What begins as a routine call about a possible trespasser quickly spirals into one of the strangest mysteries ever reported from a U.S. state park. When two rangers found and then destroyed a massive woven shelter deep in the woods, they never expected it to reappear fully rebuilt less than 24 hours later, leaving behind more questions than answers.

I received this report from Kyle & Cam at Expanded Perspectives:

"Hey guys, I have to be a little vague in this story, and please don't use my name in the email. Just call me Ranger Rick. My boss told me a couple of years ago that when this incident occurred, he didn't want people to know about the location, so we couldn't specify exactly where it took place. Since he no longer works at the park, I figured now I could share a vague version of the story. I know at least one coworker who listens to your show, so hopefully, they will be cool with it.

While working at a state park, one of my less enjoyable duties was manning the non-emergency phone line. The calls varied from people reporting trash on a trail or needing advice to avoid getting lost, to occasionally receiving reports about a suspected homeless person camping in a restricted area or a hunter on conservation land. That's how this call started, but it didn't end there.

This call came from a private landowner whose house bordered park property. It was an area miles away from the public trails; not even your worst lost hiker would end up there. They reported hearing strange noises in the woods behind their home, and the husband claimed to have seen a figure walking in the woods from his back deck. He estimated the figure was walking into the park property. They had reported that hunters had used this land in the past and suspected that this might be the case again. One strange piece of information they provided was that they never saw a flashlight or a campfire.

When I had some free time that day, I asked a fellow ranger, Ranger Roy, to join me in looking around the woods behind the property. We figured it would be a typical scenario: find a trail camera and report it, or, unfortunately, encounter a homeless man's encampment. We started walking into the woods on the park's property. After about ten minutes of hiking, we hadn’t noticed any signs of human activity, no trail cameras, no corn piles, and no fresh trash or beer cans. Just as we were about to head back, Roy saw it: a large structure made out of branches.

Now, I teach wilderness survival. I've taught how to make lean-tos, A-frames, and even cabins. But this was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was three domes connected by small tunnels. The strangest part of its construction was that no string or anything else was tying it together; it was woven from sticks and branches. Initially, we weren’t creeped out; we were just impressed. That changed when we started looking around inside and noticed there was no sign of human activity at all - no trash, no food, no handmade sleeping bags, or any other products, just a bed made of branches and leaves.

The next part may upset your listeners, but when we called the park manager to report what we had found, he ordered us to destroy it. We spent time tearing the whole thing down, and both Roy and I were upset about it. We even joked about using it as a campsite. I'm glad we didn’t because the next part is what shook my beliefs.

The following day, we were sharing our story with everyone, and I, wanting to impress a female coworker, decided to take her on a hike in the area. We drove the Polaris to the property and hiked to where the structure used to be, only to find that it was no longer gone; it had somehow been rebuilt in less than 18 hours. This freaked me out. We quickly got out of there, and the part that could get me in a bit of trouble is that we didn’t tell anyone it had been rebuilt." A