In 1980, gifted Vancouver Island mechanic Granger Taylor left behind a startling note: he said he was boarding an alien spacecraft for a 42-month journey through the universe. Then he vanished into a violent storm, along with his pickup truck. In this episode of Spooky Coop, Paul and Michelle explore the documented facts, the homemade flying saucer in Granger’s yard, the blast site discovered years later, and the heartbreaking questions left behind. Was this a story of UFO belief, an accident, a private crisis, or an unknowable loss? Above all, it is the story of a real person whose life was far more complex than the legend that followed him.
In 1980, Vancouver Island mechanic Granger Taylor left his family a note saying he was leaving on a 42-month journey aboard an alien spacecraft. He then disappeared into a stormy night—along with his truck.
This episode explores Taylor’s remarkable mechanical talent, the homemade flying saucer he built in his family’s yard, the note that made his disappearance legendary, and the evidence discovered years later at a nearby blast site.
Paul and Michelle examine the difference between the documented record and the mythology surrounding the case, while remembering Granger as more than a UFO mystery: a gifted, complicated, and deeply human person.
Transcript of "SC-EP-49-The-Man-Who-Waited-For-The-Stars"
[00:00] speaker1: This week on Spooky Coop, episode number 49, we talk about the man who waited for the stars, the life and times of Granger Orman Taylor. Hi everyone, I’m Paul. speaker2: And I’m Michelle. speaker1: And you’re in speaker2: the spooky coop. speaker1: Welcome to the spooky goo. Hope you’re not chicken. One. Hello, Michelle. speaker2: Hello, Paul. speaker1: How are you doing today? speaker2: I’m doing great. And I’ve got Dragon on me. speaker1: Yes, you do. For those of you who can’t see in the studio because you are not uh we’re not doing we’re doing a audio podcast. Can do any remote viewing. She has a 6-ft uh Godzilla Komodo dragon draped over her. What is he? What’s dragon’s breed? What is he? speaker2: Dragon is a tangerine bearded dragon and he’s only about 18 in long. speaker1: Yeah, trust me everyone. He’s six feet and he’s draped over like a rug. speaker2: Oh, he’s very cute and he’s lovable. speaker1: Welcome back to the Spooky Coop, the show where strange stories gather at the edge of the porch light. speaker2: Oo, like mom. Tonight, we’re going to Vancouver Island, British Columbia to visit a mystery that sounds at first almost too perfectly constructed to be true. A gifted mechanic, a homemade flying saucer, recurring dreams of visitors from space, a note left for his parents, a stormy night, and a truck that vanished. And then years later, a crater in the woods. Ooh, boop boop boop. Anyway, this story is about Granger. What’s his middle name? Oddman. Arand. speaker1: Armand Taylor. He was born October 7th, 1948, which is before us. Long before us. Yeah. As we get into this, this guy, he’s kind of a hero of mine from the way that he just he worked and worked and worked and he just produced, produced, produced, and I know he was slightly probably slightly autistic. speaker2: They didn’t even know about I mean, they never called him. speaker1: He was never diagnosed. Mhm. But speaker2: they just called it speaker1: Yeah. He he was a little bit odd, but he whatever. He just created and created and built and fixed and created. He’s he was a very impressive person. speaker2: Yeah. A lot of people said he was shy or he was brilliant. He was immensely curious. Um some people just said he was, you know, he had the gift or he was gifted. speaker1: You know, it was sort of like in the south when they say bless your heart. What did they really mean. speaker2: Okay. So, before we begin, there’s a quick note. The episode ated decades of retellings, some more reliable than others. So, we’ll distinguish between the wellocumented core of the story and the theories people have built around it. Yeah, this mystery is so complicated because the person in the center of it was real. And the actions he took before this event were so strangely interpreted or could be strangely interpreted. And there’s like as many theories or as many quirks to the theories as people are thinking about them.
