All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s02e18 Odd Dwellings.eng

[Dan narrating]

[rhythmic music]

- What if I told you
there's a neighborhood

that's a literal circus?

- Elephants roam
through backyards.

Giants trim their high hedges.

Bearded ladies
host the book club.

- It's somewhere
that being atypical

is not perceived as unusual.

It's perfectly normal.

- Or that you could live
rent free in a stadium?

- He calls up every drunk buddy,

every drinking
friend that he knows.

- They're hanging
out, they're laughing.

And one of 'em tells Tom,

"You know, if you brought

a little bit more
furniture in here,

this would make a pretty
kick-ass apartment.

- How about a layover
that lasts a lifetime?

- Mehran's residency
in Terminal 1A

of Charles de Gaulle
Airport goes on for months

and then goes on for years.

- And there's really not much

that any officials
can do about it.

- These are the dwellings so odd

they are truly

Unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Our homes, however
strange they might be,

are our sanctuaries.

They are where we
feel safe and secure,

comfortable in our own skin.

But what if that skin happens
to be covered in thick hair,

or tattoos, or even
pierced by fish hooks?

Witness an unbelievable town

where the very odd
is very normal.

[dramatic music]

- In the early and
mid-20th century,

traveling circuses and sideshows

are still a popular form of
entertainment in America.

A caravan can roll into town

and transform a
sleepy neighborhood

into something fantastic
and out of this world.

There are rides,
exotic animal acts,

and of course the freak show.

[rhythmic music]

- These sideshows
highlight dwarves, giants,

bearded ladies, conjoined twins.

For many of these folks,

this is the best opportunity
they have to make a living.

But life is grueling
in the sideshow.

People get tired of
being stared at for money

and they really just
wanna find a place

they can call their own.

- [Dan] Welcome to
Gibsonton, aka Gibtown,

population strange.

[upbeat music]

- Gibtown is on the
Gulf Coast of Florida,

and it becomes this place

where a lot of these circus
performers can put down roots

and it's somewhere
that being atypical

is not perceived as unusual.

It's perfectly normal.

- One of the first residents
of Gibtown is Al Tomaini,

known as the
world's tallest man.

He stands at 7 feet, 11 inches.

He becomes the local fire
chief, starts a fishing club,

and even settles down with
Evelyn, the Half Woman.

- [Dan] Word spreads on
the sideshow circuit,

and by 1967, more than
100 circus performers

call Gibtown home.

- This is a place

where these circus
performers could thrive.

Like Louise Capps
Hill, an armless girl,

is able to drive a
tractor, milk cows,

and raise her kids on her farm.

Conjoined twins run
the fruit stand.

Grady Stiles, the Lobster Boy,
makes the place his home.

- [Dan] But this utopia
won't last forever.

- The popularity of
traveling sideshows erodes,

and fewer and fewer new
performers move into Gibtown.

By the 1980s, it
pretty much becomes

a circus retirement community.

Most of the old guard
has passed away by now.

There are some museums
and a few old timers left,

so if you hurry, you can
still catch a faded glimpse

of the old glory of Gibtown.

[dramatic music]

- What more can you ask for

than a place to be
completely yourself?

That's why a lot of
us spend big bucks

making our house feel like home.

Maybe you add a story
for the kids on the way

or you want a
tricked out man cave.

Or if you're a very rich widow,

your inspiration comes from a
much more unbelievable place.

[dramatic music]

- Widow Sarah Winchester had
a particularly bad run of it.

She's lost her child,
her father, her mother,

and her husband William,

who was heir to the massive
Winchester Rifle fortune.

[upbeat music]
[guns booming]

- [Dan] The Winchester
1873 repeating rifle

is touted as the rifle
that won the West.

And widow Sarah now
owns 50% of the company.

- Sarah inherits $20 million,

which would be half a billion
dollars in today's terms.

But all these
resources do nothing

to heal the grief in her heart.

- After the loss of her
children and then her husband,

she's extremely vulnerable

and she's starts
asking questions of,

why is this happening to me?

What is it about me that has
caused so much loss in my life?

