The so-called Alaskan Triangle has managed to slip largely under the public radar, despite having a missing persons rate of more than double the national average. Located between Juneau, Anchorage and the small town of Barrow, the area is reportedly a hotbed of paranormal activity. There are strange phenomena such as the Nantinaq (Hairy Man), the Kushtaka (Land Otter Man), UFO/alien activity, and powerful electromagnetic fields in the area, similar to those found in the Bermuda Triangle. Whether the mysterious disappearances of the Alaska Triangle are the result of natural perils, strange energy vortexes, or ancient evil spirits, they are undoubtedly alarming. Tonight on Ground Zero, Clyde Lewis talks with author of the paranormal and unexplained, Steve Stockton about THIN ICE - THE MYSTERIOUS ALASKA TRIANGLE.
SHOW PREVIEW:
undefined
SHOW SAMPLE:
SHOW PODCAST:
https://aftermath.media/podcast/9-28-23-thin-ice-the-mysterious-alaska-triangle-w-steve-stockton/
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
I think the worst thing about winter is that it gets darker earlier in the day. The farther North you go the darker it gets, It is also been rumored that the polar vortex is forming again which may indicate an early winter blast. They seem to arrive earlier every year in some places.
It has been cloudy and darker here in the Pacific Northwest, which is supposed to be normal, but we had a drier-than-usual summer and now the atmospheric river has been giving us a deluge of water.
It is also interesting to note that lately, I have been seeing a lot of Bigfoot reports in my news feed undefined and that many of these encounters have been a bit more aggressive, where the creatures tend to throw things into campsites and others have been vocalizing their anger over campers and hunters walking around in their habitat.
I know that most people think that Bigfoot is a crazy idea and that it is some tall tale but here in the Pacific Northwest undefined a sighting is almost a daily occurrence in southern Washington State.
Skamania County is in southeastern Washington state, just south of Mount Rainier, and includes Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Mount Saint Helens.
This area has a long history between white settlers and the elusive Sasquatch, one of the earliest being French-Canadian painter Paul Kane’s attempt to paint Mount St. Helens. In 1847,
Kane tried to hire a group of Multnomah Indians to guide him along the Lewis River to get a better view of the mount. The Natives declined his request because near the headwaters of the river lived the Skookums, a “race of giant, hairy cannibals.”
Natives of the Pacific Northwest depict it as a feared mountain devil that can take any shape, however the modern version of this legend, the features of this creature are very ape-like. The Skookum seems to be parallel to Bigfoot, ,however this creature is extremely predatory.
These are not the cuddly and benevolent creatures from Hollywood family movies.
These creatures are terrifying and have been known to kill anyone that they cross paths with.
The most vivid reported sighting of a Skookum was in 1924, when a group of miners were ambushed by a massive sasquatch-like monster. The men were prospecting on the Muddy, which is a part of the Lewis River. There were huge foot imprints, but they did not know what to think of them until they saw a large beast leering at them from behind a tree. Terrified, one of the men shot at the Skookum, apparently hitting it.
The creature scrambled away. One of the miners, Fred Beck, says he shot one of the beasts three times and it fell into a canyon. The body was never found. That night, it seems the Skookums decided to strike back. The miners were attacked for around five hours, with the creatures using rocks to try to break in. The men fired shots but this seemed to have little or no effect.
There were no windows in the cabin and so the men could not see their attackers, but they said it seemed more than two creatures were attacking the building.
There were big footprints around the building when another party of men went to investigate, but there was no other sign of the ape-like creatures.
Even though Bigfoot has been elusive, and the novelty of the creature sells books and T-shirts there is the darker savage apex predator that is not the gentle giant that you have been led to believe exists. The creature exists but its personality of a passive and docile creatures what fills up the myths that are told about it.
The personality of an apex predator, especially one that towers over its victims can fill your nightmares especially when you are in the middle of the dark and primitive areas of the woods.