[02:00] speaker1: and that’s what makes it so compelling. speaker2: Yeah, it is. It’s really compelling. speaker1: So, in Duncan, British Columbia sits Duncan, British Columbia is a town which sits in the Cowichan I’m saying this wrong. I’m going to get in trouble with these folks. The Cowichan Valley on southern Vancouver Island. It’s a place of forest and mountains. There’s working farms and old industrial equipment. Roads are darkened by the frequent rain made the mood of the island hearken back to the days when people lived on the power of their talent and wit over nature despite this was modern days. It was the kind of place where practical skill mattered. If a machine broke, someone needed to make it work again. Granger Taylor was that kind of person. It was the right time for him. He was your man. speaker2: Yep. People described him as having an instinctual ability to fix anything. They said he had this like mechanical intelligence. As a teenager, he built a small car from salvage parts and it really ran. It was like, "Mom, dad, buy me a car". And they’d say, "No, we don’t have the money". So he said, "All right, fine. I’ll build his own". And he did. You know? speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: He could take apart engines. He could take apart tractors, heavy machinery. He put them all back together again and they worked. speaker1: It’s amazing. speaker2: Yeah. You know, I mean, it’s like some kids have a lemonade stand, you know, he had a a John Deere stand. Yeah. Yeah. speaker1: Yeah. speaker2: Weird. speaker1: Yeah. He he would put stuff back together again and it wasn’t just functioning. It was often improved from what it was before. speaker2: Yeah. speaker1: The story tells a story often told about his life that when he was 17, he repaired a bulldozer that no that other people were like, "Forget it. Just leave it there. It’s never going to run again". And he restored it and it was running again. And it and he even fixed a steamed locomot locomotive um that had been left in the bush just lying there. And I think he even like gave kids rides on it around. I don’t know. Now these detail, sorry if I’m sniffling. I It’s allergies, you know, ragweed. Anyway, um now that the details uh take on this mythical. speaker2: I think you’re allergic to the dragon. speaker1: I’m not allergic to dragon. He does. He only has texture. speaker2: We have to get rid of him. speaker1: No, he has texture, not any kind of like. speaker2: Okay. speaker1: Yeah. Um anyway, the details take on this mythical shine when they took over over and over and over and broader points made clear that Granger had a rare hands-on kind of intelligence about him. He understood how physical things worked. It doesn’t matter if it was metal, fuel, gears, you know, pressure, torque. He did it all. He, you know, he went into that type of career, too. You know, he sounded happy happiest when he was surrounded by things, not people or anything, but things. things. The family um the family property was near the how do you say that? Samois Lake. speaker2: Sumos SOS. speaker1: Anyway, it was near OS Lake. speaker2: It was near Samo Lake. And speaker1: we’re going to get some emails about this, you know, audio attachment files. It’s Simonus, you idiots. speaker2: We should really put things in our notes on uh what do you call it? Phonically, so we can know how to say them. um something like a a personal museum of machinery, old engines, vehicles that he fixed, tools, industrial artifacts, things other people might have seen as scrap. He saw them as possibilities. He used them, fixed them, you know.
[04:00] speaker2: right? That’s an important part of understanding him. The usual shorthand is eccentric genius and Granger was unconventional. But that phrase can flatten somebody. It can turn a human being into a cliched character. So what seems more important is that Granger was deep absorbed by figuring out the logic to solve the problems that he pondered. He wasn’t just collecting old objects. He was studying them, rebuilding them, and trying to understand the forces inside them. Well, in 197 uh as the 1970s went on, one question that kept pulling him and it was more than any other question in his mind, how did a flying saucer work? speaker1: What was that? speaker2: How did a flying saucer work? speaker1: A flying saucer, you say? speaker2: Yeah, flying saucer. You Go an alien ship. Anyway, these things were not terrestrial. speaker1: It was less than two bars were legal. Go ahead. speaker2: These things were not terrestrial. He He knew that. He knew how to fix something that was terrestrial. If it rolled on the ground, he could do it. But how did these things do it? He believed. So, you know, he knew. He believed in his heart. They were real. But how did they fly? They didn’t have wings. They didn’t have jet motors. Maybe he saw one. Who knows? He never said he did, but he he really had it in his heart that they were real. speaker2: Yeah. And he he viewed these things, these ideas, concepts, the whole thing, not as a joke and not as a toy, but as an engineering problem around the area of building a flying saucer. Yeah. speaker1: What powered it? How did it move? Could there be principles of flight or energy that people had not yet understood. This was the era when UFO culture was everywhere. It was a time when UFOs and aliens were the subject of mainstream TV and movies. You could see reruns of classic Star Trek episodes. Battlestar Galactica was also a big hit with sci-fi enthusiasts. And of course, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a big box office smash. speaker2: smash potatoes. speaker1: Smash potatoes hit. speaker2: I was a kid in the 