CAPTAIN TERRY: In recognition that you,
in the presence of witnesses,
wishes to part take of an authentic Sourtoe cocktail.
Thereby following in the wayward even staggering footsteps
of Captain Rat,
will prove to be a person capable of almost anything.
And is therefore fully entitled to bear
this prestigious certificate, suitable for framing.
But be warned.
This toe must not enter the mouth.
Or be bitten, chewed, or God forbid, swallowed
or pay a twenty-five hundred dollar fine.
And so in light of the above,
you can drink it fast.
You can drink it slow.
But your lips must touch this gnarly toe.
Just your lips.
One. two, three, four. (slide guitar music)
OLD MAN: Dawson City is mentally magnetic.
It doesn't have a crosswalk, it doesn't have a franchise.
It doesn't have a stoplight.
And our sidewalks are still made out of wood.
It is the coolest city on earth.
EYE PATCH MAN: Dawson City is really far away.
Like far away.
YELLOW HAT MAN: There's a lot of things that happen up here
that seemingly don't make sense.
They make sense up here.
They just wouldn't make sense in a lot of other places.
Maybe more civilized places.
WOMAN: Well, the Sourtoe Cocktail was a brilliant idea
that, uh, people seem to get around here
when they sit around reading all winter,
and come up with things.
EYE PATCH MAN: You're taking someone's dead toe like hello,
like, that's an actual piece of someone's body
you're putting it in a drink and then you're drinking it.
RADIO MAN: Take the shot. Let it touch your lips.
And, voila, you're part of the club.
WOMAN: I'm on the Sourtoe Cocktail list.
And my mother is.
And on the same page as us,
were both Pierre Trudeau and Pierre Burton.
RADIO MAN: I don't know much about the toe swallowing.
All I know is that there was a guy that went into the bar,
that had the intention of swallowing the toe.
EYE PATCH MAN: He was American and, rumor has it,
he did it deliberately.
WOMAN: It's kind of our baby, you know, it's kind of our thing we do.
Why would somebody go and wreck our fun like that?
YELLOW HAT MAN: He seemed like any other American dude,
you know, he's coming in, loud voice, energetic, abrasive.
BEARD MAN: He's back in town right now,
you might wanna track him down and talk to him about the toe.
(honky tonk piano music)
TERRY: The toe to me is quirky, it's extremely interesting
and the motivations that people do it for.
People do it just because it's crazy.
TERRY: My name is Terry Lee,
I've lived in Dawson for 37 years
and I am the toe master.
The toe master is the keeper of the toe.
I take care of the toe.
Make sure the salt is changed
and everything else is good and presentable.
I have an emotional connection to this thing,
because it's the toe. (laughing)
You just some here, and you sit down,
you pay the five dollar toe tax,
and then you just follow my instructions.
WOMAN: Terry is basically the face of the toe.
TERRY: Being of sound mind and body?
Well body anyway.
WOMAN: He's a very well read and interesting guy.
He has a lot going on.
He is just very attached, this is his job.
He takes it seriously.
And he has pride in it.
MAN: I saw you on TV, old timer.
TERRY: Oh yeah, I've been on there all over the place.
MAN: I bet you have.
TERRY: I'm global.
MAN: Ha! Slosh around a little bit.
YELLOW HAT MAN: Maybe he feel as though
he's got a connection to this history
and then he's able to continue this story of the toe.
TERRY: So there were the brothers Liken, Louie and Otto.
During prohibition, they ran wrong into Alaska.
On the way to Miller Creek,
Louie puts his foot through the ice.
And when he got back to the cabin,
his right foot was frozen, solid.
So his brother said: If you can't get gangrene,
you're gonna die.
Whack! He knocked his brother's toe off
and put it on a shelf.
Forty years later,
Captain Dick Stevenson found the toe.
Dick came up with the idea to become an honorary sour dough
by kissing the sour toe.
TERRY: That's the last one.
