanks again to uan Outfitters amazing company uh definitely recommend their products here uh this place is outstanding huge huge house and again it's pretty reasonable you know you're just under $200 us per night so really really good deal after checking into my Lodge I decided to head out to get my bearings around the mostly abandoned townside of ADC but but before I take you there here's a brief word from uan Outfitters about the variety of services that they offer hi my name is Addison with uan Outfitters and welcome to adak eluan Outfitters is ad's Premiere Rental lodging and guide services in January we offer full service duck hunting in the summer months we offer Fishing Charters and boat Expeditions and during the fall and select times throughout the year we offer boat transports for Caribou Hunters whether you're a seasoned traveler or new to the uan islands we pride ourselves on being client focused service oriented hosts if you want to learn more and visit adak with us feel free to send us an email at info elution outfitters.com or check out our website at elution outfitters.com so this is the city services building so there's the post office the health clinic which is staffed by a nurse and it says the police station but uh there is no police presence here in ADC whatsoever uh it's kind of a lawless town in that way if anything goes wrong they actually fly a State Trooper in so really weird so you can see this sign is just completely destroyed I don't even know what it said before so much of this is just completely abandoned it's literally a ghost town on a level that you've never seen before this is absolutely bewildering actually abandoned in roughly 1996 all of this is just empty empty empty so these buildings have definitely seen a beating over the years some of them were just totally gutted absolute mess wow that one the floor cave right in they just need to tear this all down this is just sad it's like a war zone I think this is all just wind and rot and everything else after you know a good 25 years absolutely crazy and I know this is not you know the most beautiful thing to look at but I hope you can appreciate just the magnitude of this city and what a truly abandoned city here in the US looks like this is such a fascinating place to me wow this entire block everything you see here is uninhabited the only way that you can tell if a place is inhabited is do they have a car outside really but even here like this person's driveway the garage it is just full of stuff so me a toilet you can see this home has seen better days none of this is salvageable really all the bones of the house are completely gutted looks like this place was shelled honestly there's holes on the side of almost every house here the salt the water and the wind just work in unison to tear these places to shreds you can see this garage is just destroyed wow it's right over here too the entire roof of the garage blew right off just such a weird place after taking a a look around the residential neighborhoods of adak I met up with Jake andatti from uan Outfitters for a tour of the former Community Center which once housed a full bowling alley and pizza parlor today it's used by ution Outfitters as their shop and storage facility was a gym it was a gym wow the ball pool is still up oh wow cool you can see the visitor scoreboards yeah we still have the backboards for the hoops and wow all of it how long has it been since they used this I guess the '90s like it wasn't used after pulled out even by locals or anything oh W bought privately okay and kind of semi turned into a shop like this oh wow and this was a city building before like it was the rec center so it was just city offices in that regard um oh yeah I think it was all people who worked here like there was a restaurant here with the bowling alley and then they had like wck League stuff and and then there was a storefront here which is on right crazy yeah wow that's that's an old school Coke logo my goodness and take a picture of that that's cool it's like that's 80s for sure it's just bizarre they just you know walk away from all this it's so just millions and millions of dollars worth stuff and that was was like a restaurant here then yep dining area right here it's it's so apocalyptic here I've noticed that it's like what you'd expect very much you know Zombie Apocalypse movie what's that movie with Will Smith you know he's the only guy left uh I Am Legend I Am Legend reminds me of that so weird here everything's abandoned I it's it's crazy it's Eerie yeah 1994 wow um crazy even the local snack bar advertisement here hasn't been touched in what almost 30 years yeah crazy and the bowling leag operational yeah oh the bowling H is this way okay so we have been doing a lot in here and there with stuff everywhere yeah um this was the checkin for shoes oh for shoes and then this down here was like the cooking area oh yeah it was a pizza shop okay Pizza Brick Oven Pizza you can see the menu up there wow that's so cool and all the shoes are still here they were all still in the Cubbies they were in the Cubbies wow like literally just left and didn't take anything down steam clean them yeah I don't know that is so cool in a bag to deal with we don't want to throw them away auction all the some of the stuff off and make some cash and then this little area was full of like canned nacho cheese for oh really you found it oh that's crazy wow jalos are extremely spicy now that they wow you open one and tried it out yeah yeah wow and there's the menu I'm guessing it's pretty cheap yeah 15 Pizza 20 bucks pop two bucks that's actually not that cheap for not as cheap as you would think cheap as you think but for out here makes sense yeah pizza's $39 at the bar yeah I saw that yeah and when the military was here I mean they would eat like kings all the time they would have car it's just so cool yeah I mean cigarettes [Laughter] ands the bowling balls are right here wow we have all the sh it's it's just crazy that you know that much time goes by you guys pick up this place and it's like no one's ever touched