This Forest Ranger Stumbles Upon A Mysterious Cabin In The Woods With A Huge Surprise Inside

[Music] if you spend enough time hiking or camping in the woods you'll realize that there's not much going on sure you can spot some pretty interesting wildlife scurrying around but beyond that it's a pretty standard scene trees rocks bugs a wayward squirrel or two and not much else so you can imagine a surprise when marc-andre the environmental services director for arcarta california stumbled upon something he'd never seen before he'd been marking the trees to be harvested in the arctic community forest when he realized something just wasn't quite right when he stepped closer to investigate his jaw dropped marc-andre of arcata california has devoted his career to exploring the woods in northern california as the town's environmental services director it was his job to spend time out in the wilderness he knew the area like the back of his hand or so he thought recently while he was out marking trees to be harvested in the arctic community forest he stumbled upon something just past some trees he had never seen before it certainly wasn't their last time he'd been in the area it was almost perfectly camouflaged and as mark moved closer to it he realized it was some sort of elaborate makeshift cabin clearly illegally constructed he wasn't quite sure what he'd find when he went inside the cabin was situated in one of the most remote areas of the arcada forest mark hadn't explored this area since about 1985 back when he was still just a forest technician obviously whoever built this wasn't expecting to be discovered the first thing mark noted about the cabin was that it seemed to be fairly well constructed every now and then rangers will find random pieces of debris put together by someone looking for shelter in the woods but this was far from random it was expertly planned the cabin measured roughly eight by 12 feet and was estimated to be about 15 feet high it featured a peaked roof a front porch and an awning and plywood walls covered in tarps it was even built on a solid concrete foundation mark could only assume its isolation was what made constructing the cabin possible in the first place i didn't see it until i was 12 feet from it he explained it's in the perfect out of the way spot where it wouldn't be detected what made the cabin even more mysterious was that no footpaths or trails led to it mark also noted that there didn't appear to be any sort of environmental abuse or littering which commonly accompanies this sort of thing whoever lived there clearly respected nature mark decided to call forest technicians javier nogueira and nick manfrodia for help along with park ranger heidi grossman they trekked back to the site to explore the inside when they finally cut the padlock and flung open the doors they weren't sure what or who they'd find inside as heidi entered the cabin gun drawn she shouted arkada police but no one answered soon the group began to scour the contents of the abode to see if they could figure out any details about its owner the group was quick to note the tidally kept quarters in the living room and kitchen area housekeeping supplies and assorted cans of food sat on shelves built into the wall in many ways everything seemed ordinary still there was more to explore beside a rocking chair there was a coffee table with a tea kettle sitting on it directly across from the chair was a pot-bellied stove whoever had been living here wasn't exactly struggling out in the wilderness in another corner of the cabin was a small bookshelf constructed on a wall it was lined with various titles including catch me if you can and medicinal plants of the pacific west soon the rangers began to suspect it was an older person who'd been living there other items like a stack of tapes lent credence to the search party's suspicions still they continued to search for other clues that might help them determine just who it was that called this mysterious place home the group also found a handwritten list of things to do and get which told them a little bit more about the cabins the list which includes dates was comprised of tasks such as build bench extend brush wall season cast irons get six inch stove pipe flashing and get tongs 1 22 11. near the stovepipe the group also found a copy of nearby humboldt state universities the lumberjack newspaper dated march 25th 2015. between the list and the paper the team started to piece together a timeline for when the cabin's owner might have lived there while they did find two drivers licenses they each bore the names of different people and they didn't lead the search party to any conclusions as to who lived there they could only assume the person was visiting seasonally since camping on public property is illegal even if the person is doing it is being respectful of the land and the cabin existed on a nature refuge the crew left an eviction notice for the inhabitant from there things really got strange when authorities returned to the cabin site at a later date they found it had been totally deconstructed the only trace of it was a charcoal squatter symbol where the cabin once sat that's the cleanest camp cleanup i've ever seen said michael mcdowell the natural resources technician for the environmental services department there wasn't a nail not even a gum wrapper left behind it's unlikely that the cabin's owner would come forward given the potential for legal trouble after all the cabin was built on public land still it's pretty impressive they were ever able to construct it in the first place talk about a mystery whoever built and lived in that cabin had some serious dedication it makes you wonder if they'll ever be found