In our exclusive clip for this week’s episode of The Last Alaskans, Heimo Korth – who is still grieving the loss of Bob Harte, his trapper friend from New Jersey – takes us on a special adventure walkabout to the abandoned cabin.
This cabin in the woods looks like it is being consumed by the elements.
He explains that some men made it decades ago, then left for reasons unknown. On appearance, it is utterly creepy in its presentation out in the stark, snow-covered brush.
As the camera pans around with Heimo, the cabin really feels haunted as Heimo explains the nature of living in these desolate woods so far north, and he tells us that it can drive people mad.
Heimo walks towards the well-built cabin and admires the look and the structure, saying it was not easy to make this building in the first place.
He says, “I found this cabin when I was trapping from people a long time ago. There was two guys here… they just got out of the Army and they wanted to be miners and trappers, and that was 1960.”
He has a personal connection and notes, “I knew the bush pilot that flew these guys out here. Nine months later, he came back here in March to check up on him and he said they just wanted out… they just wanted out here so bad. “
He walks around the structure.
“When I came here with the door was just closed. It wasn’t even barred up,” Heimo recalled.
“He was just closed and there was a frying pan still on top of the stove with muskrat on it. They were frying up a muskrat and they left that fast that when the plane came, they just left everything and took off.”
“About fifteen years later I was probably the first person to come here after they left,” he added. “By the time I got here part of the roof has caved in.”
Noting that the two men had some skills that were admirable, Heimo says, “The way they built some of this cabin, they were somewhat kind of handy
you know what I mean?”
“They did a better job in the cabin than I did on my first cabin. I mean… they needed skills but that’s not just physical skills that’s also mental skills.”
Heimo gives viewers the accurate picture of life in remote Alaska. “When I first come out here I didn’t realize it was as hard as what it is but I fought through it and, you know, I was determined but everybody’s got a breaking point.”
He posits that is likely what happened to these two fellows. He says, “I guess the isolation got to them.”
“Once that plane leaves, once the drone of the plane has gone, you’re literally on your own. You either make or break and most break.”
Make sure to tune in to hear more about this abandoned cabin and how Heimo manages the isolation of the winter months.
The Last Alaskans airs Sundays at 10/9c on the Discovery Channel. Watch live or catch up on the Discovery Go app.