it like nobody really goes through anything here right even like a scorecard here yeah we had who knows how long ago that was used but wow we kind of keep that just yeah that's so cool we found a whole box of time sheets for the employee there's some pins right there wow crazy like Lan cleaner yeah oh there's so much Lan clean wow you can tell they bought it in both absolutely crazy to see this yeah it's really well preserved phone booth that's in perfect condition really wow I've never been there but I heard that Chernobyl is a lot like this too it's like just Frozen in Time right the 80s minus the radiation minus the radiation yeah and the McDonald's I still have to check that out that's uh that's something else all right going through the McDonald's drive-thru that is so funny they've completely closed it eh yep all the windows and there's the old uh menu yep wow here is the drive-thru menu perfectly preserved since 1993 you can see the Jurassic Park combo extra value meal Dino size 69 60 cents and uh Things Are quite expensive for 1993 but cheap by today's standards Big Mac $2.45 cheeseburger $19 hamburger 999 so pretty inexpensive and so cool that this menu is still standing here it's such a just a snapshot into history 30 years old right here full breakfast menu they just didn't take anything down even this ad for Bobby's World Happy Meal 1993 crazy and McDonald's is perhaps the most boarded up out of any of the buildings here in adak yeah every single window is boarded you can't peek in there are photos online if you're interested you can actually see people who peaked in before they boarded everything up and it's actually quite interesting the old decor and everything else but uh here are the drive-through windows I do think this was probably a corporate decision because there's talk that you know adak might be resurrected eventually who knows if McDonald's would you know want to start start up if there was a military base again here but as for now you can see it's heavily boarded up and I won't be able to get a glimpse of history but uh fascinating the adak McDonald's the Western most McDonald's in North America during its time very cool I'm going to head over here though this is the old Health Center the old hospital and Addison was just telling me that it's quite interesting inside they have old gurns inside and everything so it's just so creepy here everything is just abandoned fascinating place though you can see even the pathway here is just covered in Moss look like I have some old peroxide containers some Levis just random stuff here I don't know what these are they're everywhere oh they're gauze packages crazy yeah plaster bandage crazy casting stuff weird place folks it's just so odd just a bunch of uh plaster cast material anyway I'm going to see if this door is open ah voila have to get my light out though not much in here it's look like a shop I'm not sure this is yeah just a garage nothing going on in here oh wow this is full of trash but uh I can't really see it very well wish I had a more powerful light but I don't there's like microfilm kind of I don't even know what those are uh suction instruments like so much medical supplies tubing this is just bizarre pill bottles just left here like it incredible and there's like yeah like pill bottle Lids scattering the floor here absolutely bizarre there's supplies just lined up here just as they were back in 1993 when this place closed evidently piles of garbage but uh like stethoscopes sigmoidoscope disposable speculums wow it's like full of medical supplies a lot of it is just you know destroyed but fascinating there's even old uh toner cartridges here Kodak mono component 90 toner and plenty of paper and uh I don't know what those are ah like crutches so much stuff here so this was the emergency room entrance that's why they have that massive garage there basically for the ambulances to enter and here's some chairs and uh not sure what that is some kind of a cart oh gurnie right there crazy wow just kind of dropped everything off and that's that left it all as it is looks like an IV IV rack and just tons of garbage again random cords and vials I'm not sure what all this is but yeah it's been a long time ECG leads basically wow everything it's so fascinating to go into a place like this cuz honestly it is really untouched like there's someone's binder right here Department of the Navy April 1970 old computer here and oh this is creepy oh wow tons of medical equipment here couch here I'm in the the oh my goodness it's a huge hospital it's hard to see but hope you get the sense of it so a guide to controlling your cholesterol I got to make sure I don't get lost in here it's such a big building really fascinating this room says it all I mean that is a fully stocked hospital room there's even an old Sharps container right here and it has sharps in it like that's something else all right I'm going to get out of here I'm my phone dies I am going to be in trouble and contrary to popular opinion this was never a Pizza Hut it just looks like one but it used to be the daycare Center here in adek island and now it is the 100 knot shop the local supply store has a clown in the doorway all right so the store is actually open looks like they're going to be closing for 2 weeks but uh looks like they are open right now so yeah they do have a little store here I'm going to go inside and see what they have all right so they actually have a pretty decent selection of food here um small but functional so good to see that they do have a grocery store I might actually get a few things a lot of pop and uh just Essentials they bring in here so good that they have some sort of grocery store here CU it would be you know pretty well impossible to get anything here so this used to be a daycare evidently you can see the ABCs and so forth right here so it's uh definitely smells of mold in here though these buildings are definitely quite derel at this point but uh they repurposed it into this store at least which is crucial for the life blood of the community and it's not like people are