And she starts to worry that
she might even be cursed.

In this moment of vulnerability,

she chooses to consult
a spiritualist.

- This medium tells
her she is cursed

because her fortune
is blood money.

The spirits of all
the Native Americans

and others that were killed
by the Winchester rifles

are essentially
exacting revenge.

[thunder cracking]

- She's told by the
medium that the only way

to lift the curse is to
uproot herself, move west,

and build an enormous
house as an act of tribute

for the lives lost by the
fortune she has inherited.

- [Holly] Sarah moves
out to California

and she buys a pretty
modest farmhouse.

It's eight rooms, but it's
on a massive tract of land.

And Sarah begins building.

- She employs large carpentry
crews round the clock,

building room after room,
hallway after hallway.

- She adds hundreds of
rooms to this house.

- [Dan] But it's not just
the size of the project

that's stunning, it's
the bizarre layout.

- There are very tiny doors
that open to huge ballrooms.

And there are massive doors
that just open to a brick wall.

There's skylights in the floor.

- There are hallways
that lead to nothing.

There are doors that you
can open up stories up

and you're just looking
out into the sky.

Sarah is doing this
because, according to lore,

she's trying to confuse spirits
and send them off track.

[suspenseful music]

- Crews work independently.

None of them know what
the other crews are doing.

- No one sees the whole
picture except for her.

And so they're building
up into each other's work,

but in ways that are never
gonna make any sense.

This house becomes such a
cockamamie arrangement of rooms

no one can make their
way through the house

except for her.

- It's hard to
even call it a maze

because a maze has a purpose.

You're supposed to
end up somewhere.

This is just
strange and bizarre.

- As the construction drags
on and on year after year,

construction crews begin
to spot strange phenomena.

- Workers start
experiencing odd cold spots,

random things moving.

Several workers say
they see the outline

in the shape of Native
American warriors

happening again and again.

[ominous music]

Someone says they
see the apparition

of an old woman
holding a candle.

Sarah's assertion that this
is about the spirit world

suddenly might hold
a little water.

- [Dan] By 1922, Sarah
has spent $5 million

on this 160-room tribute
to her own torment.

The one thing that
finally halts the project?

Her own mortality.

- Sarah dies in
September of 1922,

and construction
immediately stops.

In fact, there are nails
half banged into walls.

This bizarre home is
purchased by a consortium

at a bargain basement price

of just $120,000.

No one else wanted it.

No one else knew
what to do with it.

And today it is one of the
most widely visited curios

in the California area.

- If Sarah's maze
successfully confused

a few menacing poltergeists,
I say well done.

- How far would you go

to support your
favorite sports team?

Maybe buy season tickets, shave
your head, paint your face.

One devoted Phillies
fan takes team spirit

to truly unbelievable heights.

- It's October 1979,
and it's announced

that Pope John Paul II will
be visiting Philadelphia.

This is hugely exciting, right?

Philly has a giant
Catholic population,

so there's a huge frenzy
awaiting the Pontiff.

- [Dan] But it's going
to take more than prayer

to make room for the onslaught
of devout Philadelphians

desperate for a view and a
blessing from the Holy Father.

It needs what every big
city lacks most, parking.

- But a lot of Philadelphians

breathe this huge sigh of relief

when it's announced
that Veterans Stadium,

the home of the
Philadelphia Phillies

and the Philadelphia Eagles,

will be opening
up its parking lot

to accommodate the
number of people

that are gonna try to park.

So, phew, okay,
problem solved.

- One person who's not happy
about this is Tom Garvey.

Tom runs parking
for Veterans Stadium.

And he knows that he does
not have enough staff

to deal with the crowd,

so he needs people and
he needs them fast.

So what does he do?

He scrambles.

He calls up every drunk
buddy, every drinking friend,

every bouncer and
bartender that he knows,

and he gets them
to join his staff

and work for him on
parking at Veterans Stadium.

- But now he's got
another situation.

How am I gonna get all
these scalawags and ruffians

to actually get up on the day
at 4:00 AM to start the shift?

- [Dan] That's when he
comes up with the idea

to bring them all in
for a slumber party.