TERRY: We've only got one.
Since 2013 when the cannibal swallowed it.
MAN: Right.
TERRY: On purpose.
TERRY: No it wasn't very nice.
TERRY: Yeah. Used to be five hundred.
In 2013, this idiot swallowed the toe, on purpose.
Might just call him a cannibal.
Probably didn't know we had a backup toe.
So he was gonna spoil all the fun for everybody else.
WOMAN: Yeah he was kinda persona non grata,
everybody was pretty sad about that.
BEARD MAN: He's kinda like a, yahoo Texan,
that's also a writer.
YELLOW HAT MAN: He's just a walking American flag,
with this huge truck, maybe a two hundred pound dog.
BEARD MAN: No, he's from New Orleans.
YELLOW HAT MAN: (laughing) Like short hair,
real short hair on top.
And then there's this gross long ratty mullet.
OLD MAN: (laughing)
ANOTHER GUY: He was a quite mysterious guy.
It was pretty hard to find out anything about him,
even a week later.
ANOTHER GUY 2: There were some conspiracy theories
that the tourist authority paid him to do it.
RADIO MAN: I've never met him, so I'm not gonna judge him,
uhm, on, on if he's an asshole or not, I'm gonna say
WOMAN: I think he didn't get enough attention as a child.
RADIO MAN: He kinda looked like a douche bag in the video.
TERRY: He had a big truck,
he had a big dog, and he had big ego.
(dog sneezing)
JOSHUA CLARK: Oh, God bless you,
oh God bless you.
Good night Mr. Silly, we love you.
JOSHUA: The summer before I ate the toe,
I tore my bicep in half,
riding a bull in a rodeo in Wyoming on July 4th.
I decided that every summer,
I was gonna do something kind of outstanding
and out of the norm.
And doing the toe was another summer,
that's how we got into this mess.
JOSHUA: I got to Dawson,
cause I was driving up the Canadian Rockies
with another dog of mine,
I was on my way to Alaska.
Dawson, for me, is one of the most special places on earth.
There's a magic here that has to be felt.
It's in the people, it's in the nature,
it's in the rivers, it's in the gold
and it's in the toe.
I mean where else would a rotting human toe
be a sacred thing, you know,
I mean that's one of the things I love about this place.
I read in a book here in Dawson
that a guy had swallowed the toe
and it was like, they were celebrating him
and I was thinking to myself,
"Man I've done some crazy things in my life
but I draw the line at cannibalism."
And then I thought more about it,
and I said "Why draw a line there?"
TERRY: It was August 24th,
11:14 PM, on a Saturday.
YELLOW HAT MAN: Before it happened,
Terry was Terry.
He was all normal, everything was cool.
Another good night for the toe.
JOSHUA: Look at how much bigger this thing is!
I was nervous man, I was nervous about choking.
It was a monster of a toe.
It was bigger than I remembered it being.
TERRY: You can drink it fast. You can drink it slow.
JOSHUA: I had my shot of Yukon Jack
I had a beer to back me up there
and I had no idea anyone was filming.
TERRY: It's true you swallow it, it's a 500 dollar fine.
JOSHUA: Dropped the toe in, slid it in like a bullet,
toenail first.
YELLOW HAT MAN: I swear to god, I saw his,
did you call it a larynx?
Is that your, I saw his throat open up.
JOSHUA: So I picked up my beer, took a swill of that
and dropped it down into my tummy.
TERRY: He stood up and he said,
(cheering)
SOMEONE: What just happened?
TERRY: Then he reached into his pocket,
since the fine was 500 dollars that time,
and put five one hundred dollar bills on the table.
And this guy swallowed the toe intentionally.
JOSHUA: It's like another expression for no harm done,
like.
TERRY: He swallowed the toe.
TERRY: I'm at the same state of anger that I was before.
All the things that we built up here,
he just spat on it, as far as I am concerned.
I just can't handle that.
