The Emerald Valley

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
Astonishing Legends Network The views and opinions expressed by hosts and listeners on the Astonishing Deadletter Office are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Astonishing Legends Productions, The Astonishing Legends Network or any affiliated entities or guests.

**Forrest Burgess** (0:37)
When something unexplainable happens to you, it can make you feel isolated or alone, but trust us, you're not. For over a decade, you've been sending your strange stories to Astonishing Legends, and now it's time for our fellow legenders to hear them too.
Join us weekly in Blanket Forteana as we dig through your intriguing messages to the Astonishing Dead Letter Office.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:11)
Tonight's episode, The Emerald Valley.

**Scott Philbrook** (1:16)
Tonight, we're headed up into the far northeast corner of Washington state. And if you've never been, picture the part of the map most people forget is even there. Up past Spokane, where you climb into Stevens and Pend Ore County. Did I say that right?

**Forrest Burgess** (1:30)
Ponderay.

**Scott Philbrook** (1:31)
Ponderay. See, I had to ask Forrest, and you'll know why in a second. Up past Spokane, you climb into Stevens and Ponderay County.
The Selkirk Mountains, Long River Valleys, Timber Towns, and old mining claims, and then the Canadian border. Great place to live if you're an astronomer, though. Dark skies at night. Forrest, you'll have to tell us if that's correct. I heard that you sometimes frequent vague areas roughly surrounding that region.

**Forrest Burgess** (1:56)
Yes, I know the area you're speaking of fairly well, although that corner up there, again, our listener here, our author for tonight, is not saying which town they're from, but there's a handful that are of some note, especially if you live in the region.
So I'd have to know specifically because it's a fairly large state, Washington state, mid-size, I would say. But there's a few towns up there, one of which is Medellin Falls. Now, have you heard of the movie The Postman with Kevin Costner?

**Scott Philbrook** (2:29)
I have not only heard of it, I have brought it up many times on the show because it is one of my favorite post-apocalyptic movies, which is a genre that I particularly enjoy for some weird reason. Although I'm a little concerned now that I'm going to be in it pretty soon.

**Forrest Burgess** (2:43)
You're going to be living it.

**Scott Philbrook** (2:44)
Yes. Yeah, I'm going to be living it. But I love The Postman. I really like that movie.

**Forrest Burgess** (2:47)
So yes, I also enjoy The Postman. I only have one complaint about this film where he gets the postman outfit off the skeleton here that he finds in the overturned postal truck.
And there's a Zippo lighter in the guy's pocket, if I remember correctly. And it lights up for him. It's like, no, that thing would have dried out in about a week.

**Scott Philbrook** (3:12)
Right.

**Forrest Burgess** (3:13)
So yeah, they should have made it a Bic, but a Bic's not as sexy as a Zippo. So I get it. Zippo's a cinematic license. Anyway, so that whole area is beautiful. It's got a lot of history and a lot of folks that are from the region will probably have some relatives up there. But one thing I was going to say is that yes, so you have Medallin Falls. That's probably the largest town that's in squarely in that upper right hand corner, the northeast corner of the state. But a lot of folks will know some of these small towns if you're from the area. Ione, Tiger, of course, Ponderay, as you mentioned, all within the Colville National Forest, Colville itself. It's rural, but also wooded and just lovely up there. And there is a lot of great sky watching, a lot of great camping places.
Again, a lot of Pacific Northwest history through there with mining and railroads and such. But I don't know how much aerial phenomenon that I'd actually heard of having grown up in the general region there, because you'd hear stories occasionally, but nothing like this, even though, as we'll find out here shortly, that it's maybe not a very expansive story, but it's a very significant occurrence, very strange, but momentarily brief, or is it?

**Scott Philbrook** (4:30)
And the other thing that's interesting is this area is connected to the Cold War in a fascinating way, and also the military in general, right?

**Forrest Burgess** (4:37)
Spokane does have its famed Fairchild Air Force Base, where my grandfather had worked for a while. I mentioned him before, having worked there. He was in World War II and was a military man, you could say. But also he was chief of fuels for the base there. I think in the 50s into the early 60s. And so at that time, and when I was of high school age, it was known in the area for its B-52 bombers. So yeah, it's just kind of on the west side of Spokane. You know, they have radar that watches northern approaches because yeah, for 45 years from 1947 to 1992, it was a SAC base or Strategic Air Command. So yeah, they had bombers and tankers. And now it's a refueling air wing, the 92nd here.