70s, right? And And yeah, you’re right. UFO stuff was everywhere. And um I remember watching uh going out to see Close Encounters at the Drive-In and coming home and you know making the model with the mashed potatoes and my father looking at me and says, "You’re going to eat that, right?" Cuz I took broccoli. I took the broccoli and put it on the top. And and then my brother threw his potatoes at me so we can make it bigger and bigger. Anyway, go ahead. speaker1: Granger’s interest wasn’t simply a fan of the genre, being a fan of the genre, but by many accounts, he took the subject of UFOs very seriously, and he thought about propulsion and put his whole mind into it. Eventually, he built something that became impossible for anyone passing his property to ignore. speaker2: Yeah. He constructed what he thought was a lifesize. What I meant by that is he figured that was life-size, but he constructed a flying saw. in his yard. Now, it wasn’t amazing. speaker1: Yeah. It wasn’t made to fly. It was like a model, right? Like our neighbors down the road have a TARDIS in their backyard. They turned their uh shed into a TARDIS, which is really cool. I think they were hoping they could store more in it. speaker1: Who has the TARDIS speaker2: down over here? You saw it. I brought you over there to see it. speaker1: That one? speaker2: Yeah, the one off by the hill. speaker1: By the thing over by the place. Yes, I remember. Okay. speaker2: I thought that they figured instead of just putting two garbage cans in it when it wasn’t garbage, Hey, they could probably put their car in it. speaker1: Let’s test it sometime. We’ll go and put speaker2: Go ask him. We’ll open the door. See if he’s got his I was going to suggest we put dragon in there. Anyway, speaker1: okay. Anyway, um speaker2: he built a life size lifesize flank. speaker1: Yeah. speaker2: Can Why can we never speak English when we start recording? I don’t know what it is. Go ahead. speaker1: Anyway, he took two big satellite dishes from the 70s. They were big and metal back then. Okay. He took two big satellite dishes. He joined them together. with silver plates, right? And uh and made these made this uh I don’t know like a like a little trailer home for himself. And it had it was a man cave. Let’s let’s call it what it was. It was a man saucer.
[06:00] speaker2: It’s a man saucer cave. speaker1: He He moved in practical comforts. He put in a couch, a portable stove, a little camp TV, a little camp um fridge. He put in a pullout couch with uh a sleeping area. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: And he said it it wasn’t capable of flight. Obviously, it stood up off the ground. You had to take a little uh stairs to get into it. And um anyway, he used it for his thinking place, his reading, his sleeping, his imagining and planning on how he could make a real flying saucer. speaker2: I think that to be correct and accurate, he it was a ramp he had that was a ramp, not stairs. Yeah. speaker1: Oh, okay. The will complain Yeah. The picture I saw of it, it looked to me like stairs, but you know, speaker2: maybe it was a stair ramp. speaker1: Well, it was my bad eyes. speaker2: Oh, you know. speaker1: So, imagine seeing this from the road. A silver UFO sitting among the machinery and trees of a Vancouver Island farm. I’m sure it was an eye c an eye. speaker1: It probably was. speaker1: It It was an eye capture. Or would you be an eyesore? I don’t know. It’s the image that has followed the case ever since and it’s easy to see why. But the spaceship is not the mystery, it’s just a symbol of it. The strangest element of what Granger said came next. speaker2: Yeah. By 1980, the friends and family of Granger had begun talking about a reoccurring what Granger called a nighttime happening. And but his family called it dreams. They said he had vivid dreams. speaker1: You know that later on his sister said that she and him did a lot of acid together and later she blamed it all on the acid. speaker2: Oh, really? Yeah. speaker1: But that no one else in the family said that they did. So that’s really weird. Anyhow, um I think maybe she was making excuses. speaker2: Oh, and I’m sure that we’re in an age and period of time now where you say the word asset, everybody knows that’s LSD. So speaker1: Oh, yeah. I’m sure they do. speaker2: Just to qualify it for the 01% who may not know. Go ahead. Sorry. speaker1: Yeah. Anyhow, um uh what was I saying? Oh, yeah. Anyhow, um his family said that these quote nighttime happening things he had were dreams, but he insisted that this was things that were happening in his sleep were real. speaker2: Okay. He said he was receiving communication um and assurance from these space beings uh and that um they told him that they were coming to get him pretty soon and he was going to take a ride with them. He was going to travel across space. speaker1: Wow. speaker2: Yep. And it wasn’t going to be forever. speaker1: No, speaker2: it was going to be for a limited time. for 42 months. That’s three and a half years. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: And then they were going to bring him back. speaker1: Now, we know this is what he said in the note he left behind. speaker2: Oh, yeah. You you’ve got to read the note, right? speaker1: Yeah. So, this is what the note said. Dear mother and father, I have gone away to walk aboard an alien spaceship as recurring dreams assured a 42-month inter interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe. Then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as guide to help. Love, Granger. That that writing is real and it transformed a private struggle, whatever it was, into one of Canada’s most enduring mysteries.
