Vernon-born writer Sam Mullins stands outside the Kalamalka General Store.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED: Lee Watkins

In the fall of 2003, two teenage boys arrived in Vernon and claimed to have been raised in the deep B.C. wilderness without contact with society.

The story of the "bush boys" became known after a local hockey mom decided to help them out.

Now, nearly 20 years later, Vernon-born writer and comedian Sam Mullins has turned the remarkable story into an eight-episode podcast.

Chameleon: Wild Boys was released Jan. 25.

Mullins was a teenager when the "bush boys" rocked into Vernon and ended up living behind the Kalamalka General Store in Coldstream. 

But they didn't stay living behind the store for long as the town rallied and they were given food, lodging and money.

Local media picked up their story, then national and then international media covered it.

The story of the "bush boys" who'd grown up deep in the B.C. wilderness was everywhere.

The problem was, none of it was true. They were two brothers from suburban California.

"The podcast is my journey to find them and get the untold story," Mullins said.

Mullins was 15 and living a few hundred yards from the Kalamalka General Store when the boys arrived in Vernon.

"The reason they were turning so many heads as they walked around town was that the younger of the brothers was so thin, he looked literally on the verge of starvation," Mullins said.

While the Toronto-based writer and performer admits he hadn't given the story much thought for 15 years, the pandemic pushed him to look for alternative projects.

"This was this insane story with a beginning, middle and end, and I was just so curious to see what these kids' life had been like," Mullins said. "What was going on in the family (and) what was going on in their childhood that made something like this possible?

"No spoilers but I did track them down," he said.

Mullins headed to Nevada to see them and interview the boys and their family for the podcast.

So, how did a pair of kids from the American suburbs end up in Vernon pretending to be from the wilderness?

Mullins won't spoil the ending but says they challenged the things he thought about them.

"After speaking at length with them and their family, not only do their actions make sense, they make perfect sense," he said. "I didn't expect to understand them so clearly as people... They were a lot more thoughtful and measured than I thought they were going to be."

The Chameleon: Wild Boys podcast can be found here.

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