Alaska Triangle

Date of Discovery

Unknown

Name – Alaska Triangle

Description

If you draw a line from Barrow in the Northernmost region of Alaska stretching down to Anchorage and then East to Juneau you create the area known as the Alaska Triangle. The triangle is made up of some of the most remote wilderness on the planet.

Haunting trees

Origin

Unknown

Lore

20,000 people have gone missing in the triangle in the last 50 years making it one of the highest missing persons location in the world. Aside from missing people it is said that over 2,000 airplanes have also gone missing within the triangle.

Inuit legends like Keelut or the Qalupalik are amongst the reasons the locals believe people go missing. Tlingit Indian lore talks about shapeshifting demons called Kushtaka (aka the Ottermen) that also take humans. Some are likely lost hikers, adventurers, and hunters taken by severe weather but the sheer numbers suggest something else. In 1972 House Majority Leader Hale Boggs’ Cessna went missing. The plane was carrying 5 men and a pilot U.S. House Majority Leader Hale Boggs, Alaska Congressman Nick Begich, an aide, Russell Brown, and their bush pilot Don Jonz. After months of searching neither the plane nor the passengers were ever found.

Akin to the Bermuda Triangle some believe the area contains an electromagnetically influenced “vile vortex.” This negative energy is believed to create confusion, nightmares, health issues and is said to distort electronic signals causing plane crashes and equipment malfunctions.

There are also stories of unexplained lights, creatures that cannot be explained, and even alien/UFO sightings.

  1. Anomalies in the Sky: One of the most compelling aspects of the Alaska Triangle is the consistent reports of strange lights and unidentified flying objects. Witnesses, ranging from seasoned pilots to curious residents, have shared accounts of bizarre aerial phenomena. These sightings often involve unconventional flight patterns, otherworldly lights, and objects moving at speeds that defy explanation. Could these sightings be attributed to natural occurrences, secret military tests, or is there a more extraordinary explanation lurking in the shadows?
  2. The Kenji Terauchi Incident: Perhaps the most renowned UFO encounter within the Alaska Triangle occurred in 1972 when Japanese pilot Kenji Terauchi’s small aircraft had a close encounter with a colossal, metallic object. Terauchi, a seasoned pilot with a flawless record, reported being tailed by this mysterious craft, which seemingly defied the laws of physics. His airplane experienced electrical malfunctions during the encounter. Officially, the incident was attributed to electromagnetic interference from a military radar station, but to this day, it remains a focal point for UFO enthusiasts.
  3. The Quest for Answers: While the accounts of UFO sightings in the Alaska Triangle are numerous and intriguing, tangible scientific evidence remains elusive. Some speculate that the remote, isolated nature of this Alaskan wilderness makes it an ideal location for clandestine government experiments. Others insist that the phenomena have extraterrestrial origins.

Finally rumors of Bigfoot have also been cited as possible reasons why so many people go missing.

Modern Pop-Culture References

TV Shows

Alaska Monsters 2014 –

blank

Advertisements

Join "The Horror List" for Weekly Horror in your inbox






Alaska’s Bigfoot: The Tornit

Categories
Horror Books Horror Mystery and Lore

History and Mythology of the Tornit

Tornit, Alaska's Bigfoot, caught and caged
Photography by Elmira Gokoryan

Back in the old times, when Baffin Island was still known as Nunatsiarmiut (new-naht-saw-me-oot) and before European influence, the Inuit people lived near the coast of Kangiqtualuk. They were master kayak-builders and survived by means of subsistence—they were excellent hunters, regularly bringing in seals and whales to feed the people in their villages. They were not the only people living on the island though, they lived under the shadow of fear with a tribe of much bigger and aggressive people. Their way of living was different than their Inuit counterparts, as they could not build kayaks, tan hides, or preserve food in the traditional ways of the north.

These people are known as the Tornit (tore-knit) and possessed not only a larger stature but extraordinary strength; they would build houses out of stones and boulders that were much too large for any Inuit person to lift. These creatures, although human-like, are not human at all, with long arms and legs, they present more like a large ape or Neanderthal. Although they are bipedal in nature they would still be mistaken for a bear at a distance, due to their hairy appearance. Despite their largely physical advantages over a regular man, the Tornit have exceedingly poor eyesight which hinders their ability to hunt. They often smell like ghastly rotting flesh at worst and at best as if they have been freshly sprayed by a skunk—this concept also connects them largely to the creature of the southern United States known as the Skunk Ape.

So What’s the Story?

Crouching ape; Alaska's bigfoot, the Tornit
Photography by Kelly Sikkema

There is an abundance of lore available on these creatures through the published anthropological surveys of the Northern territories from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Franz Boas wrote down the oral traditions of the Inuit people from Baffin Island to Hudson Bay and captured many stories of the unscrupulous nature of the Tornit. There were some inconsistencies, with some villages recalling oral traditions that painted the Tornit to be a friendlier beast and even other recollections that the Tornit were actually hunted as a food source.

Their tense relationship with most of the Inuit tribes may have had less to do with the race of people as a whole and more so with the idea that neither the Inuit nor the Tornit seemed to be too fond of each other in general. The overwhelming consensus with all of the information available in books and online suggest they are a morally repugnant, dim-witted, unpleasant, and vicious creature. All of the lore taken into consideration, the reputation that the Tornit have, smacks more of a feudal war than that of a monster that hunts its prey from the shadows, but the isolated incidents of Tornit invading Inuit villages while the men were away simply to kill all of the women and children, in my opinion, makes them creatures to be feared.

Read the first installation of our original story, which features a rendition of the Tornit folktale, or check out other fascinating Alaskan cryptids!

blank

Advertisements

Join "The Horror List" for Weekly Horror in your inbox






Join The Horror List