[08:00] speaker2: Now, why would he not need his things if he’s only gone for three and a half years? speaker1: Yeah, I did. I remember reading about this when we I was when we were researching it. He believed based on the information that the aliens had given him that he would travel at a tremendous at a tremendous speed you know close to the speed of light and over that 42 months that’s what it would be for him but it would be like hundreds of years maybe thousands by the time he got back. speaker2: yeah. speaker1: you know and what you know new theories that are based now on shortening of distances and not just time traveling at light speed for the traveler itself could extend time well beyond six traveling six light years doesn’t mean you’ll be back somewhere in 6 years. It could be a thousand years. It could be 1500. speaker2: But that’s what he was thinking. speaker1: Kind of an exotic theory. speaker2: That’s what they said he was thinking. speaker1: Right. Yeah. speaker2: Right. speaker1: Yeah. Um anyway, the date was Saturday, November 29th in 1980. And Granger was 32 years old. He was young guy. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: A powerful storm was moving across Vancouver Island. heavy heavy rains, strong winds, there were power outages, like rolling power outages. Right. speaker2: Right. speaker1: Um it was the kind of weather weather. It was the kind of weather that. speaker2: That’s New England for weather, everybody. Weather. What’s the weather?. speaker1: What’s the weather outside? We’re in Boston. Yeah. speaker1: Um it was the kind of weather that makes ordinary places feel suddenly isolated. speaker2: Right. And he predicted that storm weeks ahead. He said the next at the end of the month or whatever. ever it was uh that there was going to be one of the biggest storms of the season that would come through and that’s when the aliens would pick him up. So, we don’t know did lucky guess. Maybe he guessed or bas or or was real. We don’t know. speaker1: We don’t know. I mean, why would they? Anyway, um. speaker1: why would they? I don’t know. So, earlier that evening, Granger stopped at Bob’s Grill in Duncan. It’s a restaurant that he frequented, and accounts place him there around dinner time. He ate, paid, and left. speaker2: I wonder what he ate. speaker1: Uh I don’t know. speaker2: What do you eat before? speaker1: I don’t know. Burger. Uh, speaker2: you must have a light dinner. speaker1: Yeah, I’d have a great big huge breakfast. One of those sausages, eggs, all those heart attack on a plate foods. speaker2: So, anyway, it appears to be the last confirmed sighting of them was at at at do um. speaker1: at the at the din at the restaurant. Yeah. Um, at some point before his quote departure, Granger left a note for his parents. You heard that, right? Um, but you know the interesting about that note, right, is that um is that it was almost a exact copy of his will. Um so we’ll get into that in a in a minute, but still um he said that he was going to board this alien ship uh and be gone for those months. Um but some people were not aware that on the back of that note was a handdrawn map of Wateroo. mountain that was not far from the family farm. At some point before his departure, um he actually had taken his will. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: And the note that he wrote his parents is almost identical to his will except that he changed the word death in his will to departure and he removed the word funeral out of it completely. Um so it it was very odd that that was the fact. Also, though he had drawn a map on the back of his departure note um that led to a mountain called Waterlue Mountain that’s not far from the farm. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: Uh implying that this is where the aliens were going to be meeting him. Another thing that was interesting is that um that the idea that he implied he was coming back. Some people had theories about that.
