Desolation & Decay: Abandoned Industry Towns (Full Episode)

[Music] maybe we should try to find somebody he came right he's home [Music] doors locked this is the kind of place that if you show up there and you've never been there before everybody knows you're there they know I'm here they're watching me [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] thank you okay [Music] I'm on the central British Columbia Coast and helzic territory when people think of British Columbia this is what they think of with the sea in the mountains and nature it feels more grounded here it's more real it's like you don't think about your bank account you don't think about the latest Trend in coffee people have been coming here for over 100 years to basically exploit the natural resources here primarily for lumber fishing and Mining all of those Industries have to be built and implanted into the land and unfortunately when those Industries leave they don't take their garbage with them maybe I'm being a little opinionated about it but hikers have a rule that's if you pack it in you pack it out I have no idea why that wasn't a rule for these large industrial companies but I guess when it comes to Big Business rules don't always apply after European settlers had worked their way west across Canada eventually they made their way up to this remote stretch of coastline and what they found was breathtaking a vast wealth of unspoiled untapped resources once they pushed the indigenous people aside those Taps were opened it took a lot of work to get the infrastructure built on these rugged lands but for those profiting from these industries it was well worth the effort until it wasn't once those booms went bust the corporations shut down leaving their mess behind I'm on my way now to one of those abandoned industrial sites the namu fish Cannery Personnel moon now just just getting a peek at it [Music] this Cannery was built in the 1890s and by the 1950s under the control of the BC Packers company it became one of the largest canneries in the country thousands of people came to work and live here every summer but the site was closed in the 70s and has been crumbling ever since I hitched a ride here with Harvey Hampshire a hereditary chief of the helsink nation along with his daughter Megan and her friend charity Harvey has a long history with nammoon as far back as I can remember my parents used to come to namu to work there my mother worked at The Cannery and my dad fished for the for the company we packed all our belongings and moved down to namu for the summer it was like uh going camping on a shutdown a lot of people were left without work so those are hard times those are difficult times yeah I wanted to Dock and check out the Cannery but before we could we were greeted by a special welcoming party yes the whale is bubble feeding makes a ring of bubbles and then comes up inside of it eats all the hair wow it's fitting that we saw these guys here at namu if the name rings a bell it's because one of the first ever Oracle Wheels displayed in captivity was named namu after it was caught here in 1965. [Music] these are sacred lands for the helsink nation recent archaeological digs have discovered evidence of some of the earliest human activity on the BC Coast dating back over ten thousand years how does it feel for you to come back here now and see what it's like I get mixed feelings a lot of different things could have been done with it but when the companies were finished they sold the place and kind of just left things to fall to fall to the ground Harvey has led a campaign for the helsink to buy namu back but the cleanup process alone would cost more than the land itself so namu keeps wasting away helsick and a lot of indigenous people you know you're connected to places and so this is a place that you know people have continuously occupied for thousands of years you know and to have it just abandoned and forgotten not by helsick but by outside people is a real slap in the face to have this as a part of your economy and then completely gone and then we still see the remnants of it today this is something that belongs to us and it just doesn't look like it thanks Harvey see you in a bit we're gonna stay on the concrete okay so I don't think the wharf is going to be safe [Music] I think this was a store yeah gas cans chairs so yeah they just left everything the way it was huh yep pretty much I hope this place doesn't have asbestos it probably does kill your television [Music] ah those rollerblades work probably put them on put one foot in front of the other wait they're two left feet you can do it you can still do it they're two right feet okay wish me luck oh God yeah graceful So Graceful we're waiting for the fall [Laughter] that's amazing it's really fun I can see why what these used to be so popular this store is still full of products this is total post-apocalyptic moment yeah come in here and get Survival means there's books VHS oh it looks like there's actually some homemade movies I think it's the good kind they're full full of motor oil I'm just like left here this thing you know collapses and falls into the ocean all of this goes in the ocean perfect example look at this here's an open bucket of oil just sitting here you know this is an environmental concern and people need to know this and and people need to pay attention and do something about it it'll be the health sick people that are affected by it when's the last time you guys were here it's been quite a few years yeah yeah it was a lot nicer than it is right now what do you think the future is for namu well if we're trying to ask for help from the government it's going to stay the same and you don't have faith that the government's gonna step up and help out no it's been a long time and it would have been something would have been done already if the government was going to help right do you know if there are environmental problems from the structure falling into the ocean that are affecting