PARANORMAL SIGHTINGS TERRIFY ALASKANS *3 Hour Marathon* | Missing in Alaska

foreign [Music] [Music] 1983 a prospector arrived in a river valley in Glacier Bay Alaska he was following rumors of a large untapped vein of gold hoping to make his fortune the man was experienced in his work and set about to locate the treasure but instead of striking it rich he disappeared months later a hiker came across his abandoned supplies but the hiker saw something else too a hulking masked figure watching him from the woods description matched a warrior tribe known for decapitating those who intrude on their territory but that tribe disappeared thousands of years ago since that sighting this area has had a dozen more sightings reports of frightening moans and three more people have gone missing none of them have ever been found inside the vast Frontier of Alaska is a mysterious triangle where each year five out of every thousand people go missing out there [Music] Three Investigators look for answers of former police officer can a specialist in strange phenomena and Tommy an expert on Alaskan Legends together they uncover mysterious sightings and ancient legends exploring the possibilities of those who go missing in Alaska [Music] the team treks into the thick Wilderness near Glacier Bay heading to the spot where the missing prospector's belongings were found you know guys being back in this area and my injury makes me really wonder if there's something that doesn't want us to be here we initially began investigating the mystery of this missing prospector three months ago we just entered these same Woods where people have seen this Warrior and I suffered a freakish accident are you getting your readings over there they can check this out oh come on what'd you hear me oh I broke my ankle just okay to my shoulder I slipped and caught my foot in some rocks and completely fractured my ankle I actually had to be carried out of the Wilderness to safety oh my God oh God oh my God [Music] it was honestly one of the most painful and unsettling events of my life I was laid up for 12 weeks my theory is that we're dealing with evil spirits out here now that we've returned to the same Forest it has me on edge he's saying like something caused you to fall I've been investigating The Unexplained most of my life Bigfoot doesn't scare me UFOs aliens doesn't bother me it's something about ghosts Spirits paranormal the Unseen witness descriptions of this mysterious Warrior match an ancient tribe known as the nahani native people who existed more than three thousand years ago stories describe them as larger than normal men who wore masks and wielded curved blades for chopping off the heads of their enemies little else is known about them other than that they mysteriously vanished centuries ago equally strange is this reappearance in the Alaska triangle since their home the nahani valley is in Canada's Northwest Territories could the nahani Warriors still exist and if so why might they have come here the nahani stories originates in Canada we're a long ways away from there huh yeah but look at all the similarities we were talking about you know Prospectors looking for gold and then there's this this weird mask human-like figure I mean they're almost identical in the late 1800s gold was discovered in the Yukon territory of Canada thousands of treasure Seekers poured in for their share of the bounty farther east in the nahani valley gold diggers weren't having the same success and things got worse in 1908 when Prospectors Willie and Frank McLeod were found with their heads cut off were the nahani Warriors behind it somehow or was someone protecting a rare find we could just be dealing with somebody that's trying to scare someone off of their claim or their potential wealth and it's as simple as that if a married person goes missing then you have to look at the spouse if a gold prospector goes missing the crime agreed is a likely bet team makes their way to way to the river it was there that the mysterious masked figure was seen well that's moving he can easily fallen in I still think it's worth testing on my theory I think I'm gonna go down there find a little spot and just just a little scratching even if Jax doesn't find traces of gold he might find an indicator material like magnetite or hematite known as black sand that suggests gold is around that would support the idea that someone could be protecting a claim and might even be willing to kill to do so I'm going to look for signs of bear up here okay one of the first theories you have to consider when somebody goes missing in the Alaska triangle is wildlife bears are very common around here and can be quite aggressive maybe this prospector got attacked and unburied somewhere I'm going to take some readings with the thermal imaging all right that's cool yeah absolutely I'm just curious whether you know I pick up any kind of temperature anomalies or anything like that it's well known in the ghost hunting world that Spirits display thermal signatures generally registering as cold spots but I've also heard that if a spirit is evil it might show up as a warm spot revealing its demonic nature while the mystery of the prospector and others who have gone missing here is strange the mystery of what happened to the nahani is stranger even when compared to other ancient tribes that have vanished the Indus Valley Civilization in Pakistan was a society that achieved amazing technological advancements such as a uniform measuring system Dental Drilling and urban drainage systems but by 1500 BCE they had disappeared from their massive city of mahajodaro for reasons unknown the Anasazi of the Southwest United States famous for their Cliff Dwellings were similarly lost to history some 800 years ago they seemingly left in a hurry abandoning cooking pots and baskets in their former abode and it's unclear what fate befell the Minoans of Crete that drove them out of existence around 1450 BCE scientists have speculated about everything from a volcano to a tsunami to explain their sudden disappearance which has drawn comparisons to the legend of Atlantis but these other civilizations are known by the architecture or tools they left behind the nahani's only Legacy is a gruesome oral history told by neighboring tribes of a vicious people who would chop off their enemies heads maybe the nahani never really existed but then what was the legend based on and what our eyewitnesses seeing out here now you find any signs of gold yet nothing hey guys as I'm scanning the river with a thermal imager I record a slight heat wisp coming off the water now this is glacial runoff so I have no idea how this could be giving off warmth well you were tanning there I was taking some readings and by the way 39 degrees is the water temperature right there on the shore see those red lines that are kind of coming up what is that to me it looks like some kind of vapor like a mist or something that's kind of coming off the water and I mean the water if the water is 39 degrees how are we having heat that's radiating off of the water you really could just be looking at some underground magma that's you know an Undiscovered straight hot stream oh all over Southeast Alaska and around we're on the ring of fire so there's Hot Springs out there definitely but as far as I know there are no hot springs in this area the southern edge of the state sits on the ring of fire a volatile line of volcanic activity that outlines the tectonic Pacific Plate as the plate shifts heat from molten rock can escape from thermal vents at the surface when you consider how much of Alaska hasn't been explored you know there has to be some geological features that haven't been identified or mapped out yet so maybe magma is causing this temperature differential you know in the Paranormal world we look for temperature inversions that are dramatically different and that's an anomaly in my mind I can't explain it can you hear that but you don't hear that what do you hear your audio device honey yeah just humor me I want you to record this for me see if this will pick anything up as we're standing there I start hearing this soft moaning sound I don't want to make too much of it but this nahani Legend involves people hearing spooky moans so I want to see if we can identify what this sound is okay recording it's kind of a murmuring it's a real light kind of a whistling murmuring yeah I hear that probably the wind right it's not the water let's go from down the river we can't get by right here we're not going to get through here so let's go back and we'll come back and find another spot to come up to the river I'm just hearing wind now guys I'm not getting that noise anymore yeah I don't hear it either check that out how do you suppose I got there well I mean do we think Thomas went from down up River how do I mean there's no Road here old prospector's truck don't you think yeah the body style of the truck suggests a 30-0 model that's consistent with the time when the Great Depression spawned an increased number of Prospectors and the amount of rust suggests it's been here since that time well that once again reinforces that there there is