going to spend that much time in here but uh oh my goodness I don't even know what these things cost there's no prices but uh it can't be cheap let's put it that way we're in the middle of nowhere here middle of the Pacific so they definitely have uh you know enough staples to get you byy they got rice they have soup instant potatoes pasta sauce salad dressings and so forth um oh I don't know if I could live an ad though this is uh not much though to keep you going no Meats by the looks of it just some hot dogs and such so definitely slim pickings but uh it is to be expected when you're this remote so definitely a fascinating Place uh quite expensive of course I paid about $11.50 for a loaf of bread a can of Dr Pepper and a can of tomatoes so it's up there for sure like 15 bucks Canadian anyway I'm here at the ad Bar and Grill the tundra Tavern I believe it's called and this is the only restaurant here in ad so I'm going to head in and treat myself to a very very expensive meal the Entre here range from $3 to $45 I believe for your standard bar food so it's pretty expensive but uh I guess when in Rome all right pretty uh cozy little place got pool tables and uh yeah pretty decent so I haven't seen an old school jukebox for probably 20 years but uh I have an old one kicking here with uh Still rocking the CDs and it looks like it's um probably maybe early 2000s or so Coyote Ugly soundtrack Three Doors Down Audio Slave yeah so not of early 2000s but it looks of it all right it took a small Eternity for this to get here but uh my food has arrived this is what 28 USD gets you in adak Alaska got myself the Sitkin Burger which is jalapenos onions roasted red peppers mushrooms uh swiss cheese looks pretty good and onion rings on the side so wash it down with a d Coke 25 for the burger inside and three bucks for the pops that's an excellent Burger though oh my goodness uh the toppings are amazing so the Sitkin burger if you're in the area here try it out it's really good all right well I can safely say that was about what I expected it to be uh the only restaurant in town it's only open 3 days a week so a little bit disorganized and uh took an hour to prepare my burger and onion rings so you definitely need to be patient if you are uh going to check out the tundra Tavern but it looks like they have a little liquor store here too just in a c can anyway I'm heading back to my Lodge for the night uh it's getting dark now pushing 8:00 uh I stayed out later than I would have liked to but such as the nature of eating in a small town like this the next morning I headed a few miles outside of adak to explore the seven doors of Doom during the height of the Cold War seven nuclear warheads were stored in seven separate bunkers in this top secret complex which was entirely off limits to those without clearance with the military authorized to use deadly force against any Intruders today it lies completely in Rune with some of the bunkers now being leased as storage units all right and here it is folks one of the most secure buildings in the United States during its time I can't remember the exact name of this building but it's locally referred to as the seven doors of Doom you can see two major watchtowers here and the Group of Seven bunkers that store nuclear warheads right here in the center a lot of downed power lines again it's quite an apocalyptic place and uh this is probably the only time in my life I'm going to be able to enter a you know top secret guarded facility like this without getting shot so here goes nothing so pretty crazy to see you know this double barbed wire fence uh they definitely did not want anybody getting in here so high security it's so cool to be inside a place like this you know you don't need clearance anymore it's all abandoned so just really cool and uh seems to be another group of people over there checking it out so I'm not alone here right now but uh plenty of bunkers here seven in total each of them I don't know exactly how many Warheads they would uh carry inside of them but you can see it is hosed kind of in this concrete bunker camouflaged with Earth right on top of it so you would not be able to see this very clearly from the air and you can see how rusted out these doors are and uh looks like each of them had its own unique number and inside not as big as I thought they'd be but boy is there ever an echo in here my goodness explosive limit 4,000 lb crazy wow so nuclear warheads were once inside here that's just unbelievable to think about very cool all right so I just met a couple of environmental scientists I guess that were telling me that these are actually rented out of storage units believe it or not so the Alwood corporation that owns all of this land and all the buildings here in ad they'll actually rent out these storage units which is just crazy but uh I guess make money where you can right but here's another one of them and this one's completely empty it's got a tire in here and some barrels but uh otherwise not much going on in here but pretty crazy so there's just random trash strewn throughout these old bunkers you can see just rotted out R you can see just rusted out barrels massive door ripped right off its hinges so this is the door that belongs right there evidently so this bunker definitely did not stand the test of time I mean that door is torn right off its hinges plenty of garbage in here basically so again they don't really mind any of this nothing is you know really taken care of here it's kind of seen as just abandoned and worthless so unfortunately what else are you going to do with it at this point so kind of sad but that's the way it is anyway I'm going to go over here to the Watchtower to see if I can peek inside the old guardhouse so this must have been the entry exit area has one of these turn Styles here probably does not spin anymore maybe it does yeah that is seized but uh once upon a time that was a Turn Style that actually functioned and turned needs a bit of uh oil but yeah it's not moving crazy and this would have been a call box back in the day I know what that is a massive