the wildlife here given that the salmon is our way of life it's one of our natural resources that we're very dependent on so when you have something like asbestos going into our water and you know salmon potentially ingesting it and then we ingest the salmon you have to protect your natural capital in order for all other Capital to thrive the environment gets sick we get sick for the first time in over 10 000 years nobody lives in namu [Music] and it only took a fraction of that time to make it like this hopefully this spot gets cleaned up soon and the helsick can reclaim their cherished land I did a repatriation project here I brought back over 140 ancestral remains and buried them behind the mess hall there reburied them the oldest ancestor was from 5 000 years ago the newest was from 2500 years ago since the Cannery was built it has changed this whole site we're right in the middle of the Great Bear rain forest I got the most contaminated site in BC just to let it go and leave it like this I mean look at it oh my [Music] I'm back on a boat and on my way to another relic of Industry built on traditional helic land and out of the way former company town called ocean Falls [Music] at its peak almost 4 000 people lived and worked here at one of the largest Pulp and Paper Mills in North America there was a school a hospital a hotel the mill closed in 1980 and now there's only about 20 people left here we are ocean Falls home of the rain people I buy it these houses are kind of amazing he came with his home it's raining in here too still raining I haven't found any locals yet I feel like they know I'm here I know I'm here looks like that house blew up you know drop a log this is a splasher there's a local hey can we talk to you about living in Ocean Falls huh can I talk to you nobody wants to talk to me what's what's it like to live here how long have you lived in Ocean Falls now [Music] this is the dam this is the dam you were talking about standing beneath the crumbling Dam in a crumbling town and I'm talking to a dog I think I need to change my technique do you have a person human huh can you take me there Tino shush is that your dog it's my wife's Gus Jax Jacks yeah Jax is the only local I've been able to talk to yeah yeah so how long have you been here five years now what brought you here owning a lodge just being on the internet kind of looking for something just that right spot according to my wife this isn't the right spot but it is for me the town and what it used to be that really intrigued me I kind of wish I could have seen it back in the day sure just because you know up behind us it was five extra streets oh wow it was all boardwalks so there's like 22 people here I think so yeah I think we're around 20 22. since I've been here we've had I think two sets of investors come in and look at all this stuff oh yeah but then the problem with the people that live here the majority of them they're retired they don't want to see the place get crazy and start moving again because it's just going to get busy right yeah and they love the quiet and they're here to escape it that's right yeah you know the city life and the people and yeah now that we've found you our first local is there anybody else we can talk to that you can think of Norm he was the last guy to be locked in the courthouse cells because the police caught him up by the killer well one of the locals uh ratted on them and uh they came in and cut down his grow up I think he had about 75 plants going or something like that right but yeah Norm's definitely he's awesome how you doing pretty good I'm Rick you're Rook the interviewer I'm Rick the interviewer okay who are you you're gonna be normal Norm okay that's what people call me how come well that's what they call me so how long have you lived here I came in 87 the town was actually closed but the mill was still there and everything yeah do you think you can give us a tour of the Town yeah there's not much to see perfect where did you grow up in Toronto then you moved out west yeah I sort of gotten some trouble back East ah small things like drinking and driving but in this town you could drive all you want it was going to stop you right our first stop is the historical Martin Inn with over 300 rooms it was once one of the largest hotels on the West Coast it wasn't like this when I came here this was locked up and it was just like brand new oh really they had the salt pepper and shakers on the tables napkins looks like it was a nice hotel it was when did the ceiling collapse ten years ago maybe yeah this could probably go to four days 86 was the last year the people were in it okay then we just came and unlocked and stole everything you know oh why not we took out uh 300 refrigerators to Bella Bella oh really I think we got 20 bucks a piece on that note Norm had to cut our tour a bit short we happened to catch him on the one day a month he takes a ferry out of town to cash his government check and party for the night thanks for everything Norm I know you're going to enjoy your party night yep I'll be hired anyways hi on what what oh really you guys any you guys smoke I think somebody might be might Smoke on the crew oh maybe no maybe tomorrow it's okay marijuana you can have it is that all right yeah I got a whole bunch of them safe to say Norman likes the party I think he lives for it it's cool to see somebody living here and being totally content he's like it's great it's nice everybody's happy you just drink and smoke weed before he left Norm asked me to check out the ocean Falls Museum a collection of artifacts he's personally scavenged for the last 30 years he told me to find herb a local Harbor Master who let Norm set up his Museum in one of his buildings come on in all right he knows that I don't go up there very often okay I'm not interested in the past I've already lived that and oh wow [Music] so this is Norm's museum with all the things he's collected from the abandoned buildings here you gotta hand it to