a belief that there's gold in this area do you think this is where the sound came from yeah listen I think it's just the wind playing some tricks through here the way the wind whips through this Bend in the river gives it an increased resonance due to the constricted passageway which could have created the sound they heard now the question is does this truck provide any new evidence why don't you guys go down there and check it out all right we're gonna hang around up here and see if I can get that sound again right away I can tell this truck has been here for a long time many decades so probably predates our missing prospector and the fact that river is constantly rushing through it is going to be very little evidence left to show us who owned the vehicle yeah you can check this out I'm not sure what's going on there as I'm scrolling back through my photos I come across a picture of Jack's planning for gold in the river and I noticed something pretty strange go back in again look at that what is that it's like an anomaly on the film and it's a curved half circle streaks of light like this often show up in photos where people believe Spirits are present that looks just like a sight and this anomaly looks unsettlingly like the nahani's weapon of choice Kenny you right there in the neck brother the number of people reported missing each year in the Alaska triangle defies the odds native lore is steeped in stories of Otherworldly creatures who might be contributing to this epidemic but could a legend from outside the triangle be partly to blame strange sightings of a masked figure which may be an apparition have evoked images of the ancient nahani warriors from Canada known for decapitating their enemies and the team's investigation into a possible victim has generated a bizarre find and it's a curved half circle that looks just like a scythe and it's hitting you right there in the neck brother that's probably just something messing with the light you know all the river water moving go to it next one whoa whoa there it is again [Music] to Ken the anomaly suggests the same type of curved blade the nahani were reported to use this is the exact same moment when I was getting those thermal readings I'm not convinced I think there are more practical reasons why that prospector went missing than ghost I mean obviously we're in Bear Country and obviously we know at some point there's been Gold prospect in here we need to talk to people who've had more recent sightings yeah at this point I still believe there's a real person or persons Behind These nahani encounters maybe the tribe still exists hopefully someone has seen something that can open up this case for us all right let's get out here he takes the team's evidence for a more in-depth examination Ken and Jacks track down a local name Cody he recently filed a police report about a suspicious individual he saw in the woods while camping [Music] foreign [Music] hey nice to meet you man we uh just have a couple quick questions for you man about uh this experience that you had well I was out solo camping for a night I had just sealed up my food to keep from attracting bears and I took my camping shovel and I was scooping dirt on fire and I heard a low moaning sound [Music] Ed like it was coming from all directions so I scanned my surroundings and I caught a glimpse of what looked like a large man off among the trees it was dark so I couldn't see his face but but what I could see looked almost wooden I know that sounds weird but he just immediately disappeared I didn't hear any more sounds after that it's interesting sounds pretty scary we appreciate you kind of opening up for us a little bit thanks a lot you have a good one so you mentioned the moaning sound all directions how much that fits with what we recorded while we're out there the way he described the faces looking wooden that's pretty bizarre I mean that kind of sounded like a master he immediately thought mask there's always a possibility that this Apparition could just be some person who's trying to scare people off for whatever reason but Cody's story makes me want to look at these photos of Jax again I think there might be a pattern here all right man here we go this is photo number one here it is that's a pretty bizarre anomaly okay it's not there there it is it's only when you're stooped over and pans didn't Cody say he was digging the dirt up to put out the fire that's when he heard the sound maybe this has nothing to do with gold but may or may not exist maybe it has something to do with the actual Act of digging in the ground disturbing the ground theoretically if there are these these spirits could they be protecting their sacred grounds sacred ground has always been a part of Native American culture and it isn't limited to burial sites locations can be revered because of events that happened there because they have unique natural products or even because they allow communication with Spirits such as the Aurora Borealis and since natives have been in Alaska for 12 000 years there are likely far more of these areas than anyone could ever know I will give you this when I've got the pan in the dirt the Scythe is above my head but you know I got to look at the other side too I mean photos have issues so is it a lighting issue hey Tommy how's it going guys good buddy what's up okay we can be there in about 20 minutes Armin later all right head that way yeah let's do it having identified an intriguing pattern to the photos Ken and Jacks joined Tommy to see what his tests have uncovered so brother what do you got Tommy hey guys check this out the recording down by the river that you were the sounds that you were checking out I sped them up is that a voice a language expert told me it sounds like a Danae phrase septia saying beware hearing that voice hidden in the wind it honestly gave me chills I mean I feel like I've been warned to stay away from this case a couple of times now oh my God I'm not sure what we stepped into is that a voice a language expert told me it sounds like a DNA phrase sepia saying beware so what is the name it's a dialogue blending French and the the natives from Canadian territory there but to me that sounds pretty articulate right I mean oh wait did you hear it it is the wind though I mean if you start tinkering with things and moving things faster or slower you can probably make whatever sound whatever you want this case is getting weirder by the minute now we're talking about voices in the wind having subliminal messages I just don't buy it the problem is we have no hard evidence yet no hair fibers no DNA no Footprints so let's backtrack a second we have the audio recording music played us which you said is a warning and we have the anomalies on the images when you're digging in the ground could these Spirits be protecting the ground the ground is it is it sacred ground like like sacred burial grounds exactly a famous case of a burial ground curse is the spiral mounds of Oklahoma discovered in the 30s this site had so many artifacts it was called an American version of King Tut's tomb but when men started taking relics illegally several died in mysterious ways including one who somehow drowned in a stream bed that was dry could the prospector have met a similarly bizarre Fate by disturbing the wrong area I'm pretty sure this area that we're investigating is not any burial ground but you never know new ones are discovered all the time Alaska has over 200 tribal communities living in the state today and there have been hundreds more throughout history anywhere you go in Alaska there's a good chance natives have been there before I'd really like to test this Theory out at a known burial site nearby there are actual burial sites I think it's worth going out and maybe using our equipment see what comes up do the nahani have a connection to ground that's been Disturbed Randy and his wife Sharla think so based on a strange sighting they had in 2007. well Springer just arrived and we had bought plants to plant in our backyard in our flower beds I was digging a hole my wife had walked inside the house I heard her call my name and I went inside and she was having trouble getting a picture down from the top shelf and that's the picture we usually use when we're out in the backyard when we have Eliminator water we had turned and we're ready to walk back outside and I looked through the window and saw a very scary man kneeling over the hole that I just dug in the garden he was wearing some sort of ancient costume or primitive ancient mask hard to really see what it was in his hand he had some sort of Machete or blade very intimidating I grabbed my wife who was approaching the door to go outside she did not see the guy and I grabbed her and pulled her back this guy looked insane we sort of gathered ourselves back inside the house still looking out the window and we watched him as he slowly went back into the forest behind our house and to this day I have no idea who or what he was Tommy leads the team to a local wooded area not far from where the prospector went missing recent excavations nearby have confirmed the presence of a native resting place obviously