- Tom happens to have keys
to most of the facility.

And he remembers

that there's one old
concession area near left field

that's loaded with
furniture he agreed to store

for an Eagles player

who was sure he was getting
booted from the team.

He can just sneak everybody
in there for the night.

- This must be a dream
for this group of Phillies

and Eagles fans, to be sleeping

in the catacombs
of Veterans Stadium.

- They're hanging
out, they're laughing,

and they're looking
at the space,

and one of them tells Tom,
"You know, if you brought

a little bit more
furniture in here,

this would make a pretty
kick-ass apartment."

- [Dan] Suddenly an idea
flashes across Tom's brain.

Why doesn't he just
make it his apartment?

- So Tom decides to actually
take his friend's advice.

And the day after the Pope's
visit, he moves in in secret.

- So right under the
stadium owners' noses,

Tom starts creating this
fully-functioning apartment.

He's putting up walls,
he's got extra chairs,

he sneaks in a refrigerator,

gets himself a little hot plate,

you know, for all the hot dogs

he's naturally gonna be eating.

- And to add a touch of class,

he even manages some
floor-to-floor carpeting

in the form of astroturf
from the stadium.

And how does he keep himself
clean and ready to work?

The stadium showers and
bathrooms, of course.

Tom takes a quick
trip down the hall

and he's ready for the day.

- [Dan] Sounds
pretty convenient.

So how does Tom stay
under the radar?

- Tom creates an
elaborate fake facade

to fool anyone that
might open the door

to the old concession stand.

- If you accidentally
find this stand,

the first thing you're gonna see

is just this wall
of cardboard boxes,

and you just close the door
and just be on your way.

In reality, Garvey
sets up the boxes

in such a way that it becomes
this sort of intricate maze

so that when he walks in,

he knows how to get
behind all of it

to get to where his
apartment actually is.

But here's the kicker.

He lives in this
bachelor pad undetected

for two years.

- What Tom pulls off is
pretty extraordinary.

This stadium has 65,000 seats.

The number of people passing
through has to be enormous,

and yet he's able to live
in this 60-foot-long,

30-foot-wide,

that's 1,800 square feet,
apartment undetected.

[suspenseful music]

- [Dan] Even though
Tom bids farewell

to his stadium
apartment in 1981,

he keeps it a
secret for decades.

- It's not until 2020,

16 years after Veterans
Stadium is demolished,

that Tom finally writes a memoir

where he tells his story of
living in the concession stand.

[dramatic music]

- Hiding in the bowels
of a sports stadium

might sound like
quite an adventure,

but at least Tom Garvey

could leave and catch a
movie once in a while.

Our next nomad wishes
he had that luxury.

Witness the strange
tale of the Airport Man.

[rhythmic music]

- In 1988,

at Charles de Gaulle
International Airport in Paris,

a man shows up
that is desperate.

- His name is Mehran
Karimi Nasseri,

and he's an Iranian refugee

who's just been
expelled from Britain

for failing to show documents.

He claims that his documents

indicating that he is
a refugee were stolen.

- So Britain has kicked him out.

France doesn't know
what to do with him.

The only option is to
send him back to Iran.

Unfortunately, for Mehran,

going back to Iran
is not an option.

He says he was exiled as a
protestor in the late 1970s,

and so they would refuse
to let him back in.

- It looks like he's going to
be stuck for at least a night.

So he stakes out a
corner of Terminal 1A,

he finds some plastic
airport benches,

he procures some
airline blankets,

and he basically sets up a
small little living room.

- Airport officials see this,

and they don't get too upset

because they figured this
will sort itself out.

After all, how long could
anybody live at an airport?

- [Dan] The answer to that
question is much longer

than anyone expects.

- Mehran's residency
in Terminal 1A

of Charles de Gaulle
Airport goes on for months

and then goes on for years.

Terminal 1A truly
becomes his home.

[dramatic music]

- And there's really not much

that any officials
can do about it.

They can't compel him to leave
the airport to get arrested.

And he cannot physically
get on any plane elsewhere

without papers.