battery of some sort right here just random items anyway I'm going to go climb the steps here and check out the guard housee I'm assuming it's going to be in pretty poor condition though this uh staircase seems to be fine solid steel and concrete really heavy door my goodness oh wow looks like they did have a little toilet here I guess for the soldier that was placed in there urinal but uh yeah plenty of little uh I think I don't know what they're called gun placements basically pretty amazingly strong bulletproof glass that's definitely withstood the test of time as you can see there's actually very little broken glass it's mostly tile I guess it was a tile floor L by the looks of it which has just gone to trash but uh yeah all the windows with the exception of a couple at least one of the panes is broken there this pane is a bit broken but yeah by and large this building has really withstood the test of time and there's your gun placements right there to shoot anybody who might be approaching right so they have chosen pretty strategic locations for these really cool and this is the ground floor so electric box you got to watch your step in here fuses everywhere everything is just torn to garbage my goodness smells like mold it's amazing how wrecked these buildings can get wow like nothing is spared it's crazy that all of this is just you know the elements taking its toll on the building so it looks like some abandoned oil barrels uh some heavy equipment there's a medic station there a first aid station not sure what this building was used for but little generator there random tools basically some sort of shop but yeah you can see just how abandoned it is looks like there's some light out that side I'm going to pop over here and check it out stinks in here though really strong mold smell here oh massive room here I'm not sure what that was used for but it's got some safes basically or I'm not sure what that is can't really make it out but wow so many empty chambers here crazy so definitely some rot on the more wooden buildings here I've read online that many of the people that have visited these military buildings in adak actually find you know ash trays still with cigarettes inside you know dirty bowls and everything else uh one of the local here yesterday was telling me that uh they often do go inside these buildings and kind of scavenge for things that have been left behind that they could use in their own homes but uh pretty crazy that you know this is a city that is full of old abandoned buildings and those abandoned buildings do contain a lot of things of value still and right over here this is one of the Fallout uh bunkers I believe and I believe you can actually go down inside from what I read online so pretty interesting so as you can see very solid concrete structure this would have been the perfect place for soldiers to escape to uh in the event of any enemy air fire and so forth so pretty cool to go inside and get a glimpse of what those soldiers uh would have been up against and what their living quarters would have been like had there been any massive attack from an enemy all right so this is the entrance evidently and completely huge concrete barrier probably to shelter the door from any attacks a lot of shelving so I'm not sure of the relevance of this looks like a white board which is empty I can't make out anything on it you can see some images here on the wall so um Seer Fidelis bald eagle and uh weightlifter right here not sure the relevance there but pretty cool to get inside here and see what it would have been like back in the you know the 80s USMC United States Marine Corps right there and uh a charge a call telephone booth from back in the day some of the rooms are pretty dark but uh I can make out at least ACC some lockers different bunks wow so they would have lived underground and I guess this would have been covered by a hatch of course in the event of War but uh oh wow and that's the roof right here I don't really want to go venturing too much onto the roof itself cuz uh I don't know I think it's concrete but I don't know how strong it is at this point so pretty crazy going to walk over to the Watchtower though over here it should be okay actually looks like it's pretty sturdy this one's a lot smaller but uh also has some holes for shooting and a heater but it looks of it old heater pretty fascinating place my goodness just so cool it's like a Living Museum just try to be respectful if you do any herxing don't wreck anything leave it as you found it at least this light is basically Hanging On by a thread uh so do watch yourself if if you're coming here you can see the tiling up here is um ready to fall down too so be careful looks like they had plenty of talented artists here at the base because I'm seeing these everywhere so I'm not sure who made that but I can't make it out Jervis maybe but uh yeah hardcore Soldier I'm not sure what this is the Cog Hut be careful going in here but uh oh it looks like uh mostly electrical paneling there's some safes wow so much history here it's actually crazy anyway I'm heading out it's uh pretty dangerous in here but fascinating really fascinating very cool [Music] place [Music] well welcome to bearing Hill this is the hill that overlooks adak you can see the main Town site down there in the distance where I'm staying and uh here you'll find plenty of buildings that were used by the military including former Baskin Robins I believe there's a movie theater here and the historic bearing Hill Chapel which was adx Premier Church basically back in the day so I guess this is the newer bearing Hill Chapel right here oh wow so was actually a massive Church crazy there's a lot of signs here saying do not enter so this one they take very seriously their surveillance here it says this facility the bearing Hill Chapel is the designated tsunami evacuation shelter for the community of adak due to continued trespassing breaking and entering ransacking of emergency supplies graciously collected and supplied by others and the subst potential damage by individuals the facility