him because there's a lot of these things that shouldn't disappear right wow Norm was on the cover of High Times in 1996 and the caption is better sex with Norm makes sense ocean Falls swimming pool where is it about halfway up to the the dam on the right hand side with but they destroyed everything they wanted to do away with everything here you know just shut the whole town down yeah I even had some government boys tell me he said what are you doing here herb we're going to we're going to do away with this town I said no I don't think so so do you think you saved ocean Falls well I sure saved that end of it and I saved this building and I uh I built a few things around here to make it work and Herb was determined to make it work he wanted to show me the harbor he rebuilt to attract tourists and help keep ocean Falls alive shotgun foreign how many roads do you have here just this one that's the one yeah that Outhouse right there is the first thing that I built here oh is it yeah that's a good idea because I was told until I got here there was no need for any toilets so this was basically in disrepair when you got here it was a lot of stuff that was falling apart yeah I had put this section in new I have the water supply checked constantly I promised the government I wouldn't kill a tourist you haven't killed anyone no okay it seems like herb single-handedly turned this place around I think if there's no herb there'd be no ocean Falls it would just be probably people growing weed no herb all herb this place might look like a decaying mess to some but to others like herb and Norm who are still hanging on ocean Falls is an oasis a community that offers them the freedom to live exactly the way they want in their own little piece of paradise after taking a boat to see namu and ocean Falls I'm now in the sky heading even deeper into the remote north near the Alaskan border to check out another mess that industry left behind the indigenous people called this place antiox which means hidden water [Music] that antiochs welcome to the Moon or Pluto welcome to Uranus [Music] time has been pretty rough on antiox but back in the 1920s it was home to one of the largest producing copper mines in the British Empire its population peaked at 3 000 before the price of copper bottomed out during the Great Depression and the mine shut down in 1935. now the population sits at just two Frank and Wanda Lewis are one of a few couples that take turns living and working here salvaging the black sand that is a byproduct of copper smelting so this was a town of three thousand about that yeah and now it's a population of two that's great would you prefer two people or three thousand two how did you guys meet she was a bartender I was a Patron that's not what we'll call you I worked there yeah what am I looking at Frank it's a slang that comes out of the smelter when they're smelting it it's used for like grinding wheels and asphalt shingles and so it's just been piling up here yeah I've been digging out of this pile now for 25 years really yeah and your job is to put it on conveyor belts and put it on the conveyor belt from load barges yeah yeah and then one day it'll all be gone yeah it's kind of beautiful yeah even for just a bunch of black sand it's like it's still really interesting so yeah so I've been digging a hole down in that bank down there so I can see the ocean when I'm working oh right here it's like a theme park just going on a ride checking out abandoning copper mine bill that's the power plant that's the power plant do you want to go down in there yeah sure this is amazing place [Music] giant crane in the ceiling it was probably built 100 years ago it still works like my scrawny little arms could like move this thing works better than my garage door this place is almost salvageable I don't know but it's got like a sturdy metal frame and some solid bricks standing still super insane that this is here it is so far removed from anywhere and remote this is no small feat to come all the way out here and build this infrastructure and I can't imagine what it would have been like here 100 years ago this would have been a lot of tough dudes dying Young make a great Craft brewery in here though [Music] we're heading to the Antioch Dam when they decommission the dam they blew a big hole in it so the water would just flow through okay wow all right it's kind of sketchy you ever walked across that Frank no don't like hates I think I want to walk across it you think it's safe Frank it's safe for you not for me run real fast I don't have time to break okay oh I just got really scared it's really high [Music] the rain isn't helping Frank told me that this dam is over 100 years old and was once the tallest in all of Canada it's crazy to think that the tallest of anything would be built in such a hard to get to spot that was really scary for me and whenever I was holding onto the railing I felt like I was kind of leaning into it which was those death drop on either side I don't know if I'd be able to cut it living and working in such a remote place but it works for Frank and Wanda and there is a plus side to being the only two people here you never have to wait for a tea time I found a nine iron there's a parsley hole right there oh that opening all right [Music] [Laughter] [Music] oh you're gonna have a tough time digging that one yeah that's that's kind of rough I'd say uh nice and easy oh it seems like everywhere we hit is in a sand trap Wanda nice you're in the Fairway yeah you got the cleanest lie hey I got a birdie what the hell was that who knew do you copy yes copy two more balls two more balls that you go now you heard that yeah we gotta go I want to finish my game of golf but I guess we have to leave because the weather's about to change and we're taking a plane out of here to Hideaway it's too bad I was playing well upwards and onwards all right you guys thanks so much for everything yeah you're welcome thank you have a good trip appreciate it take care