[10:00] speaker2: Some people said that he um that the the note implied since it was on the same uh way that his will was written the same way except for that one word change that it actually was uh a note that he was sending to his parents because he couldn’t um conceive of his own death or he didn’t want his parents to be bererieved. So he changed the wording of it and um was planning to self-destruct. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: But didn’t want them to know. speaker1: Yeah. I don’t believe that. But speaker2: I don’t believe it either. Um but that he that he had changed that so that he was protecting his parents. speaker1: Right. Right. speaker2: Um and you know that’s what it said. That’s what some people theorize, but that I don’t buy that one either. speaker1: All right. So that that is the heart of the case. The UFO language is memorable, but beneath it is a far more familiar human question. What was Granger trying to communicate to the people he loved. Was he trying to express unspoken inner conflict of a man in emotional pain regardless of his belief in contact with extraterrestrial forces or not? That night, Granger left in his pickup truck. He disappeared into the storm. His truck disappeared with him. And for years, there was no clear answer. For Grers's family, the immediate aftermath was not a campfire story. It was a tragic absence. He left a note saying not to worry. He said he was in good hands. He described a 42-month voyage, but it meant nothing to his worried parents. They wanted to believe, but how could they? So, his loved ones were left with a difficult territory between taking his word seriously and fearing the worst. According to later reports, the family kept aspects of Grers's life as he had left them. His belongings remained. The spaceship remained in the yard. His room remained untouched as if He had just left that night and was planning to come back like you know he’s on a quick trip. Details get me every time when I think about that right. speaker1: you know how many people have lost somebody you know maybe and they keep things the same. They don’t move even though they’d like to get out of that area. They keep the same phone number for years and years and years, you know, hoping that person’s going to come back. You know, because when someone vanishes, especially without a body or without an explanation. Time becomes disjointed. Your life speaker2: is sort of put on um a static hole, right? speaker1: You don’t know when it’s appropriate to even start grieving, never mind stop grieving. speaker2: You don’t know, you know, you don’t know when to move at all, speaker1: right? speaker2: You know, hope is it is it okay to hope? Is it okay to stop hoping? speaker1: Right? So, Granger’s strange note became the public face of the story, but the private reality was a family waiting through seasons, anniversaries, holidays, and years. And then the 42 months passed and no return. speaker2: Still no answer either. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: There were theories naturally. Maybe Granger ran away and was living in another state under another name or another province or whatever. Okay?. speaker1: Right? speaker2: Maybe he had encountered violence, you know, maybe he had taken self deletion, you know? Mhm. speaker1: Maybe he had been abducted by the aliens. Most extraordinary speaker2: most extraordinary. speaker1: Yeah. The most extraordinary explanation was the one he had left behind that he had somehow made it and was touring the universe. But stories without evidence have a way of expanding to fill silence. The evidence such as it was would not emerge until 198. 6 6 years later and the evidence I think would surprise most people. speaker2: Yes. speaker1: In 1986, workers in a forested area near Mount Pos. speaker2: Post. speaker1: Yeah. Poss. Not far from Duncan. There used to be a pizza place near my house called Pvos. They made the best speaker2: good pizza. speaker1: Yeah. Mushroom and uh mushroom and sausage. speaker2: Important information. I don’t remember my social security number most of the time, but I can remember that pizza. speaker1: That’s because it’s so good. Um anyway, not far from Duncan, that’s where that mountain was. They were they were uh working in this forest area and they came across a site that appeared to have been a scene of a huge major explosion. There was a big crater. Right. Right.
