Alaska's Missing

Alaska's Missing

I recently moved to the last frontier...Alaska. As I learn about the state, I'm finding out about some of the mysteries and myths surrounding it. The ones I've read about so far seem to be focused on the high amount of missing people reported here.

They all seem to be centered around trying to solve that puzzle. Each one offered up as a possible explanation for something that quite possibly is unexplainable. Or It could be that we just don't want to accept the most plausible explanations.

Maybe it's because no one wants to believe that a innocent walk in the woods can lead to death. Maybe we just can't or are unwilling to accept that plain old human error/stupidity could be the cause of someone disappearing.

Whatever the reason, there are at least 3 different supernatural or paranormal explanations for the high amount of missing people in Alaska and I wanted to touch a bit on each one.

Yep, I get that it is a state filled with vast wilderness and a ton of natural environmental dangers. But, pretty much everyone knows that who lives here.

The natives have learned to live in the harsh environment since birth. So their risk of getting lost should be reduced because of that knowledge. Even the transplants aren't going to take any unnecessary risks (yeah, I'm not going into the wild by myself).

So why then is the missing persons percent so high? A few web sites say that it is over 16,000 people since 1988. A documentary I watched stated that one person goes missing in Alaska on average per month.

That may not seem like a lot. But you need to take into consideration how low of a population Alaska has. It's the largest state in the U.S. , but has the smallest population... 739,818. Compare that to Rhode Islands population (one of the smallest states in the U.S.) which is 1.06 million and you can see why people wonder: What's going on in Alaska?

I'm not trying to disprove or prove anything. I'm just searching for information. But I do think I have a bias towards finding a logical explanation for each one of these supernatural occurrences.

Yep, I have a vested interest in figuring this out because I'm now a resident. I wanna know what the potential dangers of being a resident are besides the obvious: being mauled by bear or freezing to death. And I don't want to believe these are dangers out of my control. But, if there is no other possible explanation other than supernatural, I would have to accept that as well...


The Alaska Triangle

There is a thought that Alaska has it's very own triangle. For the most part it functions similar to the Bermuda one. Same electromagnetic anomalies, vortices, missing planes/people etc...

The farthest I can trace it back to is the 1950's.

To that end, he shared the story of a case from 1950 when "a military craft with 44 people aboard went missing. Completely vanished."

A subsequent search for the plane last 39 days, he said, and involved hundreds of aircraft and personnel.

"To this day," he said, "they've still not found a trace of this pretty sizable aircraft."...

But the case that made the Alaskan triangle well known occurred in 1972. This one involved a house majority leader (Boggs) and is pretty famous. For those of you who don't know, the info can be found here ...

Planes disappearing seem to not have been tabulated. Almost all the web sites I visited state that there are numerous missing planes but none give numbers. The most notable ones, including the 1950 military craft I mention above, seem to have been solved or at least found. Many reported as being buried under snow/avalanche until it melted or camouflaged by the elements.

If this is the case with the more well known missing planes that have been continuously searched for throughout the years and finally found, you would have to assume that the lessor known missing planes would yield the same results as well. Either they crashed and got buried in snow or the vastness of the wilderness has made it impossible for us to locate them.


If the missing planes are so easily dismissed as natural phenomenon, what about the missing people in general?


In the case of the Alaskan triangle then, at least for me, it becomes more about that aspect. Why are there such huge amounts of missing people within that area?

Missing people is not new in Alaska. It's been happening since, well, since people have been inhabiting the area. It's talked about in a few of the mythology stories told by the natives. One that is used quite often and in conjunction with the UFO and Alaska Triangle.

continued...

The Otterman

The otterman (kushtaka) is a mythology story that the Tlingit's natives used in order to explain missing people as well as to warn people of the dangers of Alaska.

Well, that's what I think it was used for. Whether or not there is any real animal that it's based off of will be up to you to decide. A lot of times it is associated with and thought to be Alaska's version of big foot.

Kushtaka, which roughly translates as “land otter people”, a shape-shifting species of otter that is rumored to spend a lot of its time trying to lure unsuspecting humans away from their homes in order to turn them into more Kushtaka (which in Tlingit folklore basically amounts to preventing us from achieving reincarnation and consequent everlasting life). ...

The otterman are said to be 7 foot or more in height, as well as brown/black in color. I'm unsure of there is a mixing if multiple legends here or not as many websites equate them with sashsquatch but the site I linked doesn't really explore that angle.

Whatever the case, the otterman story is used to explain the unexplainable. Which is...what happens to all the missing Alaskan people?

Whether it is a bed time story meant to calm children's fears, make them aware of the dangers of Alaska, or a real beast that has yet to be discovered is up for debate. All I'm saying is that with relation to missing persons, it is a clue to how old the phenomenon is.

Most missing person cases in Alaska aren't or haven't been thoroughly solved. Take one of the more recent cases involving not just one person, but a whole family:

the uncertainty about what happened to the young family of four that disappeared without warning last May, the remains of their breakfast still on the table, their two cars still parked behind their home.