- It's a bizarre way to live,
but he makes the best of it.

He befriends passing travelers.

He gets to know
the airport staff.

This becomes his world.

- He falls into a
pretty steady routine.

He gets up in the morning.

He goes and takes a shower
in the airport bathroom.

He will buy himself
a little breakfast.

[Mehran speaking indistinctly]

- He's kind of going about
a normal daily routine

that a lot of us have,
except it's all taking place

within the walls of
Charles de Gaulle.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] After an astonishing
18 years living in Terminal 1A,

a sad twist of fate
grants Mehran his freedom.

- In 2006, Mehran
develops health conditions

that, for once, cannot be
addressed by the airport doctor,

so he has to leave the airport.

- He lives in France for
the rest of his life,

but he can't leave Paris.

They're not deporting him,

but he also can't
really go anywhere else.

And he really struggles with
finding a life for himself

outside of the airport,

so much so that he goes
back to the airport.

And it is there in 2022 that
he dies of a heart attack,

in the one place that had
felt more like home to him

than anywhere else in the world
for more than two decades.

[dramatic music]

- It goes to show you home
is where the heart is,

even if that's a hard bench
across from the duty-free shop.

- For those of you

who have trouble getting
to sleep on an airplane,

you might have reservations
about this next odd dwelling.

[tense driving music]

- For 20 years,
74-year-old Bruce Campbell

has been living in
the secluded forest

outside Hillsboro, Oregon.

- We're talking the
deep woods here.

And so you might be
thinking a rustic log cabin

or a repurposed cave.

But no, you have to think
of the most ridiculous,

impractical thing to
use to build your home.

- [Dan] Bruce's home?

A massive Boeing 727 airliner.

[dramatic music]

- If you take all the seats

and overhead bins
out of a plane,

it's surprisingly spacious.

He has a living room,
he has a bedroom,

he even has a fully
functional kitchen.

- It is that same cramped
airplane bathroom,

except he's now got plumbing

that takes it to the
outside of the plane.

But not only that, he's got two.

He's got his own bathroom
and a guest bathroom.

- Bruce loves living in a plane.

He's an electrical engineer,
and he's surrounded

by the actual working
mechanisms in the plane.

The cockpit is still intact.

Many of the circuit
breakers still work.

[rhythmic music]

- [Dan] People flock
from around the world

to got a glimpse of Bruce's
dream airplane home.

And he always gets
the same question.

- Did this plane crash here?

If a plane crashed, there'd
be debris everywhere.

It'd be impossible.

Instead, he buys his 727 from
a jetliner salvage company

for a cool hundred
thousand dollars.

- Now the plane has to make it

through the streets of Hillsboro

all the way to the
middle of the woods.

- Remember, this is a huge 727.

So in order to fit
through the streets,

he has to remove the
wings and the tail.

And once he has the
plane reassembled

on his 10 acres of land,

he spends two years
turning it into a home.

- An airplane is not meant
to exist on soft ground.

He has to create foundations
and support systems

to bear the weight of hundreds
of thousands of pounds.

This is a real
engineering endeavor.

- He attaches supports
to the front wheel

using concrete blocks and
uses a large metal pole

to keep the plane in place.

If you ever do visit
Bruce's jetliner home,

he only has one rule for guests,

and it's the same rule in
airports across the country.

You gotta take your shoes off.

[dramatic music]

- If living in a plane that
can't fly seems to defy logic,

try living in a house where
the couch is on the ceiling.

- On a little island
between Germany and Poland,

there's a seaside town
named Trassenheide,

on which is a house,
that to call strange

would be an enormous
understatement.

As you approach the house,

it looks like a typical
German seaside cottage.

That is if your head
is tilted a lot,

because the house is
built upside down.

[dramatic music]

- The roof is the ground

and the front door is
two stories above you.

This house is built by two
Polish architects in 2008,

and it's part of a
larger art exhibit

called "The World Upside Down."

- It looks like it fell from
the sky and landed on its roof.

When you look up at what
should be the first floor,

you see an upside down bench
and an upside down wheelbarrow.