[12:00] speaker2: And there were vehicle pieces of metal, vehicles, debris, broken tires, a piece of a steering wheel, things like like that all over the place. speaker1: Doesn’t sound good, does it? speaker2: No. speaker1: No. Investigators connected the vehicle fragments to Granger Taylor’s truck. speaker2: Human bone fragments were also found at the site along with material associated with clothing and and uh a corner. speaker1: No, and it was all in such small pieces. It wasn’t like uh there’s an arm, there’s a leg. It was tiny fragments. speaker2: Yeah. We don’t have to get too graphic. speaker1: Okay. A coroner’s jury later concluded that Taylor had died in an explosion and ruled the death accidental. speaker2: Yeah, that this conclusion is an incred is a crucial part to one of the explanations that is seldom talked about, but we’ll get back to that. The official findings then could not be alien abduction was it that that Granger had died in this explosion? speaker1: The discovery also left questions. The remains were fragmentaryary. Forensic DNA testing was not available in the way we understand it today. Some of the the case. Some of the cases later commentators, including people close to Gringanger, questioned aspects of the identification and reconstruction. There have also been conflicting retellings about the precise location, the truck’s appearance, the route marked on the back of Granger’s note, and the amount of explosives involved. So basically, you know, you could say the evidence led authorities to conclude Granger died in an explosion near Mount Pos. That’s the official resolution. But some people who knew him speaker2: felt that that should be questioned and not not the quote answer. speaker1: Right? And that is not the same thing as proof of something supernatural. It’s a reminder that official answers can be credible and still leave grief, uncertainty, and questions forever left unanswered. speaker2: Well, you know that the question about the map, a lot of people feel that Well, I’ll get to that after. Mark that. We’ll return. speaker1: Let’s put a pin in that. speaker2: Let’s put a pin in that. Ouch. Go ahead. Anyway, let’s talk carefully about the possible explanations in a clean clear way and see what we come up with. Okay. Uh first incident. Okay. The first in the first a what? speaker2: Accident. speaker1: Yeah. speaker2: Accident. speaker1: Accident not the first in the first incident could be an accident. speaker2: Okay. speaker1: Grager had experience working with machinery and according to reports on the case he had access to explosives as much as he wanted, I guess, cuz he used them for practical sources such as cleaning stumps out in the yard and other places. If explosives were used around the truck and they accidentally detonated, that’s a possibility. If they were in the truck, maybe they weren’t tied down right or something. He speaker2: Right. You know, speaker1: for some people, at the heart of every complex situation is a solution that involves high explosives. speaker2: Yeah. But the jury. Oh, yeah. Well, that’s like our our daughter when she was in her her teens. Everything was a high explosive. speaker1: Yes. speaker2: You can’t go out. Boom. speaker1: Yeah. We had speaker2: do your homework. Boom. Anyway, the coroner’s jury determined that the death was was an accident. speaker1: It was accidental. Yeah. speaker2: Accidental because of the explosion. Right. speaker1: Because of the explosives. speaker2: Yes. But people who knew Granger pointed out that he was mechanically skilled and knew how to handle dangerous materials. that does not eliminate the possibility of an accident. Skilled people can have accidents, especially in bad weather, in isolated terrain, at night, and when attempting to do takeoff somewhere off of the planet surface.
[14:00] speaker1: I’m going to drive with a with a pickup truck full of explosives during a lightning storm. speaker2: So, anyway, this is a low possibility on the list. It’s part of why some friends struggled with the conclusion. speaker1: Right. Right. And then, of course, the second one is intentional deletion. Okay. speaker2: Um Uh uh the note and will are definitely um nothing to be ignored. Okay. Giving away your possessions, preparing for departure, using language that transforms uh the ending into a journey. Those are all serious signs that deserve uh u comparison, not. speaker2: compassion. speaker1: Well, I can’t. speaker2: We’re trying to make it. Yeah. speaker1: Your glasses, dear. speaker2: Yeah. compassion. speaker1: We we write crib notes so that you know anyway uh it deserves looking into and realizing that if somebody did that that there’s a reason that maybe they need a little bit of help but uh none of us are inside his mind and the evidence only shows us what we can see on paper what we know as a fact. speaker2: Okay, now we’re getting more into the the heart of the matter here and then there is the extraterrestrial theory. So to be very clear where there is no credible evidence that Granger Taylor was taken up aboard a UFO by aliens. Darn. But it would be unfair to treat that part of the story only as a punchline because he appears to have found real meaning in the idea. Whether that belief came from dreams, imagination, spiritual longing, isolation, a mental health health crisis, or some blend of things we we cannot now recover, his words mattered to him. speaker2: But there is another UFO theory speaker1: that very few you have ever explored. As a matter of fact, I think only a couple of people I have ever heard even talk about it. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: Okay. What if Granger in his mad brilliance believed that he had successfully converted his truck into a shuttle craft? speaker2: That is so cool. speaker1: Yeah. And his plan was to lift off from the Earth and meet the alien craft in the upper atmosphere. When you think of it. His mechanical skills were off the chart. The truck was chalk full of flu of fuel, meaning the explosives. speaker2: He probably had other fuel on it, too. speaker1: Okay. Enough that when it blew up, it shattered into fragments, right? speaker2: Um and he and he drew a map. This is what I was going to say about the map. He drew a map that pointed in the opposite direction of where his truck was found. speaker1: Right. speaker2: So that if anyone followed him, they were far away from his blastoff zone. speaker1: Right. speaker2: So they were safe. speaker1: They wouldn’t get hurt. Yes. speaker2: Right. So a shuttle craft explosion explanation could be valid. It was a common theme in sci-fi at that culture at that time. It was an explanation for how people got from a planet to a spaceship. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: You know, it wasn’t always beam me up, Scotty. There was a lot of shuttle crafting going on, speaker1: right? speaker2: Okay. speaker1: Back then, everybody wanted a shuttlecraft. speaker2: Oh, yeah. I wanted a shuttle craft, but um you know, he couldn’t create a a transporter. A shuttlecraft was the next best thing, speaker1: right? speaker2: You know, so the shuttlecraft explanation can be very valid if you think about it. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: And it would have made sense to him to make a shuttlecraft. speaker1: So there’s a tenderness in that even even amid the tragedy. The idea of being called somewhere else, of finding beings who understand you, of escaping the limits of the world you’re in, reaching to a place where you feel you belong. Those ideas are ancient. They appear in religious stories, folklore, science fiction, and dreams. Granger Ger, pardon me, Granger gave them a 20th century form, an alien spaceship in the rainy forests of British Columbia. And perhaps that is why The story survives. It sits at the meeting point of two very different kinds of mystery. One is forensic. What exactly happened at that blast site? The other is emotional. Why did this intensely gifted, unusual man feel that leaving Earth was what he needed? We can all sympathize. Who among us has not asked, "Where is my true tribe? And where do I have to go to find them?".
[16:00] speaker2: There’s a danger in this story in stories like this though. We can turn them into some some kind of UFO. guy forgets everything else and blows himself up. Granger Taylor was not the only man who left a note about aliens. He was a son of was not an only man who just I mean this wasn’t his life. speaker2: He wasn’t just some guy who left a note and blew himself up. speaker1: Yeah. speaker2: You know i mean speaker1: he had a tremendous legacy that he left behind. speaker1: Yeah. He was a son. He was a friend. He was a man with feelings. He was a person with habits, humor, frustration, talent. He was an all-around guy and he he had a life. speaker1: Mhm. speaker2: And he fixed my car. Well, not my car, but somebody’s car speaker1: and it would have been better afterwards. speaker2: Yeah. speaker1: Yeah. I think that’s why the spaceship in his yard is so haunting. It wasn’t a polished Hollywood saucer. It m it was made from satellite dishes and effort. It was a physical expression of curiosity. And it said, "I want to know how this works. I want to get closer to the impossible". speaker1: And there’s something beautiful about that, don’t you think? speaker2: Yes. something awesome about him taking his dream, turning it into something you can actually look at. A lot of us have our dreams inside, but we don’t even try to manifest them, even if it’s manifesting them speaker1: even on a that was sort of like his personal drawing board. And but the tragedy is that curiosity and pain can sometimes coexist in the same person. Intelligence doesn’t make somebody invulnerable. speaker2: No. you know, talent uh doesn’t guarantee understanding. Just cuz you’re smart or you’re extraordinarily smart at anything doesn’t mean that you don’t have problems in life. Sometimes it actually makes it worse because sometimes when you’re really really smart, you can’t connect with people who who it’s like you don’t get simple things speaker1: right. So that’s worth sitting with. We often tell stories about brilliant people as if brilliance is a pro is a protective force as if a gifted mind can engineer its way out of loneliness, despair, fear or confusion. Unfortunately, these things can actually isolate us because people are more complicated than their gifts. That’s a very profound line, isn’t it? speaker2: Yeah, I wrote that. speaker1: You you’re so smart. speaker2: I live that sometimes. speaker1: That’s what I love about you, your mind. speaker2: I love lots about you. speaker1: Uh when I was thinking about this case. I didn’t really picture this alien spacecraft first. I pictured the rain on his windshield when he was driving. This torrent of rain and trying to look through it. I pictured that dark street he was driving down with his heart pounding, thinking, I got to I I got to do this. I’m going to do this. I’m going to do this. And all that, you know, apprehension, is this going to work? Is this not going to work? I pictured what he was feeling as he left his family. family behind him. I pictured all of that. I pictured that note and maybe what was he thinking when his mom and dad what you know was he thinking I hope my mom and dad are going to be okay when they find that more than. speaker1: more than the thrill that he might have been feeling. Maybe that was me. Maybe that’s my thoughts. speaker2: Mhm. speaker1: But I was wondering cuz I know he must have been really excited. excited and really thrilled and really really amped about going, but I was just wondering what was in the back of his mind. speaker2: Right. The evidence points towards a tragic earth earthly ending. The mythology point. speaker1: No, no, no, speaker2: no, speaker1: no. I was all I wasn’t done. speaker2: Oh, I’m sorry. speaker1: You cut me off. speaker2: Well, we’re not. speaker1: You could talk about the edited. You could talk about the evidence in a minute.