YELLOW HAT MAN: And so now I feel really bad,
cause I thought it was... it would be like a momentary.
You know he might be pissed for the night or like a week.
Not the rest of his life.
TERRY: Some of the rough guys in town came to me and said,
"We're gonna find this guy
and you're gonna get ten new toes."
And I know these guys, and these guys were serious.
JOSHUA: (laughing) If they do, do that
I hope they do it while I'm alive and they'll kill me first.
(dog whimpering)
JOSHUA: The day after the toe, I drove into Alaska.
And then I actually drove up to the Arctic Circle
and I hit these little towns along the way,
where I'd suddenly get reception.
My phone would just go boom.
With interview requests
everywhere from Australia to England, Canada of course.
TERRY: He filmed it, he put it on Facebook to begin with,
then it found it's way to YouTube,
and it went viral, it went worldwide.
(upbeat music)
I spend eight hours a day, five days a week,
two and a half weeks, giving interviews to people.
RADIO MAN: Initially it was like,
"Oh crap, he swallowed the toe, what are we gonna do?"
But really, it was probably the best thing
that's ever happened to the toe.
MAN: Suddenly the Sourtoe cocktail in Dawson City, Yukon
got all this free publicity
from being on CNN and Network National News!
RADIO MAN: You know it was the best marketing ploy
you could ever dream of!
TERRY: He's guilty of theft, destruction of private property,
cannibalism, and desecrating a corpse.
JOSHUA: I obeyed his contract,
but he decided that was not enough.
And now I'm banned, permanently,
from the downtown hotel, a place that I love.
YELLOW HAT MAN: I do think that Josh
has a lot of nerve coming back up here.
At the same time I don't think Josh deserves
a lifetime ban from the downtown hotel.
TERRY: When we had the two toes,
we could switch them up once a week,
put them in the salt,
then they get completely dried out
and then really presentable.
Now we got one, this toe is used continuously
and it's in pretty rough shape, we need new toes.
YELLOW HAT MAN: I don't know what Josh could do to make amends with Terry.
I don't know if it's possible.
TERRY: The only way the cannibal can right this wrong
is for him to deliver to me
and this Sourtoe cocktail club his two big toes.
(soft guitar music)
JOSHUA: He's got something.
TERRY: The audacity of this cannibal to come back into town
and actually show his face,
that act is selfishness and destruction.
It's just something that's been a slight to Sourtoe cocktail,
for all the members who have done it,
the town, the tourism here,
it's just something that's unforgivable.
JOSHUA: Terry the sweet old man.
And big dick from New Orleans, Josh,
comes down and swallows his toe,
drives the big trucks, got big dogs,
had a big mullet, shit.
JOSHUA: No, those things are true.
Yeah, uhm, no if I had, yeah,
no then I wouldn't have done it if I had known
that would affect him this badly.
This really deeply affected me as it affected him,
this way, and anyone in this community.
I wanna write him an apology.
And hopefully have a little fun with it.
I'd like to make him someway after all this time
at least smile about it.
So, we'll see.
JOSHUA: (laughing) He got some.
(telephone ringing)
WOMAN ON PHONE: Good morning, Marshall Inc.
JOSHUA: Hi, do you guys do living wills?
WOMAN ON PHONE: Yes we do.
JOSHUA: Okay I have like a
specific like amendment I wanna make to my will.
And I'm wondering if you guys could do that for me
and what the process would be.
WOMAN ON PHONE: Okay.
JOSHUA: I wanna will a body part to the downtown hotel,
uhm, specifically my big right toe.
WOMAN ON PHONE: Well a lot of people wanna do this.
And a lot of people aren't able to,
like the funeral home here won't do it.
JOSHUA: Wait a minute! Wait, wait...
A lot of people wanna donate their toe to downtown hotel?
WOMAN ON PHONE: Yeah, the problem is,
physically, taking it off,
so you'd have to talk to a doctor.
JOSHUA: So why can't anybody
just use some gardening sheers and cut it off?