The tabloid trappings of Bigfoot tend to cloud the reality that the woods can be deadly and that people disappear there all the time. There are plenty of other predators, and possibly unearthly creatures that lurk in the woods, and plenty of obstacles that usually put people in harmundefineds way.
Last Friday, I was conducting a panel with Jeff Davis, where we were discussing some of the weird oddities and places where bizarre things are often reported. We were tossing out one story after another about these mysterious places from Point Pleasant, West Virginia, home of the infamous Mothman undefined to Portlock, Alaska on the southern edge of the Kenai Peninsula which was abandoned in the 1950s after villagers were undefinedattacked and killedundefined by an unknown creature they called the Nantinaq.
Jeff appeared on Ground Zero to talk about a TV series that he starred in about the Killer Bigfoot of Alaska and shared some of the terrifying stories during our panel at the comic con.
It was just after our panel that I noticed a story in the news about the Alaska Triangle.
While many have a heard of the Bermuda Triangle, a patch of ocean in the Caribbean known for mysterious airplane and boating disasters, the so-called Alaskan Triangle has managed to slip largely under the public radar, despite having a missing persons rate more than double the national average.
Located between Juneau, Anchorage and the small town of Barrow, the area is reportedly a hotbed of paranormal activity.
Explanations for the strange phenomenon have ranged from everything from alien activity to powerful electromagnetic fields in the area, similar to those found in the Bermuda Triangle.
There have been appearances of large black wolves in the area and of course there are stories about the Nantinaq.
Nantinaq translates to hairy man undefined and has been called a woodland demon. The creature is cannibalistic and predatory. Natntinaq is responsible for the deaths of fishermen and quite possibly the reason why the Alaskan Triangle sees the most missing people compared to any other state.
What is going on in this remote, unexplored wilderness that causes so many people to disappear without a trace? That largely depends on who you ask, and ideas run the gamut from the plausible to the fringe. The area has long been associated with evil spirits.
There is also the Tlingit Indian lore surrounding a creature known as Kushtaka. Kushtaka translated means, Land Otter Man.
Physically, Kusiska is shape-shifters capable of assuming human form, the form of an otter and potentially other forms. In some accounts, a Kushtcane assumes the form of any species of otter; in others, only one. Accounts of their behavior seem to conflict with one another. In some stories, Kushtaka are cruel creatures who take delight in tricking poor Tlingit sailors to their deaths. In others, they are friendly and helpful, frequently saving the lost from death by freezing.
It is also said that the Kushtaka emit a chilling three-part whistle in the pattern of low-high-low.
In some legends it is said the Kushtaka will imitate the cries of a baby or the screams of a woman to lure victims to the river. Once there, the Kushtaka either kills the person and tears them to shreds and turns them into another Kushtaka.
Legends have it Kushtaka can be warded off through copper, urine, dogs, and in some stories, fire.
Could this creature be responsible for the missing people that are reported there every year?
Despite not being very inhabited, Alaska has far and away the most missing people compared to any other stat with an average of 42.16 per 100,000, according to World Population Review.
The next highest state for missing persons is Arizona with 12.28, double the national average of 6.5 people per 100,000.
One of the first disappearances to pique interest in the Alaska Triangle took place i 1972, when U.S. Reps. Hale Boggs and Nick Begich Sr. along with an aide and their pilot disappeared following a suspected plane crash.
The group was traveling from Anchorage to Juneau when they are thought to have gone down, though no wreckage or any bodies were ever found despite almost 40 days of searches.
Boggs served on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Some conspiracy theories have reported that Boggs wasnundefinedt happy with the commissionundefineds findings and was pushing for the investigation to be reopened at the time of his death.
Some of the other interesting points surrounding the disappearance include; Boggs was taken to the airport for the first leg of the trip by Bill Clinton who later, as President, appointed Congressman Boggsundefined wife, Lindy, to the position of US Ambassador to the Vatican after she served eighteen years in the Congress after her husbandundefineds disappearance.