is permanently closed until funds can be secured if ever to repair the damages thank you to those who have disrespected and damaged the facility to make it unusable when the next emergency occurs we're sure you will not be on the island when the next event occurs so you can see they're they're a little bit pissed off of course and rightly so by and large most people have had no choice but to respect that as everything is pretty substantially gated up now so there's no way in but uh wow it does suck that the you know Island tsunami shelter would be disrespected and ransacked of all its emergency supplies So Pretty Petty in any case heading down to the old part of bearing Hill right down here to check out the historic Chapel which is one of the highlights here in adak it's a incredible old [Music] building [Music] so this building is hauntingly beautiful this is the old bearing Hill Chapel I would estimate that this building was built around the 40s or the 50s kind of at the onset of the naval Airbase here here in ad you can see the entire side of the building starting to buckle under the weight of the roof and everything is just collapsed like this building you would not want to enter under any circumstances this thing could fall at any minute you can see all of the supports on this side of the building they're pretty well gone ironically though the windows seem to be doing pretty well there's so many windows just hanging in place so whoever built the windows did a really good job but as you can see the elements have just torn this building apart so really nothing has been spared here even the information panel here for the bearing Hill Chapel is completely rusted out faded over time all right I'm taking a walk along the I guess this would be the north side of it so despite the rot and just you know being ready to fall right over it is a pretty beautiful building this reminds me of that church I saw in Baker Lake last year wow like it is completely broken I cannot believe this thing is standing but I tell you those windows whoever put those in deserves a raise cuz those are barely rotted in the slightest so from this vantage point you can definitely see the danger here my goodness this this roof is going to collapse you know within I don't know how long but my look at those trusses right there they're just bent like this thing probably has less than two years maximum if that we'll see how the winds treat this building but crazy well this is as close as I am willing to get you can see those trusses are like absolutely broken ready to fall the whole uh side of the building here is just hanging on by a thread but uh you can see inside uh some of the old pews there pretty incredible like no one's been in here for a long time but uh yeah that's enough to get me running out of here pretty quickly so going to head back over I didn't go inside don't worry wor got to watch your step too there's lots of nails here and so forth so you can easily stab your foot you got to watch where your steping a be really careful if you come so it's simultaneously creepy and fascinating here the whole place reminds me of the some kind of a dystopian movie Set completely abandoned Town abandoned church everything is just so ridiculously creepy and unsettling but uh it's fast fascinating that this is just real life you know the military decides they don't need this place anymore after 1997 and it all you know gets left behind and for laoren so you know nothing profound about it I wouldn't say but oh my goodness The Vibes here are screaming apocalypse so at some point in adx history they did have interpretive signs here so there were signs I'm assuming explaining the relevance of these historic buildings I'm not sure I'm just guessing based on context but not a soul around or very few Souls around to really do anything to maintain these buildings I mean the cost of maintaining them would outweigh the benefits so they are largely just left alone to rot and Decay there's not really any place to safely destroy them or dismantle them and honestly given the state of the world you got to wonder will it be necessary to revitalize or to start up the Naval Air Base here in adak once again I guess that remains to seen but at least they have a a little bit of infrastructure here if that does happen they can work with some of these buildings and maybe restore them I don't know though there's very rotted out so they might have to start fresh so completely gorgeous views of the mountains it's like a fortress of rock it's just incredible the coastline of adak is very much like Hawaii or um other islands in Hawaii even very beautiful place in addition to its beautiful Chapel aing Hill hosts some of the most fascinating abandoned buildings on adak including the former officer Recreation Center which I was eager to explore huge uh iron door right here and you can see where the Old Baron gym sign would have oh yeah so crazy oh it smells like mold eh wow crazy huge some of the uh sling oh yeah wow there's like Singler they're like in ketchican though yep so they must have had someone from here with that yeah I think they just blew out some artists wow very cool though and there yeah wow and there's Geck a gecko over there kind of Good Vibes of native art basically but it's not necessarily accurate okay she's the only one like this yeah wow which is interesting so much peeling paint though like this can't be healthy no tell spend a lot of time no I mean you wouldn't want to yeah this is the bearing theater right here oh wow and they did Hollywood movies right here did wow that is so cool that is insane like this is actually almost in perfect condition you can hear the sound of wow and there's not a lot of rod in this room it looks like this room look at I mean there's a spot in the ceiling there but most really great condition not a ton of damage wow what's this here all these insect on the wall yeah kids area looks like some sort I don't know Birds just random yeah it looks like a daycare to me I don't really know wow no idea it's like that's another part of this is that's