It starts to rattle
your perspective

and really make you disoriented.

- [Dan] Once inside,
things get even stranger.

- Walking into this
house is very unnerving.

The floor is above you.

And attached to the floor are
everyday household objects

sitting totally upside down.

There's a table and a chair
hanging from the ceiling.

So when people go
into this art exhibit,

they often duck for cover

thinking that a couch is just
gonna fall off the ceiling

and hit them.

- The beds are on the ceiling,

with their sheets and
blankets tucked neatly upward.

Plates and forks are mounted
to the table on the ceiling.

Literally every single thing
in the home is upside down.

So there's no
outside perspective

for you to get bearing

that you are not the
one who is upside down

and literally walking
on the ceiling.

- Moreover, the house is
built on a 6% incline.

- To see the things that we
experience in our everyday life

in such a disorient
manner will disorient you,

and it starts to
change your perspective

and how you perceive reality,

because this project throws
it all on its head, literally,

- It's important to
note that this house

is not actually
meant for living in,

it's just meant to visit.

No one wants you
to live upside down

with a toilet on your ceiling.

- When designing a home,
you might grab inspiration

from different sources, like
nature, history, or even art.

But it's the rare man who
finds his creative muse

taking out the trash.

- If you walk in the Red Hook
neighborhood of Brooklyn,

you might pass by in the back
lot of an apartment building

something that looks
rather mundane, a dumpster.

From the outside,

this looks like your standard
green metal dumpster.

But if you knock
on the front door,

you're not going to
find trash inside.

Instead, you'll find a
guy named Gregory Kloehn

living in it.

- [Dan] Gregory is
no Oscar the Grouch,

and this is no
ordinary dumpster.

So how did he end up here?

[dramatic music]

- Gregory is an
Oakland-based artist,

and he has a wife and kids,
and he has a regular home.

But on his constant
visits to New York,

he's frustrated at how
expensive hotels are.

- He sees a dumpster one
day and inspiration strikes.

And he gets the idea
to buy a dumpster

and turn that into a home.

So he pays $2,000 for
this standard dumpster.

And if you think about it,

$2,000, that's
basically four nights

in a hotel in Manhattan.

- Gregory spends six months
turning this six-by-six dumpster

into a house.

And the first thing
he needs is a door.

So he grabs a welder and
creates an opening on one side.

Now he needs some windows,

but there's not a lot of room
to cut those in the dumpster.

He gets the ingenious idea of
using the lid of the dumpster

as an extendable roof.

He installs a crank

so he can crank up the
lid of the dumpster

and put some windows
on the side of it.

- [Dan] Then the real work
begins to transform it

from a dumpster house
to a dumpster home.

- Greg fits it out like a
typical studio apartment.

He has a couch that
can turn into a bed.

He even has a little kitchen,

which is really just
one burner stove,

a little icebox for storage,
and the world's tiniest sink.

- So he does have a toilet
in this dumpster house,

but toilet's probably
too strong a word.

It's basically a toilet
bowl inside a metal box

with a hole in it that
drains into a bucket

that he has to empty out
every time he uses it.

- The shower, unfortunately,
is one of the few things

that cannot be
inside the dumpster.

So on the outside, he's mounted
a ring with a shower curtain

and his running water
to a shower head.

So he does have to
shower outdoors,

but at least he could
do his business inside.

- But he doesn't skimp
on the finishes, right?

He is a designer, and he
wants it to feel luxurious.

So he installs hardwood floors

and buys granite
for the countertops.

And, you know, he can
probably afford to do that

'cause he probably doesn't
need a lot of these materials.

- [Dan] Curious what
it would be like

to spend the night there?

Well, you're in luck.

- Gregory only spends a
couple of months every year

in his dumpster
house in Brooklyn.

And when he is back in Oakland,
he rents this out to people.

- 200 bucks a night,

and all you have to
do is shower outside.

[lighthearted music]

- So the next time

you're walking down
the street in Brooklyn,

be careful where you
dump your coffee cup.

It could land on one
of Gregory's tenants.

Our homes are
designed to protect us

from all the outside
forces that can harm us.