we would never disturb an actual grave site but we don't have to based on Jax and Cody's experiences theoretically it should only take a light scratching in the ground in an area nearby in order to prompt a response from these spirits you guys ready to test this Theory by breaking ground ready okay we're gonna capture some audio here guys [Music] [Music] hey Ken I'm not say anything abnormal in the pictures no anomalies no nothing on the thermal imager EMF hasn't gone off really getting nothing you know maybe maybe that doesn't really have anything to do with burial grounds maybe we just took a detour I mean maybe you're right Jax maybe those heat wisps that we were getting off of the river maybe that did have something to do with Magma I admit there's a decent chance that those heat wisps could have a natural explanation the problem is magma doesn't explain how this prospector went missing it's not like The Rescuers found a volcanic vent when they went searching for them so I'm thinking there could be another explanation magma is often associated with the underworld right maybe it's an ahani being grim reapers pulling Souls down into the underworld depictions of the underworld have long portrayed it as a realm of fire and brimstone as if it were embedded in the scorching core of the Earth and while demons are said to rule over it one figure is responsible for bringing people in the Specter of death often known as the Grim Reaper who carries a sickle could the nahane be a manifestation of this widespread belief I don't know Ken I mean if you want to test this Theory let's really test it you know I'm getting at some Higher Ground possibly and see if the thermal imager can pick the hot spot up I don't know if Spirits are real it's certainly possible but if there's an actual hidden tribe still lurking out there maybe the thermal scanner will show they're hunkered down team makes their way toward a vantage point that offers views of all the surrounding woods and Beyond if there are any more heat anomalies present they'll be able to find them there it is wow look at that you can tell why they call it Glacier Bay Ellsworth decline Ken brought along an instrument for just this sort of examination she asked me monitoring absolutely guys of all the gadgets we've used in our investigations this may be the coolest in my opinion thermal long range binocular transmission unit these thermal binoculars are capable of detecting the heat from a warm body as far away as three kilometers and will relay the feed to the team's tablet in real time can you go back that way yeah you're seeing something there what are you seeing what is that there's a heat signature there but it looks like it's coming from the glacier you see that it's rising you know that doesn't look too different from those heat wisps that were Rising off of the river the anomaly the team has spotted is similar to the one from their initial investigation this time on a much larger scale but what could be causing a glacier to give off heat is there a natural explanation or is it something more what could that be I have no idea well I Know This Much guys it's somewhere where I want to go I agree we need to get over there [Music] Alaska is notorious for its cold Winters and icy Tundra the bitterly low temperatures could be one reason so many people go missing each year in the Alaska triangle but could another reason be related to heat team spotted a bizarre Heat Signature coming from a glacier which seems impossible they have calculated the GPS coordinates of the thermal image and are on their way to investigate how's it going hey good welcome so my name is Shaggy Jax Jax hey Shaggy I'm Ken Ken welcome to the lake the team prepares to kayak to the glacier on Glacier Bay they believe the unusual heat readings there could be connected to similar readings where the prospector and others have gone missing could these images be the signs of spirits a potential nahani hot spot they hope to find answers while the phenomenon is still active I've been trying to bounce around some reasons that we might be getting heat in this particular area maybe it has something to do with the rock formations over here are those rocks capable of absorbing enough heat to radiate energy and would that energy somehow I don't know transmit through the ice as the team edges edges go to their Landing Zone they know the dangers of the glacier cannot be overstated The Frigid Waters of the bay are fed by the continual shifting of the glacier enormous chunks of ice could shed off at any moment the team must tread carefully well all right that sounds good get moving hey Shaggy what are these holes here so those are mulans Mulan yep mulan's create a network a web tunnels to the ice creation of a Mulan begins when a glacier shifts and develops cracks in its interior melt water from the surface seeps down into the fissures finding Paths of least resistance which are widened into passageways the end result can look like a giant sinkhole a spectacular but deadly glacial feature the GPS is pointing us right in that direction it's a little over a thousand thousand yards just over a thousand yards well we're almost there hey Shaggy we need to get at least a thousand yards that direction okay so it's going to be a little bit of work but that's all right okay okay guys Ken has that ankle I'm doing good brother thanks for asking hiking over this treacherous glacial terrain I can't help but think about our first investigation several months ago when I broke my ankle coincidence or evil spirits it's definitely something I don't want to repeat how we looking on the GPS Jax hey guys we're closing in on it okay we're getting close this is it oh what is this all right guys approach with caution holy cow look at that hole oh my God why does that go down there's no sign it's uh likely that it goes all the way to the bottom of the glacier which right here is hundreds of feet thick can't even see the bottom this is the spot right on top of it that's our spot according to the GPS this is where heat was rising from the glacier if The prospector's Disappearance was connected to similar thermal activity at the river this Mulan might show the team how that's a huge hole man holy that's crazy [Music] the mystery of a missing prospector has been tied to frightening visions of masked Warriors in Glacier Bay Alaska descriptions of these men fit the legendary nahani tribe from Canada which vanished thousands of years ago but Juno resident Naomi is among those who believe they may have returned I was up for a jog before work and I was on a Wooded Trail outside of town and I started to feel the ground shake a little bit so I held onto the tree next to me a few seconds later it's the ground stopped shaking and I looked over in the distance and there was this huge man wearing a mask that I had never seen before really creepy I I've never seen anything like it and the second I looked at him you know he was staring at me and a second later he was gone I don't know where he went but I started running again pretty quick and later on that night I ran into some friends and asked them if they felt the earthquake because you know it's a little weird and they said they had not felt anything so whatever happened out there no one else felt it are you guys feeling any warmth nothing at all that doesn't make sense I mean if this is the spot we were getting the readings we should be feeling something all right well let's check the thermal imagery yeah definitely yeah I guess nothing nothing that is strange guys I mean the conditions from yesterday today are exactly the same exact cash gray everything there's no reason that we should be getting a different reading than we were yesterday makes no sense well here's something we haven't tried yet let's pull out our camera and send a camera down there send it down on a line see what's down there all right brilliant with the bottom of the Mulan not visible to the naked eye the team will attach a camera to a rope and lower it into the hole watching a live feed sent back to the surface they'll look for signs of anything that might create a heat signature such as a thermal vent in the Bedrock below or even something man-made the audio is going to be to get out of the built-in mic on the camera plug that in I guess we'll just uh we'll monitor it through there go through the magma if it really was you know something from deep down inside the earth and we'd be feeling it right here right well magma that's closest to the surface is minimum 1300 degrees Fahrenheit so the question is how much of that heat would diminish by the time it traveled through ice that was 29 degrees to the surface still have some residual he might have residual I mean I'm kind of canceling that out I mean you feel Heat okay guys we're ready to go drop the camera cool okay and then now you can hand over hand feed that down [Music] be safe Tommy [Music] nice and slow yeah oh man we're losing light fast [Applause] we're out of light Tommy just darkness volume I'm hearing the water running and that thing could go down there forever I'm here I'm hearing something you hear that sounds like that's the