Mr. Ballin

speaker

35,725 appearances 163 recordings 11 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 2d ago

Mr. Ballin’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 100 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 21.

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MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories · The Clearing · 3 Sep 2026 podcast

And he just can't believe what he sees. voice-verified

Like it's so horrible. voice-verified

At first, he just thinks it's fake, but it's not. voice-verified

But before we get into today's story, if you're a fan of The Strange, Dark and Mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do, and we upload four times a week: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. voice-verified

So if that's of interest to you, please invite the follow button to go out to lunch with you. voice-verified

But once you get there, spend the entire time chewing as loudly as possible with your mouth wide open. voice-verified

Okay, let's get into today's story. voice-verified

On the freezing cold night of February 8, 1874, a 65-year-old man named Israel Swann sat around this roaring fire with a big group of men inside of this valley in western Colorado. voice-verified

The men around the fire, including Israel, were all gold prospectors, which meant they traveled the western United States looking for gold. voice-verified

But over the past several weeks, this group of prospectors had been trapped in this valley because of all the terrible winter storms. voice-verified

They had these storms coming in that each time would dump up to six feet of snow. voice-verified

But on this particular night, as Israel sat by the fire, you know, enjoying the flames and hearing people tell stories, one of Israel's friends, one of the other gold prospectors, whose name was Alfred Packer, he stood up and basically pitched the whole group as to why they should come with him and leave the valley right now. voice-verified

Basically, Alfred told the group that, you know, the weather is starting to turn a bit, it's not as bad anymore, you know, the snow's starting to melt. voice-verified

And Alfred said, I know a pathway out of here that will take us out of this valley in just two weeks, and it'll bring us right to Breckenridge, Colorado, which was an area that was known by prospectors for having lots and lots of gold. voice-verified

And so Alfred's basically telling them, you know, this is a win-win. voice-verified

We can get out of here sooner, and we can get it. voice-verified

Rich. voice-verified

After Alfred made this pitch, he sat back down and everybody just stayed quiet for a second. voice-verified

And Israel, he kind of looked around and watched to see if anybody would take Alfred up on his proposition. voice-verified

Now, Israel knew, unlike him, most of the other prospectors didn't like Alfred. voice-verified

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