But what if they can't?

What if the world around
you is so treacherous

you need an added layer
of super protection?

Consider the case of one boy

who lives in his
own little world.

- When David Vetter
is born in 1971,

he's diagnosed with a
very rare genetic disease.

It's called severe combined
immunodeficiency, or SCID.

Basically this means
his immune system

can't protect him
from everyday germs

that most of us shrug off.

- To keep David safe,

the doctors have to
take a radical step.

They place him inside of an
enclosed sterile isolation unit.

[atmospheric music]

They pray it's only temporary.

The doctors are convinced

that David's gonna
outgrow this disorder

by the time he's two years old.

- [Dan] But David
doesn't grow out of it,

which means the solution

to keep him safe
until a cure is found

is to place him in a
protective bubble 24/7.

- Doctors set up David's
permanent bubble home

in his bedroom.

This plastic bubble
takes up most of his room

and is made up of a series
of multiple small chambers

for him to move between.

The bubble is
completely sealed off

and is constantly being
pumped with fresh, clean air.

David never touches another
human being with his hands.

He's not allowed to.

And no human ever touches him.

- But he can interact
with doctors, nurses,

and even his family
by means of gloves

that are able to extend
into his enclosure.

- [Dan] It's not long
before David's story

gets picked up by media
outlets nationally.

- He's in magazines, papers.

Year after year, as America
watches him grow up,

as he becomes more
and more famous,

the media even gives him a
nickname, the Bubble Boy.

The name sticks, but obviously
all David wants to do

is get out of the bubble.

- [Dan] In 1977, David
finally gets his chance,

all thanks to the folks at NASA.

- When David is six years old,

NASA designs and gifts
him a protective spacesuit

that costs about $50,000,

and it looks like
a real spacesuit,

which of course is
a thrill for him.

- The suit is connected
to an air compressor

via a long cloth tube,
and a NASA engineer

actually rolls the
compressor behind David

as he exits his bubble home
and out into the bigger world

for the first time.

[dramatic music]

- He throws a frisbee for
the first time in his life,

he actually sees
friends outside,

and he's able to get
a hug from his parents

- [Dan] But the space suit is
only for temporary excursions.

Once his air supply runs out,

David must return to
his bubble home base.

Six years later,

modern medicine offers a
potential permanent solution.

- When David is 12 years old,

he undergoes an experimental
bone marrow transplant

with his sister Catherine.

The hope is that the bone marrow

will spur David's immune
system into working normally.

The procedure comes with
a huge risk of infection.

- It's a major surgery
to do on a child,

and he is adamant that they
absolutely have to try this.

He is ready to get
out of the bubble.

- After the surgery,
everything is looking good.

David's body does not
reject the transplant.

He goes home.

But after a few months,
things take a turn.

[apprehensive music]

His temperature rises.

He has a fever.

And it's thought

that perhaps something was
introduced to his body,

maybe a virus, during
the surgical procedure.

And ultimately David is
unable to fight it off.

And at age 12,
David passes away.

- Even in passing, David
remains a folk hero.

His struggle inspires a
movie with John Travolta

and a song by Paul Simon,
"The Boy in the Bubble."

- When we think of an
advanced mega city,

we probably envision
a modern metropolis

designed by genius architects
and civil engineers,

not a secret lair built by
tiny, six-legged creatures.

[rhythmic music]

- In 2012 in Cerrado, Brazil,

there's a group of
scientists led by Luis Forgi

who are studying this
enormous ant colony.

Because this ant
colony is a relic,

a leftover that's empty of ants,

Forgi realizes that he
can use this as a mold

and have it be a perfect
replica, a model,

of this ant city.

- He wants to somehow illustrate

the true scale of this colony.

- But there's a problem.

Forgi estimates that
this tunnel system

extends more than 26
feet under the ground.

- So if they attempt
to dig it up,

all of these little fine
tunnels are going to collapse.

So Forgi comes up with an idea.

What if there was
something he could do

to reinforce all those tunnels?

So what does it take?

10 tons of concrete.

It'll harden, and then Forgi
and his team begin to dig away.