WOMAN ON PHONE: If you want to arrange a friend,
they probably could do you that.
JOSHUA: Okay.
WOMAN ON PHONE: Like, sure, there's been crazier things
that go on in the Yukon.
JOSHUA: Hello.
Where would I find gardening sheers?
What would be the, the smallest sheer?
EMPLOYEE: The smallest?
JOSHUA: Well, yeah, the cheapest one.
I don't wanna spend a lot of money on one
if I don't have to.
EMPLOYEE: That one might actually work.
JOSHUA: You think?
Well this one's only six dollars more
and it wouldn't make as much of a mess.
EMPLOYEE: And this one, you got more leverage.
JOSHUA: Yeah, I got you.
You haven't cut a person's toe off before, have you?
EMPLOYEE: No I haven't.
JOSHUA: Okay, alright. Have you seen it done?
EMPLOYEE: No, I have not.
JOSHUA: Okay. Alright, I appreciate that very much.
Look it's got a little gear,
so that you got a lot of torque on it.
Don't knock it little man.
What's on my toe? Mr. Silly.
He's like, "But I love your toes."
Yup.
Don't knock it little man. Cool.
(slow folk rock music)
(bar chattering)
JOSHUA: Oh, Hi Geri.
GERI: Hi Josh.
JOSHUA: It's good to meet you.
GERI: Good to meet you, too.
TERRY: Here's the evidence of your follies,
if you're hanging out with him.
WOMAN: I'd never thought I'd get here.
TERRY: Welcome to the club.
WOMAN: Thank you very much.
TERRY: Betcha.
(glass clanging)
GERI: Ladies and gentleman,
may I have your attention for a minute, please?
Three years ago, August 13th,
this gentleman right back here decided
he was going to swallow one of our toes.
So tonight he is here to make restitution.
JOSHUA: Thank you, Geri.
This is called "Sonnet of the Sourtoe -- An Apology."
Many came to Dawson, to find their pan of gold,
but I came and left a cannibal.
I swallowed the ghastly black thing itself, the toe,
paid the fine, five hundred bucks of my hard earned dough
then said goodbye to this town I loved so.
You may forgive me fast, you may forgive me slow,
that my stomach once touched your toe.
GERI: I believe that he is honestly sorry for what he did
and that he is heartfelt in his apology.
JOSHUA: But under the spell of the Yukon,
where we mine for pay dirt.
I'm incredibly saddened by any my actions have hurt.
WOMAN: I guess what it is, is the bad example he set
but if Geri is willing to forgive him,
that should be good enough for all of us.
JOSHUA: And to the great toe master Terry Lee,
if only you got to know the real me
you may think I'm a big egotistical American,
but I'm truly an honest, humble man.
TERRY: That was good poem,
he admitted he was a cannibal,
I'll give him that.
JOSHUA: I wanted to let you know, that upon my death,
you shall have my big right toe.
To prove I'm not trying to fake it,
here are the sheers with which I hope you take it.
(laughing)
(clapping)
JOSHUA: Terry, thank you for letting me speak.
TERRY: No, not him. Ever. Ever.
He's a wordsmith. He was barred for life.
It's been three years.
That's not life.
JOSHUA: I am extremely happy that I am unbanned
from the downtown hotel.
That place means the world to me.
I wish Terry would receive me better.
I wish Terry and I could be friends.
I just wanna hug the guy.
YELLOW HAT MAN: One guy swallows a dude's toe
and the other guy hates him forever.
We all know there's terrible shit happening all the time, everywhere.
The swallowing of a toe is not that bad.
GERI: I believe that Terry will come around,
he's already softening up a little bit.
He actually commented on how good the will looked
right there on the spot
and that Josh did a very nice job of framing it.
TERRY: Live in the Yukon long enough,
you're not going to be sentimental.
Doesn't pay in the end.
TERRY: That's, that's done.
I gotta get back and serve some toes.