frustrating is like you don't know what anything is cuz nothing's labeled and nothing there's no reports on it it's frustrating it's not document military doc yeah yeah I mean I'm sure someone who is stationed here would know exactly what this is right and they can tell you all stories about it but there are a couple Facebook groups of people who used to live here they so fascinating we could go take pictures of old buildings and stuff like yeah I don't think you guys want to see what kind of state they no I'm sure yeah would be so depressing yeah this was such a this was people's home back in the day so just falling by the wayside it's crazy so this is actually a huge space too wow there was a Studio here wow yeah is there any equipment here or what's oh there's something there um apparently it was really good to take the equipment yeah I'm sure niff some resistance equipment yeah yeah just a few left wow I don't have any idea how you would move it out of I don't know wow that is crazy but yeah there's a few pieces left here yeah and this is the Olympic size swimming pool right here that is incredible way bigger than I thought it would be L div wow Lane dividers wow like literally just Frozen in Time wow just tossed a bunch of furniture down there while they're at it who knows why or who no I know it's just weird maybe just for fun throw it all in if you find a piece wow that is spooky so that's the entrance to the locker room right here well see this is actually in pretty good condition yeah no one really goes in here oh wow the showers are in good condition more or less wow this is actually probably the best room I've seen on the island in terms of not being broken apart and then people have trashed this room quite a bit smashed yeah smash the toilets people are weird creatures he my goodness lockers wow so cool and they were just saying that uh the pool was actually used up until like the early 2000s so even after they pulled out of here in '97 this place still you know was kicking for a while at least until it turned into this so this is the old Baskin Robins I was looking for yesterday so much glass on the floor you got to be really careful but uh all the little refrigerators here for the or the freezers I should say for the ice cream but this was a thriving ice cream shop right here by the movie theater and everything back in the day got some Looney Tunes characters wow all right it's a little restaurant here you got more booths lot of restaurant seating actually this was a big place and uh here's the kitchen so some menu here Pizza Pasta beverages very cool just Frozen in time so there's like takeout containers like all over the floor here so when they when they say they haven't cleaned it up here they really mean it it's pretty much in the same state that it was and little takeout window right here as well and a random otter here on the wall what the story of that is just local art I guess was big here destroyed door like that's something else and just random Furniture tons of books in print basically Master reference to titles authors and Publishers 9394 a lot of these kind of compendiums all over the floor here whole display case just destroyed wow old computer tons of destroyed furniture on bathroom bathroom seen better days as well bird feather pretty crazy some old articles basically from looks like 1990 for this one just random stuff scattered everywhere here on the floor so you never know what you're going to come across in these old buildings all right I am on the road now heading south to finger Bay and from there I'll do the hike out to Lake Betty but I am officially breaking new ground now as I head south about 3 or 4 miles ahead of me [Music] Wow all I can say is wow absolutely outstanding Beauty here this is finger Bay and you can see why it's termed finger Bay it is the shape of a finger it's a very long narrow stretch of water an inlet from the Pacific Ocean it's such an amazing experience to rent a vehicle here with eluan Outfitters and just take out to the back roads and enjoy everything that ad island has to offer it's not just abandoned buildings here it is plenty of unspoiled Alaskan Wilderness right here in the center of the Pacific Ocean halfway more than halfway to Japan crazy and that is the open oce way out there so beautiful Bay stunning location I'm glad they built these roads so you can truly access everything that adak has to offer and there are no bears here whatsoever so unlike the rest of Alaska you don't need to worry about carrying bear spray or anything else no Predators whatsoever here on adak island the hike brings you through this narrow Valley basically these rounded mountains Hills alongside you and uh I emerged over here at this rushing Creek small little Rapids and I'm right near what Google map says to be the lake Betty trail head as you can see it looks like the trail got completely washed out here so I'm not sure what happened but uh some erosion or whatnot looks like people are going down this way but honestly it's getting dark at this point and uh I thought it would be a little bit more level and a little bit more well marked so I just don't have the time on my side but just beyond that little Valley there is the lake nice Alpine Lake but uh unfortunately I think I'm going to skip it on this round here in ack beautiful Valley for hiking anyway even if I don't get to see the lake but yeah definitely not up for you know forting rivers and you know trying to figure out where the trail is when it gets dark in about 30 to 45 minutes so it's definitely getting a bit darker I'm glad I didn't continue over to Lake Betty uh it would have been horrible to get stuck out there past dusk if I lost the trail and had to figure out how to get back so my phone is also at like 15% so it wouldn't last that long but uh gorgeous hike adak is this weird mix of History this bizarre apocalyptic you know abandoned Ghost Town mixed with outstanding natural beauty this is one of the Premier Caribou hunting spots in the US there's a lot of tarmigan hunting so plenty of outdoor activities if that's uh