[rhythmic music]

And it takes months because
this ant colony is intricate.

It's a bunch of nodes with
connecting tubes and chambers.

It's not an easy
task even for a team.

- [Dan] After digging away
the surrounding earth,

what Forgi finds isn't just
a colony, it's a mega city.

- This thing is bonkers.

In addition to being
huge, it's complex.

There are major thoroughfares
and little side roads

leading to chambers.

- And when they
follow these tunnels,

they find they lead to garbage
dumps and fungal colonies.

It's as if these ants
built a municipal system.

- [Dan] The
creatures responsible

for this intricate metropolis
are leafcutter ants.

Next to humans,

they live in one of the most
complex societies on Earth.

- All of these ants have
roles, they have jobs to do.

For example, you've got waste
management workers, soldiers,

and guards,
gardeners, excavators,

and of course, most
important, the queen.

- In addition to
building a mega city

on the scale of Manhattan,
these ants don't rest.

They're working 24/7.

And Forgi estimates that
they've moved 40 tons of dirt

to make this
underground mega city.

- It's not just the
weight, it's the distance.

They have to carry all this
dirt more than a half mile

to excavate it, and all of
that on teeny little ant legs.

So in the end, it's not just
a spectacular structure,

but it should give you
an incredible respect

for the ants who made it

and maybe just a
moment of hesitation

before you step
on them next time.

- We've seen ants who
build like humans.

What about humans
who live like ants?

Consider one
community in Alaska.

- When you picture
small town Alaska,

you might picture a bunch of
sort of huts spread around

or a little village

with a central diner maybe
serving moose burgers.

But what you don't imagine
is a 14-story high-rise

with pretty much everyone in
town living under one roof.

- [Dan] Welcome to Whittier,
Alaska, population 265,

where everyone, from the
banker, to the butcher,

the mayor, to the town mechanic,

can be found under one roof.

- The entire town lives inside
a pastel-colored high-rise

called the Begich Towers.

And it kind of sounds like
a crazy social experiment,

and it sort of is, but
it's a successful one

because it's been
going on for years.

- It's convenient because
it's not just residences,

it's not just apartments.

It's the post office, the
grocery store, clerk's offices,

the courthouse,
all of those things

located in just one building.

So, you know, you forget olive
oil for dinner at one time,

you just run downstairs
to the grocers

and you're back before
your pan even heats up.

[rhythmic music]

- It actually makes
a lot of sense

to have an entire town
in this one building

because you are
talking about Alaska.

You have got these
devastating winters.

So if everything is
in this one place,

you don't have to be
exposed to the elements

and go outside to get anything.

- The only one way into Whittier

is a tunnel carved through
a gigantic mountain,

and the tunnel closes at night.

It becomes insular, but it
becomes deeply protected.

- [Dan] How exactly
did this city

turn into a one-
building dream world?

- The building was originally
built as a barracks

and a command center
for the military.

But as the Navy pulled
out, a railroad came in

and bought the property
around the building.

So it made it very difficult
for people to buy property

to build their own homes.

So they decided, let's
just live in the tower.

Over the years, the community
has become very tight-knit,

some would even say a
little bit too tight-knit

because it makes it a
little difficult to date

and find somebody to marry.

- Fun fact, many residents
have left Whittier

to find a spouse, only to
come back and raise a family

in this unique little
Alaskan utopia.

- In most big cities, a sky
high penthouse apartment

is a sign that you've
really made it.

What if I told you
the same thing is true

in the most remote jungles
of Papua, Indonesia?

[rhythmic music]

- In 1978, a Dutch missionary
named Johannes Veldhuizen

ventures deep into Indonesia

and makes contact
with the Korowai tribe

for the first time.

- Johannes wants to convert
them to Christianity.

But since they've never
had any contact previously

with white missionaries,

he's got his work
cut out for him.

- They don't trust
him very much,

and this is evident by the fact

that he's usually greeted
with a sort of loaded bow

with a barbed arrow in it as
he tries to preach to them

to convert them
through a translator.