name you hear that right yeah am I crazy what is that what are you guys hearing the wind blowing through I want to say it's like a Mulan or a wind tunnel or something like that yeah I'm making water down there maybe melt water running through your water from here we're recording this right yeah yeah we can enhance it later I want to hear it again and guys it's hung up on something over here what's that buddy it's stuck it's stuck it's stuck I can't see anything it's dark man I'm gonna give a pull on it [Music] guys it's hung up on something over here [Music] it's stuck stuck stuck I can't see anything it's dark man I'm gonna give a pull on it [Music] yeah just broke loose whoa oh man what we lost our camera it suddenly felt like it was hung up and then and then it just broke loose got that that looks good there might be something down in the ice you know that has been in the glacier for a long time you know that that happens but he gave a you know a singular tug and that just snapped and you know it's not under tension you know so you don't have tension pulls you don't have it cut in charge like if something was rubbing against it slowly you'd have an angle sure yeah yeah so it doesn't look like it's worn through it looks more like it's a clean cut like it was done with a blade is it possible that we get lowered down in there to retrieve it yeah unfortunately that we're not going to be able to do that Glaciers are constantly moving and uh the wrist that it could close up on us while we're down in there there's a legitimate concern unfortunately that camera is lost that sucks it's time to cut our losses and grab our gear and get out of here I'm disappointed that we lost our camera today and it's a big mystery as far as what could have caused such a clean cut in that rope and we still don't know what the heat Source was that we detected earlier in this area when you consider the initial mystery of the missing prospector these events seem to add up to something more than a dispute over gold the team decides it's time to hike out of the glacier to their kayaks before a potential storm moves into the area well I gotta say guys this is by far been one of our strangest investigations I mean you get injured and to come back all these months later the photographs with me in the water very strange what happened to our equipment I don't know that was just weird how about the thermal imaging yeah it's unexplainable we're talking high-tech equipment here there's no heat as an investigator I look for the facts the fact was yesterday we saw a heat signature coming from the glacier and today it wasn't there that Mulan might have a natural explanation but that heat anomaly has a stump going back to the nahani you know maybe maybe the nahani aren't as Sinister as they sound I mean they're not grabbing everybody they seem to be going after specific individuals like the people that are digging more like they're protecting something right but what can people be getting too close to considering that opening and everything that happened up there in that crevasse it's it's easy to imagine that you know we were looking at some type of portal into an underworld you know it kind of gets me thinking about the hollow Earth theory I mean who's to say that there is not some truth to it you know that maybe there is a sub training World beneath us the hollow Earth theory has been around since ancient times and is often associated with the afterlife such as the Greek underworld or other religions concepts of hell but some believe it to be a more amenable place with a central Sun that provides light for entire civilizations to thrive this Theory got new life in 2014 when a series of huge mysterious sinkholes were discovered across Siberia their cause still undetermined could there be a connection to a vast void beneath our feet and guys the hollow Earth theory is based on the premise that the entrances were located at the North and South poles as you guys know the magnetic poles of the Earth are constantly shifting so what if the entrance to the hollow Earth has shifted too so that's why the nahani are now in Alaska instead of Canada exactly the opening has moved I mean if that's true then there's actually a portal located here in the state of Alaska that would explain a lot of the things that we're investigating right for now the mystery of the nahani like other apparitions remains beyond the teen's grasp but could this Warrior's appearance along with other mysterious creatures reported in the Alaska triangle point to a larger truth oh what is this could there be a doorway from another world into ours holy cow allowing all manner of strange and violent beings to invade our realm if so Alaska might remain a hot spot of unexplained activity for centuries to come with people continuing to go missing in Alaska [Music] in 1987 a writer set out to document the strange history of an Alaskan Legend the kushtika also known as the otterman this half-man half-auto creature of klinget lore is reputed to steal people's Souls and it has been blamed for two famous incidents near Thomas Bay the first was a massive landslide in 1750 that wiped out a village of 500 people the writer visited the site as part of his research he then hiked Inland along a river valley to the location of an incident from 1900. a prospector searching for a vein of gold claimed to have been run off by a massive otter-like Beast the writer found the spot but would make it no further he vanished leaving behind his campsite and a brief Journal of his Adventure could his search for the kushtika have proven successful the writer hasn't been seen since the vast Frontier of Alaska is a mysterious triangle where each year five out of every thousand people go missing foreign [Music] ERS look for answers Jax a former police officer 10. a specialist in strange phenomena and Tommy an expert on Alaskan Legends together they uncover mysterious sightings and ancient legends exploring the possibilities of those who go missing in Alaska so Thomas Bay the Bay of death sounds like my kind of place the Team Heads toward the location where the missing Rider began his otterman research the area where the native Village was destroyed more than 250 years ago it was a native cling at fishing Village large for its time but the area has been desolate since its demise Thomas Bay where we're going it's kind of an isolated remote area beautiful back in there people use it for hunting and fishing but as far as I know people don't live there you know the legend of the otter man it sounds pretty creepy to me I mean that I think that would effectively keep people away the otter man is a staple of cling at folklore this blend of otter and human is reported by some to be up to eight feet tall earning it the nickname Alaska's other Bigfoot but it's also believed to be a shape-shifter that can disguise itself as a regular-sized river otter or even as a familiar person in order to lure victims away where it can capture them and turn them into other ottermen I grew up with these ottoman stories and it feels like there's something to them once I had a river otter look in my window checking me out and it definitely seemed like it was more than just an animal I understand Legends and why would you want to live in an area where the ground is going to crash on top of you at any moment got the berry Glacier over there I mean with all the erosions any moment something could come down on you and what you've built gets wiped out I wouldn't want to live here The Baird Glacier was first surveyed by the U.S Coast Guard and geodetic Survey in 1887. from then until the 1940s more than two kilometers worth of sediment escaped the glacier into Thomas Bay indicating an ongoing trend of erosion and outwash with such an unstable landscape could an angry powerful being have caused a collapse that wiped out the town although no one lives here anymore many visitors have reported glimpses of a large hairy animal that appears to be roaming the territory well guys it was pretty Eerie coming in with that low-lying fog that came out of nowhere kind of ominous right it has a feeling of being isolated that's for sure let's read the first entry from his journal the writer that went missing the writer's short Journal Remains the only glimpse into what he experienced on his fateful Expedition nearly 30 years ago he writes a tiring day getting to Thomas Bay which might explain the unease I feel despite my exhilaration for this project perhaps the knowledge of all those who perished on this unassuming land weighs too heavily on me I assume I'll feel more like myself tomorrow that's eury the team starts retracing the writer's path heading toward his final campsite although it's believed that this area is uninhabited one theory is that the writer fell victim to people who might be hidden in these parts hold up guys all the ways let's keep looking for any signs anyone living higher even animals yeah I mean this looks completely undisturbed well what I'm most interested in is finding signs of river otters again it's just you know to me I find this connection between the quote unquote otter man fascinating and could it