The searching and waiting came to an end Saturday on a scrubby trail less than half a mile from the family’s apartment. A driver there spotted what looked like clothing and called local police, who found the remains of four humans and a dog concealed among grass and bushes in a shallow depression about 15 feet from the trail. 

Also discovered near the bodies was a handgun bearing the same serial number as a box found in Adams and Jividen’s home. The deaths are being investigated as a homicide, but at a news conference on Monday, Kenai Police Department Lt. David Ross declined to go into the details of the gun and what it might indicate about how the family died.
And although the bodies appear to have been found, police are still far from providing the closure that Gifford so desperately wanted....

Although they found the bodies, there is no closure for the family with regards to what caused the deaths. That may be why the mythological stories came about... they we're the only way to make sense of something so senseless.


Did the ancient tribes just need a way to explain the unexplainable and that's why the otterman was invented? Or is there some truth to the legend that has been handed down through the ages?

Many have gone searching for the beast and no one has had any success finding it as of yet. This may be one if those legends that we will never get an answer to. Similar to the unanswered deaths and disappearances of all the people lost in Alaska.

But this is not the end of the otterman story. The otterman are also connected to the UFO sightings. As with most big foot creatures , the otterman are believed to possibly be alien in nature. Which leads us to our next section...

Continued...

UFO's in Alaska

Some of the most famous UFO sightings are in Nome, Alaska. Over two dozen inhabitants of the small, can only get there by plane, population of 9300 town have gone missing since the 1960's. There was even a movie made about it. The move was embellished quite a bit but was/ is there any truth to be had from it?


What some people don't know is that Nome sits on the edge of the Alaskan triangle. Not only is it within the zone, it is the place where most of the missing person cases have been reported or so it's said.

The movie put a lot of false information out there through fake stories and websites for advertising. So, this is a link to an article that talks a bit about what happened ...

Despite these findings, fears of something more sinister than the weather are still felt by some in Nome, and against that backdrop, a wholly fictional movie promoted as if it were some sort of documentary angered many, including Nugget publisher and editor Nancy McGuire.

As part of a campaign to promote "The Fourth Kind,'' an advertising company dummied up stories about alien abductions which it then attributed to The Nome Nugget. McGuire saw those stories on Web site and admits her first reaction was "what the f---?"

So, what's so special about Nome then? Why is it said to be a ufo hub and missing persons hot spot? I asked these questions myself. What explanations could generate such high profile activity in this secluded, out if the way town?

After looking into it a bit I couldn't really find anything that showed it to be a hub or hot spot for any paranormal/ supernatural activity. There was only one UFO report listed from Nome and that was in 2015. ...

That is more lack of evidence than evidence. The most reported UFO sightings that I saw were in Anchorage and Fairbanks. These two towns are also in the Alaska Triangle.

There is one thing about Nome though...alcohol is and has been a major part of the culture in this town. They've had it since the gold rush days of 1898.

Nome’s boozing history was born with the town after gold was discovered in 1898, bringing scores of hard-drinking fortune seekers. The gunslinger Wyatt Earp ran the most ornate of 50 saloons lining Front Street in the Gold Rush heyday.

Nearly 120 years later, there are 13 establishments that sell alcohol along the hardscrabble downtown business district. There are also three liquor stores along that four-block stretch.


Public intoxication problems always spike over a weeklong period in March, when the city is the finish point for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and in October, when nearly every Alaska resident receives a check from the state’s oil wealth fund. ...

But what about the missing persons in Nome? Even if the UFO sightings can be explained away, why do they have such a high amount of people go missing each year?


The FBI really did investigate the missing people from Nome (one truth from the movie). Here is what they found:

In 2005, FBI homicide detectives did in fact investigate the mysterious disappearance of 24 people that had taken place in Nome between the 1960s and 2004, which caused locals to initially think there was a serial killer involved.


According to the Anchorage Daily News, most of the victims were native men who had travelled to Nome from surrounding villages. The FBI determined there was no real reason to suspect a serial killer and instead came up with the explanation that, “Excessive alcohol consumption and a harsh winter climate,” were to blame for the disappearances. (4) ...

With the FBI report and the one UFO sighting for November 1st, I don't think there is much mystery here.


Maybe there really isn't anything other worldly happening in Alaska after all. I can't seem to find anything significant that proves whether there is one way or another.


Yes there are still unsolved disappearances and UFO sightings, there are definitely stories about the otterman still being told/reported as well. Maybe that's all these are though... stories. Who knows?


Could it really be that these legends are based off of or can be explained away by grizzly bears, intoxication, and the vastness of the wilderness?

Never the less I find them fascinating and fun to dive into from time to time. I mean, who doesn't like to try their hand at solving a mystery? Especially one that involves three different types of paranormal/ supernatural events?