- [Dan] But while
Johannes worries

about catching an arrow
with his name on it,

he finds himself captivated
by the tribe's housing.

- They dwell in these
massive treehouses

that extend 150 feet

above the jungle floor.

- We're not talking about tiny
platforms up in the trees.

We're talking about
huge structures,

sometimes 2 or 300 square feet.

These things sometimes

have got 12 or more
people living there,

and sometimes even livestock.

- This is one of the wettest
places on the planet.

They get about 200
inches of rain a year,

so there's flooding,
plus the lower areas

are filled with mosquitoes,
and snakes, and scorpions,

and a variety of other things.

So being way up off the
ground helps you with that.

- The tribe members
reach their homes

by climbing up a notched pole.

Once they arrive,

they pull the pole up

and hitch it to the tree itself,

which is a security system.

Nobody else has any way of
getting up to reach them,

either human or animal.

- [Dan] These massive
engineering marvels

are built without the
aid of any modern tools,

materials, or even measuring.

- To build a tree house,

first they find a
really tall banyan tree,

and they lop the top off.

Then they make a floor out of
branches lashed with rattan

and held up with
a few more poles.

Sago palm leaves cover the
walls, floors, and roof.

Not a single nail is used.

It's all notched and
latched together.

It takes weeks to build
one, but it lasts for years.

- Over the years, since the
arrival of Reverend Johannes,

more and more members
of the Korowai tribe

have begun to leave,
seeking opportunity,

following their curiosity,

and the numbers of the
tribe have begun to dwindle.

And sadly, these
magnificent tree houses

are becoming a thing of the past

and likely to disappear in
the next few generations.

[dramatic music]

- If you wanna see
the Korowai treehouses

before they all vanish,
it's just a few weeks trek

through insect-infested
rainforest.

Not every treehouse
sits high in the clouds.

Some are much more
down to earth.

- In the mid-19th century,
half a million Americans

decide that they're gonna
pick up stakes and move west.

And this means that now they
have to figure out a way

to hew out a life for themselves
in whatever way they can.

- If you haven't struck
it rich in the Gold Rush,

money's gonna be kind of tight.

So the people that
are heading out West

have to think pretty
frugally and out of the box

in order to acquire things
like land and shelter.

- [Dan] Lucky for
these settlers,

they're able to take advantage

of an industry new to
the Pacific Northwest.

- This is a time when
loggers are taking down

these massive cedars, and
sequoias, and redwoods,

all to feed the
insatiable need for lumber

as new towns are being
built across the West.

- So as people are moving
into California, Oregon,

what is today Washington
State, they find this landscape

that looks like it's
been completely harrowed.

[dramatic music]

It is basically full
of these huge stumps,

sometimes 10 feet
high, 30 feet across,

that the lumber industry
has left behind.

And frankly, moving
that stump out,

pulling it out in any
way is too much effort.

- These are stumps of trees
that have been in this region

for 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 years.

They're strong.

They're sturdy.

And these settlers
see an opportunity.

All you'd have to do
now is hollow them out

and you can make a
pretty decent home.

- To create a stump house,

you need to chop or burn
out the center of the stump

to create a shell.

Then you cut out a door,
a couple of windows,

and throw on a roof.

- As for the insides,
they could be left alone.

You could leave them rustic.

Or what you could do is you
could put up walls inside

to build separate rooms,

and suddenly you've
got yourself a house

much faster and much
cheaper than framing one out

and putting one up yourself.

[rhythmic music]

- As whole communities pop up,

stump houses become a
symbol of pioneer life.

- Some of these tree stump
houses are super fancy.

One example is in
Calaveras, California,

you have one stump that's
turned into a dance hall.

- The very first US Post Office

in the northern
Olympic Peninsula

is built in a stump in 1892 by
a man named William McDonald.

And that post office
still exists today.

You can go visit it.

It is now a national
historic site.

- There's no place like home,

whether it's a
multimillion dollar mansion

built to confuse ghosts,

or a sports stadium flop
house that's rent free,

or even stumps carved
from gargantuan forests.

These are dwellings so odd

we can only call them

Unbelievable.

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