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The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck
The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck is a documentary-style audio descent into a place that shouldn't exist—but very much insists that it does.
Once a forgotten military outpost in the depths of Northern Ontario, Bootstuck has taken on a life of its own. Discovered only through a pile of mislabeled cassette tapes at a Sudbury garage sale, the story of Bootstuck slowly unravels through scattered interviews, cryptic clues, and increasingly bizarre residents. The deeper you listen, the more you realize — this isn't just a town. It's a puzzle. And somewhere in that puzzle?
A plane crash that changed everything.
Somewhere between folklore, found audio, and fever dream, Bootstuck blurs the line between documentary and delusion—offering listeners a place to get lost in, over and over again.
The Unorganized Township of Bootstuck
TAPE 23 - “Time, Pills, and the Sears Catalogue”
This tape starts with snowmobiling. Or rather, the sound of snowmobiling — since the machines don’t move, the locals just make noises and call it “Skidoo.” Caleb provides ear-wind simulation.
What follows is a baffling rundown of Bootstuck’s print-based “social media flyer” (which might be Facebook, or a hand-drawn newspaper), an attempt to replicate the Sears catalogue by hand, a supplement run “from the mothers,” and a local philosophy that includes boots falling off, yelling “John!” into the void, and using wood for everything.
The more I listen, the more convinced I am: these people might actually believe they’re hosting the Olympics.
www.bootstuck.com
All right, back to the winter activities there. Do you do any snowmobiling up in Bootstuck?
Whoop, Damn right. We do snowmobileiling. We call it Skidoo. Whoop,
Skidoo?
Yep, you do just skidoo. Woo! That's what we say. We make all sorts of noises like this.
You make noises? I’m just gonna take a guest here that we make the noises because the snowmobiles don't work.
They don't go anywhere. They stay in the snow quite nice. Think about the wind going in your hair. Sometimes Caleb stands close to your ear like this. Think about that.
It's like a simulator.
Submarines are a little different. They go underwater.
That's No, simulators, not a submarine.
In a nutshell an acorn top. Yeah. It's going to be coming around in the social media media flyer next week is that we're going to do skoo racing. social media flyer
It’s coming around. Don't you know it? It tells me what's going on and what's hot and what thems are.
Oh, so it's a newspaper.
It's's a social media flyer.
It's Facebook, but it comes out in print. Newspapers are always old news. Up to date. You know what I mean?
Newpapers come out every day.
Not here. It's kind of like a hard thing to do if you were to draw all those photographs by hands. One time, I tried to replicate the Searce catalogue because I didn't have much to do for four years. So I just sat down and looked through each one and tried to replicate it. Then a man came and he had a machine type thing. You put the paper on the machine. It would make another copy of the same thing without having to draw it. We don't use it anymore very much, but it's got a nice light.
Are you home now?
No, I'm not. I'm picking up the supplements from the mothers. I got a whole bag of pills. Better than Flstone vitamins anyway. Whoop, see what happens.
You guys, do you have a drug problem?
No, we got it under control. Everybody's doing it. Hold on, I got to go down the stairs. Okay. I want me to know what to think. Find a can of peas. That's okay.
I have completely derailed from where we began this conversation.
There's so much more to tell you. I wish I had some time actually.
I want to start doing something where we finish every call with a thought.
Oh, wow. We got so much wisdom.
So give me a bit of wisdom. from Bootstock.
Whoop! If you're from Bootstock, you know that the left Boot is gonna fall off first. So keep in mind, it's gonna happen, they got to suck to your foot, so the mud stil like that. That's a bit of advice. Oh, what's happening here? Okay, yeah, I know more information for you now. Left shoe should be tied up. Whoop. Also, you can use wood for anything. Yep, whoop. Really? I think we do with just the one, but. Don't need for a tennis racket here.. I think we're good for advice there. I've really gotten a good cross section. Don't walk back slowly. Is there any advice in bootstock about being quiet? What's that now? Yeah! John A! Ain't nobody named Johnny, but when we get excited, we yell,John!" And then everybody look around, then we get all quiet, like and wait for a response. All right, All right. All right. Whoop. Dave! Dave, clear off the coffee table and then the new dance.