somehow be derived off of real otters you know the habitat of river otters extends throughout Southern Alaska and across most of North America as well they're highly playful nature and social interaction is very human-like which might have inspired the otterman legend but how did the story take such a dark turn perhaps the centuries of encroaching Hunters that recklessly depleted river otter numbers led to fears of the otter man turning vengeful and violent against humans [Music] what's this Tony part of an old structure that was here they built all the houses up on pilings keep them out of the water hey guys check this out what do you got yeah well a whole bunch over there Tommy a bunch of muscles here some crabs muscle shells but they're all empty look there's a whole pile right here could this be otter sign I mean it looks like these may have been broken across and broken open they're pretty clean they're cleaned out there's no meat or flesh or anything in there what about the other explanation potential of people hiking through here or like you said Hunters I mean would humans do this actually eat these raw out here it's possible but we usually build a fire and cook them well this potentially could be sign of a river otter I mean I don't think we can eliminate that at this point we might be on the right track I always appreciate Ken's enthusiasm for his theories but finding evidence of an otter doesn't mean there's an otter man what it could mean is there are larger predators that feed on otters so we need to be careful as night settles in the team continues their long hike of the river following their GPS tracker toward the writer's final campsite [Music] hey guys yeah hey this is it we're here guys right on top of its spot well this makes sense you know looking down there the river's way down there when you're building a camp here you want to build camp on High Ground so you don't get flooded out in case of the heavy rains hey real quick can I see the journal okay this is the last journal entry it's the last known spot right here and day two of the trip and I seem to have filled my head with so many thoughts of acoustica my mind is incapable of entertaining anything else already I've imagined a voice in the woods and a shadow amongst the trees I'll explore the area tomorrow when the sunlight is much stronger and my nerve much steadier a voice in the woods and a shadow in the trees it's pretty creepy if you guys notice that other than the sound of the river I mean we haven't heard any Wildlife out here at all you're right you remember that story about the prospector that came up here in the year 1900 and one of the things he talked about was the strange lack of wildlife in this area according to the prospector named Charlie he was sent into the strange Wilderness ahead of his crew to locate a reported vein of gold he arrived in the area and began scouting but instead of finding riches he spotted a large hairy creature Galloping toward him it was humanoid with coarse fur and claw-like fingers Charlie fled the scene claiming the creature was right on his heels before he lost it at the river natives who heard the story in immediately claimed it I mean I think from here the only thing left to do is spread out and see what else we can find when I hear a story about a big hairy animal chasing someone I assume it's a bear we haven't seen any signs of bear out here yet but the prospector's story is well over a hundred years ago they could have been all over the place then bears are only one type of dangerous animal that could be in these parts moose injure more people each year than bears and wolves have also been known to range through these Woods where they are now is anyone's guess [Music] but modern sightings suggests there is still something active in this area hey guys come over I think that's something there's a big Den over here what do you got hey guys I think I found something hold this for sure yeah look in there oh looks like hair yeah man that looks like fur I missed the first time we've had any kind of animal if this is for the hair in the Dugout suggests a recent presence if it's a predator that might explain why other Wildlife is staying hidden you hear that what's that who's that thank you each year missing persons cases in the Alaska triangle number in the thousands wolves and bears are suspected in at least some of these cases but could a river otter be partly to blame Legends of the shape-shifting otter man drew a writer's interest only to see him become a statistic when he disappeared during his investigation oh the team is exploring the same location I guess you hear that what's that who's that where'd it come from guys Tommy wanna get the recorder out dude I have no idea what that was baby crying it's over there you think we can track it down let's go have a look Legend stays at the otterman imitates other beings in order to lure its victims to him to be captured and assimilated at this point that seems at least as valid a possibility as finding an infinite distress out here Jax scans the woods ahead with a thermal imager looking for any Warm Bodies near the location of the strange sound they heard I could have sworn we heard it right over here sound like it might have been a little further though Ken it was definitely this direction Ken Jax check this out where you at Tommy up here yeah buddy look at this look at the track there oh yeah over here they tell me what these tracks are they look like fox tracks to me let's get some photos of this foxes can make vocalizations that sound very similar to a human baby yeah but we should have an expert listen to the audio recordings to confirm that the team gets back to work scouring for Clues but tonight there's no more evidence to be found the next day after sending their samples to a lab for analysis Ken and Tommy travel to nearby Sitka to visit Gary an expert in kushta Galore who also happens to be the father of Tommy's girlfriend oh Tommy hey girl what are you doing I'm good how you doing you guys want to come on in sure going on guys is there somewhere I can help you we're investigating stories about the acoustica maybe you have some your own personal stories on this I grew up knowing there was acoustica knowing that there was a otter man to be feared why are there people so fearful of the acoustica what is so terrifying about this creature because they're afraid that they're gonna steal their soul and their body and turn them into acoustical and if when they do that lingit will never get reincarnated as a human being again they'll do anything to get you away from the safety of your home or your village they can shape-shift into your loved one or even a best friend the descriptions of the shape-shifting to me it's very reminiscent of other Global Legends of shape-shifting types of beings or entities shape shifters pervade ancient lore and are almost always based on animals that are local to the culture Japanese Legends describe the Kitsune a fox with up to nine tails that can assume human form the Scottish and Irish have the cell key a seal that can shed its skin to become a person on land and the Navajo reenact stories of Skin Walkers natives who can transform into any animal in their Realm some historians believe these Legends were inspired by people with abnormalities as if they were something other than fully human could the human-like qualities of the otter have made it a natural fit for the Alaskan version of this folklore are there any talismans or things that you can do to protect yourself they don't like iron or steel because they know that they can be weapons and they definitely afraid of dogs so Gary we're going to be going out into the woods and doing some more investigation maybe we could borrow your dog Clyde oh clay would be a good dog to take with you and they would definitely be afraid of them you know I think it might help us if we could actually speak to someone who's experienced or seen acoustica recently would you know anyone like that I know a young man that had seen one recently and I can introduce you to them that would be terrific okay as Ken and Tommy get information about a witness Jax visits the lab where the teen left their evidence for examination Rick Mueller a biologist who's an expert on Native Alaskan species has finished his analysis hey how we doing hey Jax how are you good to see you again got some stuff for me I do very very examined your recording and I do have some results for you I'm going to play your recording okay [Music] and you like you were saying it it does sound like a baby screaming and here's a recording that we have in our database right they must sound a lot like what we recorded that was a Red Fox the Audio that you supplied in the background is a faint chattering you hear that I do hear that and that's called geckering Fox geckering is a unique sound that separates their vocalizations from other species while sometimes used by kits and playtime its most commonly employed during aggressive encounters or uttered as a warning the strange thing is up until this point we had seen no signs of wildlife into forest was eerily quiet that's unusual usually you