what you're looking for and just gorgeous Mountain Landscapes so it's like one of these places where I don't even know what I'm looking at but I just pulled over here and another bunker type structure made out of concrete I have no idea what these would have housed but uh just really weird to find these scattered on the Hills they're covered with sod so they're completely camouflaged from above but uh must have been something important if you know what this is let me know in the comments below so this is adx only gas station I've decided to stop here to do a kind of halfway through my trip fill just to gauge how much fuel I'm using but this has got to be the highest price I've ever paid for gas in the United States and probably the highest ever maybe yeah the highest ever I would say $673 USD per gallon which works out to .77 us per liter or about $240 Canadian per liter so very very expensive for gas but still worth it I get to explore some of the off the beaten path areas here on adak island and these are the impressive water tanks that uh provide all of adak with its water they're gravity fed and uh basically all the water reaches down there to the city below amazing anyway I'm going to get down the next morning I headed north of the townsite along adx rugged Coastline to explore some of the best sites on the island with 16 M of navigable Road exploring the island is easy but you'll need a four-wheel drive vehicle to do so so contact ution Outfitters if you're looking to rent one you'll also need to ensure that you've paid for your land use permit which cost $20 per day or $40 per week as of 2023 and as you can see I'm enjoying some beautiful views here of the volcano so that is the Mount Moffet volcano I believe it's called right there forgot to bring my map though so this could get interesting but uh gorgeous day here in adak oh look at that Caribou skull I've traveled probably about four miles not even that three probably and I've arrived here at the adak national forest so they definitely have a good sense of humor here these are pretty well the only trees on the island so someone put together a national forest as you can see here I am both entering and leaving it quirky I've see on Google Maps there's also a pet cemetery nearby somewhere so kind of sad but uh adak National Forest right here as you can see the ADC National Forest is actually pretty well alive in kicking so that's great uh these trees look like they're you know getting enough water getting enough sun and so forth so that's good and amazing views here of the surrounding mountains honestly looking at my location on Google Maps is enough to just blow my mind it is so remote here this is one of the most remote Islands on Earth we're talking about a place that is really smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean a three-hour flight by jet anywhere including Anchorage Alaska so definitely remote and honestly so beautiful given the fact that I'm really in the middle of the Pacific Ocean right now closer to Japan than Seattle Washington and Vancouver British Columbia I would recommend anybody who has the means come out here to adak really interesting abandoned milit Terry Town quirky roadside attractions and so much natural beauty this place looks like Hawaii it's just not tropical so amazing all right this is the pet cemetery right here pretty sad but uh yeah plenty of dogs buried here mostly the crosses but some of them actually have some gravestones our little friend Charlie missed very much kind of a nice [Music] idea beautiful views of the volcano over this way I guess that's Butch US Marine Corps 1977 to 1989 12-year-old puppy britz Maynard 1988 to 1991 a pretty good dog so this chicken died evidently and uh someone made a great gravestone forehead and the plate was actually falling falling down here so I put it back in place at least it's not going to last long but whatever family misses their chicken I'm sure they want that back up there so here lie four beloved chicks oh four chickens rest in peace the four chickens of adak Alaska after paying my respects to the Island's furry friends I Hit the Dirt Road once again and headed north along the clam lagoon one of the best areas of the island to spot sea otters bald eagles and other Wildlife all right I'm at the sea otter viewing spot finally spotted a couple of otter here so they are so cute just bobbing their little heads up going for a swim wow cute little creatures continuing My Way North I followed the increasingly rugged dirt road to the lake Andrew Recreation Area the former Lakeside playground of naval officers and their families during the Cold War all right stopped briefly here at the old Lake Andrew recreation building so I guess this is where servicemen came to spend some time out of the lake by the looks of it they have a playground here little dock and it's a pretty beautiful Lake and know much inside just pretty much empty Halls the restrooms are that way okay really nice spot though I mean it does look tropical really it's beautiful yeah crazy with my time on adak island quickly winding down it was time to check out the abandoned Naval security group activity base or nsga officially closed in 1996 the former base was used to covertly decrypt Russian radio communications and monitor submarine traffic across the Pacific at its height everyone SES here was basically intercepting Russian radio W oh so this is that place where they were like doing the submarine yeah listening they were trying to decode Uh Russian cyphers pretty oh wow and so this was kept separate from the rest of the Bas yeah and like if they would go into McDonald wer all wow that's crazy yeah wow another phone booth W this one someone took a sledgehammer too just a random [Laughter] coach that is just weird so like a male Center of some sort I wonder if any of these have anything in them wow ear production I see that a lot so they must have been like the power generation was that Intense or yeah yeah yeah I actually think we want to go back this way oh just a bunch of equipment know what that would do just electricity