Local 58

Local 58
Active since 2021-09-13
The Local 58 ARG is currently ongoing.
Type	Official
Creator	Kris Straub
Discovered	2021-09-13

Main Page > List of Investigations > Local 58

Local 58 is an online "analog horror" web series created by Kris Straub. The series can be viewed on YouTube on the official Local 58 YouTube channel.

Starting in September 2021, the official Local 58 website began updating with cryptic messages and clues. It is unknown what these clues may lead towards, but the ominous nature of many of the messages uncovered on the Local 58 website is in keeping with the tone of the series as a whole.

2021-09-13

On this date, Kris Straub (the creator of Local 58) tweeted the following:

[Local 58 is] far from over. genuinely surprised no one has found something that's been sitting for months with no comment.

Shortly thereafter, some easter eggs were discovered on Local 58's 404 page. Note that most of these easter eggs have been since lost due to website updates. These easter eggs were as follows:

1. A nearly-invisible span element at the bottom of the 404 page contained the following text: "© 2021 Thought Research Initiative LLC" (deleted after its discovery). Thought Research Initative is an entity in the Local 58 universe that appears in the Real Sleep episode of Local 58.
2. The word "Server" in the HTTP server info string had a link leading to https://local58.tv/1244790000/ (deleted on 2021-09-15). This number was identified as a UNIX timestamp for June 12, 2009 - the day the FCC mandated that all broadcast stations switch to a digital format. This date is explicitly mentioned on the FCC page that was linked on the main Local 58 homepage as of 2021-09-13.
3. The HTTP server info string read as follows:
   Apogee/2.1.7 (Win32) PHP/5.2.13 Server at local58.tv Port 80
   There is no publicly-available web server named "Apogee", but the word Apogee refers to "the point in the orbit of the moon, a planet or other object in space when it is furthest from the planet, for example the earth, around which it turns" according to the Oxford English Dictionary. The moon is of great significance in the Local 58 story. Tt is likely the word "Apogee" was chosen both for this reason and because it is a play on "Apache", a prominent web server.
4. A subtle "glitching" gif was found behind the word "Server" on the 404 page (deleted after its discovery). The filename for this image was "0000574544524f574e494e48494d.gif". Decoded from hex, this string reads as follows: "WEDROWNINHIM", which is a phrase that was used in the Weather Service episode of Local 58. Removing the leading zeroes on this file name led to versions of the file that became progressively more "glitched" and distorted. Another file named "008ad7bd58e7556d95afa5528eb43113a9.gif" was also found commented out in the website files (though never actually displayed). These comments, and the file itself, were also deleted after its discovery. While the name of this GIF has not yet been meaningfully deciphered, removing the leading zeroes in the same manner as the first file led to progressively more intense versions of the glitch effect.

Discoveries from this date are also compiled in this Reddit post.

2021-09-23

The "LookBack Web Archive" redirection banner that was hosted on local58.tv on 2021-09-23

On this date, the official Local 58 Twitter account tweeted the following:

ｌｉｋｅ ｈａｖｉｎｇ ａ ｔｅｌｅｖｉｓｉｏｎ ｓｔｕｄｉｏ ｉｎｓｉｄｅ ｙｏｕｒ ｈｏｕｓｅ

This tweet prompted users prompted to check out the Local 58 website, which had been replaced with a banner for a service called "LookBack Web Archive". This banner appeared to be a play on real web archiving services like the Wayback Machine.

After the 10 seconds had elapsed, users were redirected to https://local58.tv/null. This webpage revealed the following image:

A severely damaged and distorted QR code is visible on the television set on the bottom right corner of this image.