hear a lot of sound from squirrels to magpies so it could be quite obvious that there's something that's making these foxes very disturbed so what about the fur the fur I can tell you is a different story to me I'd like to just move this DNA analysis reflects that it's river otter okay but we've never seen a hair that long I thought he was going to say the fur was from a fox which would match the sound in the print that we found or maybe a bear which was my leading theory for what happened to the missing Rider to hear him say otter Shock Me the sample that you supplied was three to four times longer than what you can see right here and that's that's very abnormal longer hair is is usually reserved for your non-aquatic animals so we're dealing with a river Rod or positively that's possibly an anomaly or a subspecies that hasn't been identified it's not something I've ever seen before it has me mystified [Music] the river otter has long been a staple of the Alaskan landscape could it also help answer the mystery of why so many people go missing in the Alaska triangle a sea otter is a second branch of this family tree Evolution has made it up to four times larger than its cousin and adapted it with paddle-like rear Limbs and increased foot webbing so it can live almost exclusively in water considering such specializations the team has to consider the possibility of a third strain of this creature an otter highly suited to land that's big enough to Target humans the otter man also known as the kushtika pervades the lore of the twingets of Southeast Alaska who believe it can steal your soul has discovered some odd fur identified by DNA as river otter but longer than normal for the species could this be a validation of the kushtika or is it just a genetic work on an otherwise ordinary otter based on a leap from Gary Ken and Jax meet with a witness named Alex who claims to have had a run-in with acushtika a few months ago I heard you had an interesting story to tell us I was out running on my favorite Trail and as I was running I saw my friend up ahead of me and I yelled out after him and he just kept on going and I was yelling his name and nothing so I finally stopped and he bolted into the woods and that's when I figured okay I was gonna figure out where he's headed maybe I'll meet him there so I tried to give him a call and then he'll hear me and he picks up after the first ring he goes hey Alex how are you that's what I called to ask you uh I see you're out here you know where are you going maybe I can meet up he says I'm at my house not winded it was strange oh my God this weird feeling inside is this is not right and I hang up and I I got out of there as soon as possible I mean sometimes people are you know you're running your adrenaline's up you know you got fatigue you know you might be making a mistake are you really sure that was your friend yeah maybe just someone that looked like him and you were getting a good looking downtown we know everybody here everybody knows everybody and I know that was my friend we were all raised with the stories and I'm absolutely positive it's got to be acoustica why don't you tell us what you know what is the kushtika from your experience oh half otter half man what's a shape shifter and tries to lead people into the woods you know with that who else could it be that's exactly what this person who was looking like my friend was doing so Alex approximately where was this location where you saw your friend take off into the woods it was on the Indian River Trail why do you think it'd be out for you well you think it'd be drawing you away I'm not sure I'm not sure [Music] the team heads to the location of Alex's sighting the Indian River is located just outside of Sitka a mere 90 miles from Thomas Bay and the ongoing sightings there [Music] this is the jogging Trail right here the witness described Ken they are hopeful there might be some lingering Clues up here yeah right there yeah that's the way you want to head that way I'll go this way I'm gonna take the middle okay okay all right if they can find any shoe prints that could help them track down anyone who ran here even a sliver of a protein bar wrapper might have some DNA on it hey Jax are you seeing anything nothing so far but after two hours of searching they don't find a Trace it's really disappointing not to find any evidence here as of now with this incident all we have is one man's story and eyewitnesses can be unreliable I've done thousands of interviews with Witnesses who are sane sober and articulate adults and they still get items wrong they can still get colors wrong descriptions wrong I mean just simple as someone having hair or not having hair it's just how it is the human brain fills in facts it's just an option we have to really consider that he just did see somebody he thought was his friend and it wasn't well man that's definitely a possibility but it fits the traits of the acoustica I mean what does it do it targets individuals and it leads them out into the Wilderness leads them astray and that's exactly what this guy is describing we just have to be careful that we're not sticking his statement into that story because he knows what acoustica is that's all I'm saying all accounts that I've heard of growing up here acoustica will lure people either into the woods or down to the river this Ravine is all challenged together and it's headed right down towards the river if we're going to find a river otter that's where you're going to find them the team doesn't know if they're dealing with a creature or a person with bad intentions but either way the river is a prime spot a person could dispose of evidence there or even use it for a quick getaway this looks like a lot calmer right here yeah right I think uh maybe there's a good location to look around for any sign of otter Footprints sounds good look around we've got a nice soft bang for tracks too the rain's been coming down pretty hard today guys any tracks are gonna get wiped out pretty quick in this soft mud hey guys I think we've got something come check it out buddy what do you got check that out the state of Alaska has the highest rate of missing people in the country are there dangers here besides the rugged terrain harsh weather and known predators the twingat folklore of Southeast Alaska describes a terrifying creature called the kushtika or otterman that lures people into the woods and turns them into other kushtikas a witness testimony about this shape-shifting Beast has led the team to the Indian River near Sitka where they may have Unearthed a clue laughs hey guys I think we've got something you can check it out buddy what do you got oh wow check that out well she floating the water here some looks like some fur it's like something was coming through here and got snagged on the stick doesn't look like Bear Hair I wouldn't think canine either no it's a little too too dense yeah pretty thick this looks a lot like what we found the other day none of the river otters that I know of have hair this long well this is the anomaly they got brought up with the technician the other day was that everything's DNA wise met there was a river otter yeah I had a shot over doubt but except for the length this just might be the spot where we need to focus our attention guys if there are real but abnormal otters running around out here well maybe that's what inspired acoustica Legends and this is our chance to catch one I think we should get some gear and get back here and stake the area out I think we need to all right man a real otter with physical anomalies might explain the shape-shifter part of kushta Galore could such an animal manipulate its features to look like other animals a real life example of this Talent is the mimic octopus capable of imitating a rigid flatfish when it swims making itself less appetizing to passing Predators octopi can also change their color and texture to mimic their environment hiding invisibly on plants and coral while these traits are used as defense similar abilities can be used to attack prey which is the core of the kushtika legend it's a possibility that Brad Benson takes seriously After experiencing something strange outside Juno in 2011. a friend and I were doing a volunteer shift cleaning up garbage along the side of a stretch of road just outside of town and he had his headphones in he was about 20 yards from me suddenly my friend called out to me from off among the trees and I looked for him and he said hey there's a big pile of garbage back here we need to get it so I went and grabbed another bag and opened it up and as I did a jogger and her dog came running around the corner and the dog immediately started barking like crazy I look back to where my friend was standing and the only thing I saw was just this flash a brown creature with no tail disappearing into the woods and I looked back towards the dog in the jogger and behind them my friend steps Out of the Woods that there's no way he got from point A to point B that quickly but even so I asked him if he had called me into the woods and he said he didn't know what I was talking about it wasn't even him the team convenes at