As always, thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts and I hope you found something of value in them.


I also want to mention that I'm still waiting for my personal belongings to arrive so this whole thread was done on my cell phone. I tried to catch all the spelling errors and mistakes but apologize if I missed some.


Thanks!
blend

They almost caught the Otterman!

a reply to: blend57

Reminds me of the movie 30 days of Night. Perhaps there is some truth to that movie..... (No, I'm not saying vampires are real but 30 days does covers weird Alaska)

Its also the perfect place for serial killers to operate since they can dump the bodies in the middle of nowhere which may explain some of the missing people.

Cool ATS thread..

a reply to: blend57

S&F Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Reminds me of Missing 411

I haven't ever heard about any of this but theres allllot of wilderness out there, and mountains. If you "stretched Idaho flat" (many enormous mountains there) it would actually have a similar surface area to the state of Texas (Texas is relatively flat). Just imagine that same thought experiment on Alaska...

Excellent post, well put together

-Driver

originally posted by: Z32Driver
a reply to: blend57

S&F Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Reminds me of Missing 411

I haven't ever heard about any of this but theres allllot of wilderness out there, and mountains. If you "stretched Idaho flat" (many enormous mountains there) it would actually have a similar surface area to the state of Texas (Texas is relatively flat). Just imagine that same thought experiment on Alaska...

Excellent post, well put together

-Driver

That's the crazy thing with mountains - Fractal complexity. Take the surface area of the base of the mountain, say an equilateral triangle, then construct three more triangles to make a tetrahedron. They you have tripled the original surface area!!! That doesn't include fault lines, caves, tunnels, and the extra surface area from trees.

I would imagine some percentage could be explained by bears.
Get drunk and wander off the beaten path, get stomped by a moose, a bear eats you.

I have been all up and down that state from Kotz to Nome to Bethel To FB, Anch, and Whitter (Phenomenal place and drive there). This is due to dating a state reps sister there for a long time.....The drive from FB to Anch via car is incredible, but..


FK Alaska....

a reply to: blend57

Fairbanks is a not nearly a sh!t hole as Juneau. But pretty damn close. I know because I grew up there!

I live in Anchortown now but man... those places can suck the creative juices out of you faster than opioids!!! And watch out for HIV. That is worse than chicken pox in some places!!

Anyway, we welcome you here and accept you as one of our own because that is how we roll!!!



PS - It was Begich... as in, Angels Don’t Play That Harp

Who do you think would win a fight between Otter man and Man-Bear-Pig.
I'm putting my money on a grizzly bear.
He will whoop both of them punks.

a reply to: blend57

The missing and lost is one of my all time favorite (seems an odd way to put it, doesn't it?) topics.
Thanks Blend and I am marking this for a later read when I am able to really sink my teeth into it.
Have a great day and hope you are settling in well.

Probably Russians ...they are taking it back one person at a time

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: blend57

Reminds me of the movie 30 days of Night.

Its also the perfect place for serial killers to operate since they can dump the bodies in the middle of nowhere which may explain some of the missing people.

When I was reading about this they mentioned serial killers. I think it was when the FBI did their Nome investigation. For that one they ruled out serial killers but there is definitely a chance that, at least with some of the disappearances, a serial killer could be the cause.

Thanks for commenting!
Blend

originally posted by: Z32Driver
a reply to: blend57
Reminds me of Missing 411
-Driver

I've not read that book yet but it sounds interesting so thank you for the link. I definitely have some time on my hands while waiting for my stuff so maybe I'll go see if I can find it at the local store. A ton of missing people everywhere...he traced it back to the 1800's in the book which is interesting as well.

Thanks!
blend

originally posted by: TEOTWAWKIAIFF
a reply to: blend57

Anyway, we welcome you here and accept you as one of our own because that is how we roll!!!

Thanks! So far it's beautiful here! A lot has to do with the scenery but it's really the people who make it a great place live and I think I'm gonna like it here. Plus, it's the best place to live for my work..lol

Anyhow, thanks for the welcome and I appreciate the heads up on some of the social/ living issues.

blend

originally posted by: TNMockingbird
a reply to: blend57

The missing and lost is one of my all time favorite (seems an odd way to put it, doesn't it?) topics.

Have a great day and hope you are settling in well.

I can't get enough of the topic either. For me it's because you never really know for sure what happened even when they find the bodies. I'm always happily when I hear a person has been found though.

I'm settling ok..just need my stuff lol. I'm trying to be patient but it's really hard to be when you have nothing to do but stare at 4 walls.



I did go out and explore a bit already and I'm planning on doing some more today plus I've got a few books I'm reading through. Hopefully that will keep me occupied until my things arrive.

Thanks for the comment and warm wishes!

blend

a reply to: blend57


Ummm...your right...I grabbed my 1866 map...and it was simply not there...

Should we put out an APB...?







YouSir

What an interesting and well written thread, especially since you also did this on your phone.