guys [Music] it was unusual to say the least seeing all the Sci-Fi looking black slag left behind in such a pristine area it's nice to know that at least some of it is being cleaned up and put to good use [Music] I'm about 200 kilometers south of Antioch a sparsely populated group of islands there's around 5 000 people that live here now about half of which are First Nations the height of people thrived here for over 8 000 years this area provided everything they needed they had the ocean nearby abundant wildlife and plentiful trees but it was those same trees that brought European settlers here in the early 20th century to them it was a gold mine after contact when people started coming to Hideaway they realized that the trees here were some of the best in the world strong and straight and Tall so they logged it all they took it all down and now this is the second wave of trees here that's been replanted and those are getting cut down here comes the third wave it's really easy now to be critical of what people did here with the logging back then no one had any idea about preserving anything like that you know like preserving a forest for any reason to them it was just a useful resource there's not a lot of jobs on heidegwai so a lot of people are loggers here sort of seems like the the lesser of two evils maybe work in the logging industry at home or leave home and this is a pretty special place it would be hard to leave how to go out and go somewhere else after seeing some ghost towns left behind by industry I'm stoked to head to custa an ancient Village site abandoned by the height of people almost 200 years ago showing me around our Local's Raven pochka and Atlanta Jacobson see this right here yeah so this is part of a longhouse right here oh really we're starting like right in the beginning of the village and so when you see these beans just step over them we're trying to don't stomp them yeah and we'll just show you a bunch of different features all the way through how many people do you think lived here probably like 800 and this is our first pit what was the pit used for so these were the houses inside that traditional Longhouse it would be kind of tiered levels and then in the center would be the fire and those who slept closest to the fire were those of the highest issue right and these houses were quite close together to prevent people kind of sneaking up from behind right you see all these stinging nettles those were intentional oh really yeah so if you tried to you know kind of sneak through the bushes you'd just get really yeah all irritated and stuff so stinging nettle security system if you don't know about singing though you'll you'll find out yeah you're correct because having aches and pains arthritis uh uh I'm a skateboarder yeah everywhere whack you with some stinging nettles awesome what did the population look like here before contact and after contact and how did this place get abandoned when we were in contact with the sicknesses the population was fourteen thousand to twenty thousand people we went down about 95 all the way down to about 400 500 people so in a village like this where there would be anywhere from like 70 people all the way up to a thousand people this Village went down I think to like 20 people okay and so in order to you know fish and hunt and sustain everything that we have going on here you need a lot of people right what are these it's a mortuary pole the mortuary poles are what how is the remains of either Chiefs or someone held in high esteem so they were put in a bet one box and put up into the mortuary poles what was the importance of resting in a tree be closer to creator so here are some frontal pulls you can kind of see like they fell like this yep and so that's the back of them there okay front poles are what would show what family you belong in so I'm an eagle and so I my crests are Eagle frog sculpin and beaver and so those are the the symbols that I'm allowed to wear or I have rights to wear yeah what's the purpose of uh just leaving it to just that's their intention just to keep them there yes we bring it we um we take the tree from the earth and then we create what we need to and then it just goes right back into the Earth right yeah and how the nurse logs yeah they Harbor life and so that's exactly what we kind of want oh great as well yeah if Raven and Atlanta hadn't been here to show me around I would have never guessed there was once a thriving Village here but that's how Custer was built once it was no longer needed it would go back to the Earth from where it came at some point in the future there will be no trace of this Village at all and maybe that's how it should be foreign [Music] slum on the other side of the island my guide Raven pochka runs an amazing program here she brings High to youth from all over to help them ReDiscover some of the Lost traditions of their ancestors West Coast [Laughter] from food and medicine to language and songs they get a chance to learn more about their Heritage and reconnect with nature suck my home away from home and it kind of teaches you like not to lose your touch with Mother Nature it's like you feel like you don't need anything when you're out here like it's pretty sweet out here now that we're at Camp I wanted to ask the two students Jack and gouda Haggins how they felt about the impact of Industry on traditional lands so we've been sort of climbing up the coast and going to these places like industrial leftovers you know from like Mining and logging and what do you guys think about those things being left in the wilderness and things like that just sort of rotting and it's disappointing to think that somebody who's ignorant enough to think that it's okay to do that to somebody else's home into an old mind down in Swan Bay they left like everything they left buildings they're just rotting away into the ground they did not clean up their mess unfortunately you're no longer allowed on the island because it's so bad all the chemicals