Gary's house to procure some small game traps in case it's just a regular-sized otter leaving the strange fur behind if it's acushtika those are said to often appear as regular river otters making them vulnerable as well the team will set the traps up at the river for an overnight Stakeout right here got it let me say anything something slam shot and traps alive in there without hurting it this is actually an otter we're dealing with then the baited trap should draw it out but if it's the otter man then the fact that we're all going to be separated should draw it out come on Clyde we'll essentially make ourselves bait with a little protection just in case with Tommy bringing Clyde the dog Jax toting his sidearm and Ken packing bear spray the Team Heads back to the river they've identified a bridge where Ken can set up home base guys all the points lead to right here the fur you found Tommy but of a quarter mile Downstream right there and we're in the same general area where that mystery jogger was seen I think this is the perfect location to Stage our investigation Ken will run a Central Command Post from his spot on the bridge while Jax and Tommy head in opposite directions let's gear up and we'll do that Jackson Tommy will have cameras mounted on their chests that will send a live feed of what they see to Ken's tablet we're good Ken you got me yep got it all right the first trap is set up near Ken's position on the bridge the others will be placed farther along the river right here Tommy right here is perfect come on right can you want to grab Tommy's pack yeah [Music] what's up here I'll hold them while you put the meat in there [Music] yeah here what's up with Clyde he's going crazy hey Jack all right we're set here what's up with Clyde he's going crazy hey Jax what you got [Music] it see him then Tommy not yet Jax yeah I'm not seeing any tracks and Clyde's not picking up anything more here okay I've worked with canines before and their sense of smell is a good ten thousand times stronger than ours so no doubt that Clyde sent something [Music] how are you doing Ken did you guys see anything what happened I don't know the dog alerted him got worked up over something over there we couldn't find out what it was but we need to get those other traps set before we lose all our light here so all right this one's set let's get back to work looking good thank you all right the team members separate and head toward their respective posts Ken will monitor the others from the bridge while Jax patrols an area upriver and Tommy an area down river sets another trap at The River's Edge since this one will be unmanned he will set up a trail camera to keep an eye on it it's motion sensitive with high definition night vision so it will reveal anything that comes sniffing around with the team in position Knight settles in [Music] for Tommy it's an unsettling situation I've heard stories my whole life of the acoustica and how dangerous they are and now we're here trying to draw one in I know this is important for our investigation but this goes against every Instinct I have hey Ken I got nothing hold on I'm checking it now there's no movement near the Trap come on Clyde this is Ken do you copy yeah hey I'm not seeing anything here yet what are you guys seeing yeah it's pretty quiet up here on the bridge too [Music] foreign I think I hear something I'm gonna go check it out keep an eye on the camera radio silence for me all right guys radio silence all right [Music] [Music] see something Clyde I hear the Trap get sprung down below from the bridge it appears empty but I need to make sure and I can't break radio silence to call for backup so I need to investigate this on my own thank you what was that what are you doing here we're following a noise and then heard the Trap go off from down the river check this out man the bait's gone and the trap was sprung what do you got guys Jackson what was that noise something freaking huge splashed over there in the water right there in the river well let's go over there and check it out this is extremely disturbing I mean whatever jumped in that water it was probably within 50 feet of me Jax what buddy Clyde's got something here what do we got check this out what'd you find the track got a funny pad right here oh yeah something's been through here oh shoot there's one right there four toes claws d-pad remake of this guys ah what is that a bear I I don't know what it is you don't think it should just be old and be spread out I mean this mud's pretty gummy see how the digits are all in alignment there crazy large like a bear though and what about a large wolf man it's hard to say what that could be that's huge man that looks that's bigger than my hand I'm with you there but I'm just telling you the morphology of the track looks like an otter track and I'll tell you what guys whatever made this track I wouldn't want to run into it Ken is clearly on edge he seems convinced acoustica nearly got him I'm sure it's something else but whatever it is we need to safer approach the Stakeout I mean if it's a bear or if it's some large otter we don't need to be separated the rest of the night we need to stay together yeah all right here hang tight let me get a picture of that this print is frightening to me it does resemble an oversized otter which is a scary Prospect still crying and it does confirm my beliefs the team sticks together for the remainder of the Stakeout but the rest of the night remains quiet after some Wildlife experts have had a chance to analyze the print the team reconvenes to discuss the findings so I submitted the photos of the track that we found came back completely inconclusive a trap was incomplete and too smeared it was kind of a dead end which was to me disappointing well that is disappointing it is honestly I thought we had something pretty remarkable there it obviously was a large sized animal and probably the biggest thing out of the whole investigation is the fur finding that in two different locations has to make you wonder especially after having the lab analyze it and it's coming back as River or land otter but nothing that's going to be identifiable with that kind of length to the fur yeah it's not like any River router that I've ever seen it's just too long hair you know guys I've been thinking I mean last night was crazy you guys each individually heard a noise that distracted you and led you off right when I heard that trap go off and consequently LED meat off of my post on the bridge down at the woods as if it was trying to lead me when I was at my most vulnerable position alone on the bridge if these creatures do exist as I believe they may that may have been a whole strategy that had been played out maybe several of these creatures were working together in tandem to lead us out into the wilderness and to make us acousticas do it makes for a nice ghost story but it's like the boogeyman you know but it's definitely hard for me to believe that this is some sort of man slash otter you know what I mean it's I think you're just looking for some anomaly a new species of otter that hasn't been found or researched before I know all my life I've heard these stories and I and I talk to people that they've experienced these different happenings and I can't dismiss that [Music] the idea that an evil force can take on any identity it wants might be the most frightening Legend of all could that be the lesson at the heart of the otterman lore I grew up knowing there was acoustica to be feared is it simply a warning that even the most innocent looking being could be concealing a Sinister side or is it possible that Evolution has created a unique creature one much larger than its cousins with different features and an eye toward human Conquest either way buried somewhere within this Legend could be one more reason that people go missing in Alaska [Music] [Music] thank you in 1999 in Seward Alaska Jenna Miller was out doing a training run on Mount Marathon this grueling three-mile Trail hosts an annual race that draws hundreds of participants Jenna was planning to take part in it 200 yards from the top a hiker named Marla warned Jenna to hurry a storm was rolling in she assured him she would and continued toward the top moments later Marlo saw something in the sky a bird the size of a small plane and it was headed toward Jenna's position [Music] Legends of a massive Thunderbird are common among Alaskan tribes and have been depicted in native art for centuries could these Legends be based on something real Jenna never made it down the mountain and has not been seen sense inside the vast Frontier of Alaska is a mysterious triangle where each year five out of every thousand people go missing [Music] Three Investigators look for answers a former police officer can a specialist in strange phenomena and Tommy an expert on Alaskan Legends together they uncover mysterious sightings and ancient legends exploring the possibilities of those who go missing in Alaska foreign begins their investigation by exploring Mount Marathon which overlooks Seward Alaska on the Kenai Peninsula they're taking a two-pronged approach Jackson Tommy will hike the trail