First named in 1972, the Alaska Triangle stretches from Anchorage in southcentral Alaska to Juneau in the southeast panhandle to Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) on Alaska’s northern coast. Since 1988, more than 16,000 people have vanished from this area, and every year, approximately four people go missing per every 1000 Alaska residents. This rate is twice the national average.

I was surprised when I first learned how many people disappear in Alaska, but I don’t need an underground pyramid or mysterious magnetic vortices to explain the statistics. I also don’t understand the need for a triangle since people disappear throughout the state, not just in the area outlined by a geometric figure’s hypothetical lines. However, I guess a triangle conjures up the aura of the Bermuda Triangle and suggests the possibility of mysterious forces at play.

Many disappearances and other mysteries in Alaska have never been solved. Planes vanish, boats disappear, UFO sightings baffle military officers, and in one instance, the population of an entire village fled their homes to escape a giant, hairy, manlike creature. Here are a few of the stories.

Conger, Cristen. Why has part of the Alaska wilderness been called the Bermuda Triangle? How Stuff Works.

Gough, Cody. 2019. Thousands of People Have Mysteriously Disappeared in Alaska’s Bermuda Triangle. Discovery.e

LeBlanc, Jocelyne. 2018. 10 Facts About the Little-Known Alaska Triangle. Toptenz.net.

Liefer, Gregory P. 2011. Chapter Eleven: Without a Trace. Aviation Mysteries of the North. Publication Consultants. Anchorage, AK.

Japan Airlines Flight 1628 incident. Wikipedia.

The Alaska Triangle – Disappearing Into Thin Air. Legends of America.

The Alaska Triangle – courtesy of the Locations Unknown Podcast. 2019.

Weiss, Lawrence D. 2019. Unfriendly skies: The extraordinary flight of JAL 1628. Alaska’s best known UFO encounter.

__________________

___________________

https://youtu.be/7Fv52Bf8yfY

___________________

______

Robin Barefield lives in the wilderness on Kodiak Island, where she and her husband own a remote lodge. She has a master’s degree in fish and wildlife biology and is a wildlife-viewing and fishing guide. Robin has published six novels: Big Game, Murder Over Kodiak, The Fisherman’s Daughter, Karluk Bones, Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, and The Ultimate Hunt. She has also published two non-fiction books: Kodiak Island Wildlife and Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. She draws on her love and appreciation of the Alaska wilderness as well as her scientific background when writing.

Robin invites you to join her at her website: https://robinbarefield.com, and while you are there, sign up for her free monthly newsletter about true crime in Alaska. Robin also narrates a podcast, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. You can find it at: https://murder-in-the-last-frontier.blubrry.net

Subscribe to Robin’s free, monthly Murder and Mystery Newsletter for more stories about true crime and mystery from Alaska.

Send me an email: [email protected]

_______________________

Would you like to support Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier? Become a patron and join The Last Frontier Club.

________________________