that they're using to break it break it open and all that it's just everywhere what do you think they should do with things like that I feel like I don't know like they should at least clean up like what they bring in I guess like I don't know like pack it in pack it out yeah I think yeah like many of the lessons that our ancestors taught us was when you go somewhere if you're gonna stay there for a while whether it's like a few days or like a month after you go you leave no trace of yourself at all whatsoever so it's almost like you were never there in the first place I think that's something that should be taught and that's something that shouldn't be you know right referred to among all cultures enough dude right here look at these guys you guys like football not ballers so these are the stinging nettles so if we're gonna use it for um putting on someone's body we can take a long couple longer stalks you find us some Nettles yeah do you have anywhere that's hurting on it oh you're gonna hit me with it yeah all right uh let's go with the back of the knee okay you've never done it before no this is going to be my first time all right we're gonna do it together but she's saying that or not your Nani was trying to get her you to do it to her yeah but I couldn't do it because she's my Noni and I don't want to hurt her yeah you can hurt me all right I'm just gonna bite on this oh it doesn't hurt yeah right there yeah okay that's probably good oh it does Sting yeah it like gets worse yeah and it's gonna get worse for a while really yeah I could have been told that oh how does it feel it's getting better how's it feel for you it's kind of funny just kidding it turns out that the stinging nettles are not only a home security system and a natural pain reliever but they are also a great source of fiber so we're going to steam these Nettles we're gonna fry them in butter because that just sounds so much more yummy so it's going to be French hidea Collision yeah all right and we have a ton of butter so you can just go crazy with it oh okay I ain't scared of more butter yeah no sting good taste all right I want to start with a toast yay here's to our new height of friends thank you for having us appreciate it thanks for coming you guys thank you good [Music] [Music] good Masset is one of three towns on haidaguay there's almost a thousand residents that live work and play here Raven wanted to show me some more active Signs of Life in her hometown it's Rick it's roller derby time we're running yeah [Applause] [Music] Chinese hit him out of breath already I'm warming up for roller derby and I'm tired I'm out of shape that's a hard warm-up all right I'm going feels it feels natural it's not a race it's just a warm-up can you make it uh slammed around a little bit [Music] okay all right you guys want to get hit oh I'm sorry that I hit you I think I'm doing pretty good for a first timer I farted over there don't go over there it's really social oh bam bam [Applause] oh that was so red [Music] it's doing pretty good no more skateboarding eight wheels only now on [Applause] a nice one exhausted and almost out of time in this beautiful land of haidaguay I wanted to get Raven's thoughts on the balance between industry and the preservation of nature for the people that have lived here for thousands of years I think it's difficult to witness that the industry is not necessarily I don't feel like there's a balance between what's being taken and what's being given back like there isn't like a sustainable system that is in place it's a bit of a double-edged sword you know for a lot of indigenous people where industry is shaping up all around them like people in the tar Sands where it's coming right through their backyard you know and for us here it's the fishing industry in the logging industry and we're kind of stuck in this space right now where in order for people to live here there needs to be work as humans we're so intelligent that we could come up with other ways of making money and and creating an economy that we don't have to destroy our environment my hope and dream for how to guide I'd love to see more people out on boats and living closely to the land and and you know maybe starting to live out in our traditional long houses out actually in our Villages like seeing people live year-round out at custa it's because I believe so much in every decision you make is kind of a ripple that goes out into the rest of the world and you can send out a really awesome Ripple you know or you can contribute to some of the issues and some of the problems and and you know there's there's choice in that every day so yeah yeah Raven is definitely sending out those good ripples working with the next generation of Heidi youth trying to turn those ripples into waves striving to protect their lands from any future harm in the name of profit not that anyone is saying all industry is evil but if you're going to come out here and make a bunch of cash working the land and sea the least you can do is clean up after yourself [Music] thank you beautiful is the river is the land before is the sky it's so beautiful so beautiful it's so beautiful so beautiful [Music] oh beautiful art of children beautiful are the old beautiful is the Sun word many Legends has been told [Music] it's so beautiful [Music] so beautiful [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 588,165

Keywords: BC, abandoned, abandoned towns, abandoned towns in america, boom and bust town, british columbia, canada, culture, deserted, documentaries, documentary, environmental, exclusive, film, fishing town, ghost town, independent, interview, journalism, lifestyle, movies, native land, native title, new, roller derby, roller derby game, roller skating, short films, skatepark, skating, underground, urban exploring, vice, vice film, vice guide, vice mag, vice magazine, vice videos, vice.com, videos, world

Id: hlozkumd1C8

Length: 43min 50sec (2630 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023