generation looks like it wow all right we're going to go in here it's old style basketball court wow yeah so wooden floor that's a pretty huge gemm really ugly chair as you can tell this is the 70s or so when they this was built 60s that disgusting yellow and brown I don't know what they were thinking back then but wow very cool good size space too this place is definitely trash though like that's yeah an incredible amount of damage here all these windows you can see here are completely shattered the winds are very strong over here evidently so tons and tons of damage here ironically though this paint of glass actually lasted pretty well hey it just got blown down somehow some somehow yeah there such a huge number of these broken windows and uh they continue to crack I can hear the wind when the wind blows some of the little pieces fall even further so it's just a gradual State of Decay of course just so Random to see you know an office chair here somehow it made its way out of the building over time and uh just kind of abandoned here there's nobody here and I don't think anybody's been here for a long time by the looks of it so really fascinating place and there's a door there that just keeps slamming shut absolutely crazy just nature taking over so cool wow and the door has blown right off that's how powerful the wind is here just straight off I have to set my parking brake every time I park here because the wind is just brutal old water fountain wow it's warmer over here but uh as you can see it's it has just seen better days hasn't it all of the windows are just completely destroyed all of them just the wind here is so intense that uh when no one's taking care of this it just falls into disrepair so just tons of broken [Music] glass pretty spooky though oh wow danger 2500 volts and it looks like a massive circuit breaker almost like a household power box it's crazy what the elements can do to a building like abs absolutely incredible there's like a desk up there all this furniture just left here pretty much in the state that it was and then this happens when you leave it for 25 years with nobody to take care of it it's just crazy there's like bird nests in here wow I'm honestly not sure what all this is a lot of electrical equipment though so I'm guessing this was some sort of power station and uh wow you got to be careful here after checking out the base we headed towards the boundary of parcel 4 an area of the island that is off limits due to the wide presence of unexploded ordinance and toxic chemicals that remain within its boundaries all right so this is the boundary of the infamous parcel 4 so this is all a area that's a designated Military Reservation because there are so many live Munitions Beyond this gate and as you can see beautiful beautiful mountains there that is Mount Moffet the I guess a dormant volcano at this point but it was once an active volcano and that's all parcel 4 full of live Munitions pretty crazy it's completely off limits so don't go beyond uh this sign but pretty crazy to be here all right Jake is going to try to get some uh Tagan here such beautiful backround there you can see mount mofet oh all right so success what do we got two Rock Tagan wow and those are those are pretty uh common here right yes yeah yes they are wow good shot two for one right there that's one of the best views here on adak Palisades Overlook spectacular Island my goodness it's so untouched and very touched by the US Navy but uh under visis so so glad to share this with the world definitely make room for adak on your bucket list it's uh it's quite bizarre but [Music] [Music] beautiful [Music] so thank you so much to illution Outfitters for sponsoring this amazing amazing 4 days on adak island I have had the time of my life such a cool place and honestly the accommodations are just so inviting and it does feel like a home so I've really enjoyed my time here so thank you again uan Outfitters check them out online at U outfitters.com but thank you once again to illution Outfitters for sponsoring this stay in adak I've had the time of my life but it's time to head to the airport so in more fascinating facts about adak these are the only garbage cans in the city so these are the only dumpsters they're City dumpsters you have to bring your garbage here so I have all my garbage from the Lodge so that's the community dumpster all right so I've arrived here at uh adx I guess def facto airport this is not the original airport this was the naval auxiliary air facility and it's used by Alaska Airlines today the only carrier that Services ADC so January 1943 this building was built and you can tell it's uh quite quite dated but uh still functional so going to board the flight here in about 5 minutes so this is an incred L useful old map of adak it has all the uh different buildings listed on it from back in the day so really useful especially for bearing Hill to make sense of those buildings they're all labeled here so the bearing wreck building we explored yesterday and uh husky Lodge Chapel good to know what they're actually called we will beting the boarding process shortly know when we're ready thank you for playing with us all right I'm boarding the plane to Anchorage and it is definitely raining and I don't think I've ever seen a Boeing 737800 this empty there's probably like maybe 10 people on board really really empty [Music] airplane [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Drifter Dave - Travel the Unknown

Views: 287,907

Keywords: Adak, adak alaska naval station, adak alaska abandoned, Aleutian outfitters, Alaska abandoned urbex, Adak Naval Air Base, adak island military base, adak alaska navy base, adak island mcdonalds, adak caribou hunting, Naval Air Station Adak, Adak old buildings, Alaska abandoned buildings, Adak island, Adak abandoned buildings, Adak urbex, abandoned places alaska, adak alaska, Adak Alaska Cold War, aleutian islands, drifter dave, NSGA, abandoned military buildings, urban decay

Id: ONXvpPaTLXw

Length: 68min 23sec (4103 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 19 2024