[18:00] speaker2: Okay. Cuz I was also thinking about the storm around him. speaker1: Oh, okay. speaker2: Yeah, that storm. was so loud and so airpiercing that that blast of his shuttle craft, if you will, his car, his truck rather, bursting so violently that everything was shattered into the smallest pieces was lost in the rage of the storm on that faithful night. speaker1: Right? speaker2: You know, can you imagine? It was almost almost unbearably cinematic. speaker2: Mhm. speaker2: If you think of it that way, I think that’s why I have I had to frame it in the in what he was thinking about the other way cuz it would have been easy to think of I’m going to see the aliens. I’m going to do this. Hit take off. Boom. That would have been more like a movie and and it it it it would have made me not hook into the compassion of what this man was really feeling. what he really expected. And now his family is living with the the consequences of that night of that loss for the rest of their lives. speaker1: Right. So I’m going to go back to my. speaker2: Yeah. Go back to the the evidence it points towards a tragic and earthly ending. speaker1: Yeah, that’s sad. speaker2: And the mythology points towards the stars. And maybe both tell us something not about whether aliens came for Granger, but about the human need to make a story from a loss that feels too large to hold. In the official account, Granger died in an explosion in 1980. In the legend, he went somewhere beyond the sky. speaker1: Yeah. Straight up. speaker2: Straight up. And in the. speaker1: There’s a ranger. There’s a Oh, no. Don’t let me do that. speaker2: Our respects to Granger and his memory. Um, in the As she said this, she was pointing in different directions. It’s I’m sorry I have to gather myself up here. So, anyway, in the deepest deepest version of the story, he remains a difficult and fascinating deeply human man whose life cannot be reduced to either explanation. speaker2: You know, if you’re somebody, this is just I just thought about this, you know, and I think we need to say this. If you’re somebody who is struggling with or thinking about self-termination in any way or selfharming in any way, um there are crisis lines out there for you. speaker1: and there are people who want to help. Um, because I just thought about this, I don’t have the numbers with me. speaker1: I think in the United States and Canada, you can call or text 988 for immediate crisis support. speaker2: Oh, that’s good to know. speaker1: Um, but please reach out. You’re, you know, you’re important and you matter. Everyone is worthy of life and love. So, if you feel that way, reach out. speaker2: Right. Yeah. Please. So, if anybody wants to get any further further reading done on this fellow. We recommend looking for uh contemporary reporting, the Canadian press coverage of the 1986 coroners finding and documentary reporting that includes voices from people who knew Granger. speaker1: Yeah, we look through that stuff. It’s really really good. We did a lot of research um on that stuff as we were writing this up. And remember, if you’re ever if you’re ever tempted to simplify a strange story into a neat answer, Remember, Granger Taylor, sometimes a mystery is not just a question waiting to be solved. Sometimes it’s a life asking to be remembered. speaker2: Well, on that note, speaker1: well, before that, speaker2: oh, speaker1: what do you think about the guy with the TARDIS? What do you think? He’s trying to remember who he is. speaker2: Oh, this so bad. speaker1: Now, on that note, speaker2: on that note, thank you for listening to Spooky Coop. I’m Paul. speaker1: And I’m Michelle. speaker2: Stay curious. speaker1: Stay kind. speaker2: And if you hear something strange in the storm, speaker1: run. No. speaker2: Maybe check whether it’s thunder first, speaker1: then run. speaker2: So, dear listeners, speaker1: wait, before you run, record it and send it to us. speaker2: That’s right. Get a record if you have enough time safe time to do it. So, dear listeners, be safe, be good. We hope you have a wonderful week. speaker1: We’ll see you in a few days. speaker2: That’s right. Until next time when we see you speaker1: in the spooky coop. speaker2: Say bye to speaker1: Bye.