Mystery Zone: Alaska Triangle Sparks Conspiracy Theories After 20,000 Disappearances in 60 Years

The Unsolved Mystery of the Alaska Triangle

Although lesser known than the Bermuda Triangle, the Alaska Triangle is a region that has become known for so many missing cases that the public finds it hard to pass them off as mere coincidences. Since the 1970s, around 20,000 people have disappeared from the Alaska Triangle, located between three points of Anchorage and Juneau in the south, and Utqiagvik, a coastal city in the north, as per Indy 100. Many of these people were forever lost to this area since authorities failed to find any clues about their fate. The Alaska Triangle area has more unsolved missing person cases than anywhere else in the world, according to official records. Considering how sparse the population is in this area, 20,000 missing people is a significant number that has attracted the attention of conspiracy theorists all over the world. Let's take a look at the details of the disappearances and theories about them.

Missing politicians

Not only have civilians gone missing in this area, but even established politicians have disappeared in the Alaska Triangle, IFL Science reported. Thomas Hale Boggs Sr, who was serving as the US House Majority Leader, and Nick Begich, an Alaska Congressman went missing on October 16, 1972, while flying in the area. They were accompanied by  Begich's aide, Russell Brown, and the pilot, Don Jonz, who also disappeared with the politicians. A massive search operation was launched but no traces of the four men were ever found. Since Boggs was a member of the Warren Commission, the official body responsible for investigating President John F. Kennedy's assassination, the disappearance raised even more eyebrows. It was also alleged that Boggs did not agree with many of the group's findings which further thickened the plot for conspiracy theorists.

A rare case that was resolved

Gary Frank Sotherden, a 25-year-old New Yorker went to the Alaskan jungles to hunt in the mid-1970s, and never came back home, IFL Science reported. For years his case was unsolved until a hunter spotted a human skull along the Porcupine River in northeastern Alaska in 1997 and informed authorities. The skull was taken into custody, but officials did not have the technology at that time to verify the identity of the deceased person. In 2022, DNA was retrieved from the evidence, and state troopers later confirmed to the public that the skull belonged to Sotherden. They were also able to find out his cause of death and claimed that the man died after being mauled by a bear. 

Conspiracy theories

Many native Tlingit and Tsimshian people, living in the area believe that an entity called “Kushtaka” is responsible for the deaths of the missing individuals, according to Travel Channel. Kushtaka has been described as a shape-shifting cryptid who roams in the Alaskan wilderness in search of human prey. Their alleged modus operandi is taking human form to aid lost individuals, before taking them deep into the forest where they either feast on them or turn them into Kushtaka. A 1968 report made to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from a Japanese cargo flight indicates extraterrestrial activities in the expanse. A Japanese pilot allegedly located three unidentified aerial phenomena above the area. Aircraft were reportedly following the pilot's jet, and he claimed that he saw blinding lights coming from them making erratic movements around him. He lost them and returned to safety, while his accounts were allegedly verified by civilian and military radar.

Debunking myths

Despite such theories about many disappearances, multiple experts believe that nothing supernatural is involved in the disappearances, IFL Science reported. The area has remote patches in which individuals easily get lost and eventually go missing. Moreover, the population of animals is higher in the area, and therefore many individuals being dragged or mauled by them to death becomes a real possibility.