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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 32 - "The Shared Reading Bulb"
Tape 32 begins mid-conversation as usual, with someone attempting to introduce the mayor before getting sidetracked by vague mouth-based declarations. The bulk of the recording centers on an impromptu town council meeting about real estate agents coming to Bootstuck and the possibility of building 50 new homes. This is seen as “good for business,” though what business that is remains unclear.
The meeting quickly derails into a spirited debate over Bootstuck’s communal reading bulb, a single light source rotated between residents so they can read a few pages each. As expected, the addition of 50 new residents would strain the bulb-sharing schedule, and Dave—who controls the town’s only power outlet—is mentioned as the logistical bottleneck.
www.bootstuck.com
I want to bring in your mayor. I'm recording when you and the mayor were talking about something here. Do you mind if I... That'd be real nice. I'm going to cut to that. Hang on a second. I do lots of things with my mouth. Oh. One of the things that I do is I talk to you with it. A couple of notes. We had another council meeting that you didn't know about, and we talked about real estate agents coming to Boots, Doug. That's going to be good for business. It's going to be great for business, but we've got a couple of problems, and that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you currently have the reading bulb? Let me check. Now wash out your foot. Get out the sponge and wash out your foot.
Unknown:Get out the hose.
Speaker 00:Now wash out your foot. Stick on the dirt. Now wash out your foot. Get your forks in the water, man. No, ain't got it. Wait. Is it Wednesday? It's Wednesday? Yeah, Dave got it for Wednesday and Thursday. So two more days for Dave. So here's the problem at hand is that... We could divide the property up and boot stuff into enough room to put up about 50, 50 homes. Wait a minute. Hold on now. You're going to bring in 50 more homes? Well, the houses are to invite other people from other places to come to us and to be bootstuck in. I guess we could call ourselves. Well, I'm not going to work so good for the reading bulb because we kind of have a light bulb that we share between us. We like to just turn it on and read a chapter or two pages and then rotate the book around upside down and give it to somebody else. And then they'll finish it off. So we kind of share the goings of reading around here. Is Dave a around? Dave right beside me. Okay, what does Dave think? I don't think the light bulb's gonna make it too far with 50 more people. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. We'll have to have a plan. We could solve the problem by, uh, one, getting more light bulbs. Only problem with that is that the only guy with power in town is Dave. Uh, we'd have to run it off of, uh, off of his kitchen outlet. But I don't know if we can stretch it. a cord long enough to go 50 new homes. I'm voting no. You're voting no, okay. Caleb's shaking his head yes. He got a new axe. Oh. I've got the reading light for two more days. How long before I get the reading light back? I would appreciate if I could increase the time that I have for the reading bulb because I have to read all of the documentation for what goes on in the town. So if I could get an extra two minutes. every Wednesday and Friday. Dave, what we'll do is we'll just read in the kitchen under the kitchen light. That'll be okay. Otherwise, I will have to read documentation at the Tuesday, the Wednesday, and Thursday bonfires. Oh, am I inviting to those ones? Because you didn't invite me to any of the council meetings, Mr. Mayor, and I'm kind of upset about that. Well, you've never actually officially asked if you wanted to be in council. Would you like to be a member? Not really. I was just wondering if you guys had Lego nights, because that's kind of fun. Council Lego nights? Yeah, you do that? I don't know anybody in town who has council Lego. Well, that's okay if you let go. I'll catch you. Did you sneeze? You'll have to get two more extension cords and two of them six pluggers. We should be fine. It's just about time for me to turn off the bulb and give it to Dave. So I got to go. I'm going to put my socks in the microwave and go for a walk. See you later.
Unknown:Bye-bye.