More rec43-year-oldar old Shanna Oman, disappeared while visiting a friend in Fairbanks on June 3, 2019. Oman had made arrangements to get a ride home with a friend, but never materialized or returned home.
She left without any belongings or her dog and her disappearance has perplexed authorities who searched for days using helicopters and canine units.
Even experienced outdoorsmen are not safe. In 2011, mountain rescuer Gerald DeBerry, went out with a group in the White Mountains about 70 miles north of Fairbanks to search for a missing woman but never returned from the expedition.
A year later his ATV was discovered with the engine switched off, but no sign of its owner.
Ken Gerhard who has been a guest on Ground Zero and was the host of the Cable TV series Missing in Alaska, believes that the triangle could be a undefinedvile vorticesundefined, a lozenge-shaped area with increased electromagnetic force.
He said: undefinedThe theory is that these particular areas are supercharged with geo electromagnetic energy and that abundance of electromagnetic energy results in some strange things. A new Discovery documentary has interviewed people with some of the most compelling paranormal experiences. They include Wes Smith who saw undefinedvery strangeundefined triangular objects flying without emitting any sound.
He said: undefinedIt’s like everything you’ve ever been taught has gone out of the window, because how is that possible?undefined
One of the biggest disappearances was the loss of 44 military personnel aboard a Douglas C-54 Skymaster en route from Alaska to Montana. Despite one of the biggest joint search and rescue missions by Canadian and American authorities, no trace has ever been given as to why people disappear.
This area has dense forests, craggy mountain peaks, massive glaciers, hidden caves, and deep crevasses where downed aircraft or lost hikers might easily be hidden and then covered by snowfall, hiding any trace of human activity. This harsh landscape is also filled with wild animals and is subject to unforgiving weather, including avalanches.
Half of the nation’s federally-designated wilderness lies in Alaska, and many of the permanent disappearances are linked to dangerous, natural elements. Alaska is bound by 33,000 miles of coastline and contains more than three million lakes, untamed wildlife, and winters that blanket vast reaches of the state in snow and ice.
However, many support the idea of energy vortexes within the triangle. Energy vortexes are considered swirling centers of energy concentrated in specific places where the energy crackles most intensely. The energy radiates in a spiraling cone shape clockwise or counterclockwise, creating positive and negative effects. They are thought to affect humans physically, mentally, and Negatively charged vortexes spiral downward counterclockwise, creating a draining or depleting energy and depleting the positive energies in its vicinity. In humans, they are believed to cause health problems, including depression, nightmares, disorientation, confusion, and both visual and auditory hallucinations. They are also said to cause electrical instruments to malfunction. Some places that are said to be filled with negative vortexes are the Bermuda Triangle, Japan’s Devil’s Sea, and Easter Island.
Electronic readings in Alaska have found significant concentrations of magnetic anomalies, some of which have disrupted compasses to the point that they are as much as 30 degrees off. In addition, some search and rescue workers have reported having audio hallucinations, disorientation, and lightheaded. Likely, we will never come to a complete understanding of the mystery here, and the only people who will ever know for sure are the ones who never came back to tell the tale.
Whether the mysterious disappearances of the Alaska Triangle are the result of natural perils, strange energy vortexes, or ancient evil spirits, they are undoubtedly alarming.
undefined
SHOW GUEST:
Steve Stockton is a veteran outdoorsman, and author and has been investigating the unexplained for over 35 years. Originally from the mountains of East Tennessee, Steve has traveled all over the country and many parts of the world and now makes his home in New England. Steve cites his primary influence as his “gypsy witch” grandmother who told him multitudes of legends and stories as a small child. His published books include Strange Things in the Woods (a collection of authentic, paranormal encounters) as well as the autobiographical My Strange World, where he talks about his own experiences dating back to childhood. Steve has written National Park Mysteries and Disappearances, Volumes 1, 2, and 3. He is also co-owner and narrator of the wildly popular Among The Missing YouTube channel.
Steve’s website: https://www.youtube.com/@AmongTheMissingYT