looking for anything that might explain Jenna's disappearance while Ken gets a bird's eye view from the helicopter I thought we did this Ray start off as a joke kind of a dare yeah yeah one fisherman geared another fisherman to run up the mountain in a kind of a competitive way and according to mount Marathon folklore a local man challenged another to get up and down the harsh three-mile Trail in under an hour the attempt failed but the challenge has been reenacted yearly since 1915 as an organized race every fourth of July the current record for the difficult route is just under 42 minutes but Jenna didn't have the benefit of race day support could she have suffered an accident during her training run from which there was no return well I don't understand I mean this is a massive search for her he had a National Guard volunteers hundreds of volunteers out here now she could just go missing like that I think after some time you at least find some clothing or bones right something as Ken scans The Ravines and gullies of the higher elevations Jax and Tommy head off Trail to see what hazards might be lurking below the tree line thing about bears it's one of my biggest theories even if she fell and was hurt always that possibility there's a lot of ways that Jenna could have gotten hurt out here well it doesn't make sense is how she vanished completely hey Ken you there [Music] considering that wind is a testimony here the Thunderbird is one of the most revered and feared creatures of Alaskan lore its high stature is embodied by its place of prominence atop totem poles it's described as a massive bird of prey with a wingspan of 25 feet or more as well as a hooked beak curved horns and vicious Talons its strength is also legendary with stories of its snatching whales for a meal and as its name suggests It is believed capable of spawning violent storms by beating its Enormous Wings in North America the Thunderbird Legend is second only to Bigfoot in the number of reported sightings a famous case happened in Lawndale Illinois in 1977 when a monstrous bird snatched a 10 year old boy and carried him 35 feet until his mother helped rescue him no one could conclusively identify what kind of bird it was one of all the theories of the Thunderbird do you most lean to [Laughter] [Music] territories were class of gigantic birds that ruled the skies until about 10 000 years ago the largest at wingspans of well over 20 feet with Stout powerful legs and a sharp hooked beak for snatching prey they lived for millions of years until disappearing from the fossil record along with other major fauna at the end of the pleistocene [Music] it's going to be anywhere it's going to be here in Alaska look at all places that could hide in food resources and everything [Music] mountains Beyond Mount Marathon have lots of craggy Peaks and hidden clefts in the rock the team believes this could be a place where large birds are able to roost and remain out of sight damn Jack look at that how steep that is yeah I love you man wow so I think we're about 200 yards from the top this last spot shoot was seen how clear that is all the way out there it's not like when we were down there at the tree line This is wide open looking around I don't understand how someone could go missing up here treacherous yeah it's a brutal hike out about it I can see it from here [Music] it's actually unfortunate that today's weather is so clear and sunny Thunderbird sightings are most often associated with inclement weather and it might help our investigation yield more clues if there was a storm approaching well done gentlemen find anything [Music] at all what you think about with all the rains that were coming down make the path really muddy obviously a lot of debris and stuff we could trip over we have large rains and all that water it should expose our body and maybe she should have been found the storm actually supports the Thunderbird Theory right Tommy some of the Native Legends say that the Thunderbird creates the thunder and lightning shooting from its eyes most Skeptics think it's a large bird you know something like a California condor or something like that let's give this Summit a thorough once over okay guys definitely interested in droppings and discarded food items or things that look like they may have been dropped from the air right I know the larger birds like California Condors they actually will fall off of cliffs to get airborne it's a straight drop here guys something like a large bird could fall off this cliff and ride the thermal updrafts the rising winds in this area are ideal for birds like the Condor which is known to soar for an hour without flapping its wings saving its energy the body fell down here momentum would take it pretty far guys I know it's been years since Jenna's disappearance but birds are known to come home to roost you know so I mean there's potential here that there could still be some evidence the question is what kind of evidence are we looking for let's just dig guys oh we haven't found anything Kyle leads me this Runaway Bride Theory I mean what if Jenna went missing on purpose maybe the possibility of this might have been a ruse I mean like to start a new life yeah it's not unheard of yeah so I want to check with maybe a family member see if there's more to her disappearance than than what everybody else knows that's a good idea well you're doing that Tommy and I'll go track down that eyewitness all right with the initial reconnaissance of Mount Marathon providing little to go on the team splits up to do some further research Ken and Tommy go to meet the key witness a man named Marlo claims to have seen a large bird just before Jenna's disappearance I Marlo oh yes sir hi I'm Kim hey Ken nice to meet you nice to meet you as well hey Tommy Liam thanks for taking the time to meet with us today we really appreciate it well I'm glad to help I've always felt a little weird about being the last person to see Jenna alive yeah um and I would I would love to see some resolution to the case so tell us about the day that Jenna disappeared there was a storm coming down and I mean I only exchanged a few words with her I I basically just told her to hurry back down the mountain before the storm hit she said that she definitely would she was sweating and tired but uh but she seemed mentally sound and alert so tell me about the sighting you had on the way down the mountain I happened to glance up and I saw this really dark figure flying in the sky my first thought was it was an airplane I mean the the wingspan had to have been at least 20 feet easy but almost immediately I noticed that there was no noise and all of a sudden it banked and I could tell that it was a bird it was really dark and I could see a hooked Bill and it as a as a banked and and flew by I could also tell that there were some really huge Talons on the bottom of his tucked in feet so so it curved back and then flapped his wings and basically just beelined it straight to the top of the only later when I heard about Jenna disappearing did it occur to me that that maybe this large bird had snatched her up or something like that it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before and I've lived here for a long time do you think he could draw us a sketch for this bird I can I actually got one better I've got a video video Alaska is home to Great numbers of large birds Eagles especially thrive in this vast expanse which is which is fish and other prey but could there be a flying creature much bigger than any eagle is there a raptor in Alaska large enough to inspire stories of the Thunderbird a legendary creature that can control the weather and snatch large animals with its powerful talents a witness named Marlo claims to have seen such an animal just before a woman went missing on Mount marathon and now he's making an even bigger claim you think he could draw us a sketch of this bird I actually got one better I've got a video you've got a video of the bird this giant bird well unfortunately I don't have a video of the the day that Jenna disappeared but yeah the video Marlo's video was recorded by a friend who saw a large bird and sent the footage to him could it be the evidence the team has been waiting for I had contacted the police but the the police they just dismissed it and they didn't bother looking at the video so definitely a raptor yeah look at that wingspan on that it's hard to tell how big it is yeah it's a good sized bird but there's no point of reference yeah this was again it was taken uh seven years ago a resolution isn't as good as I'd like classic Raptor it's just hard to see exactly what that is I am seeing a kind of a light Fringe I would love to have this analyzed maybe spend some time kind of reviewing this and get it checked out and see what we got here exactly I've been actively investigating accounts of giant mystery birds for over a dozen years now so I'm anxious to get this footage looked at because this could be definitive proof that the Thunderbird actually exists as Ken and Tommy download a copy of Marlo's video Jax goes to meet with Jenna's cousin Steven he's curious if Jenna might have any personal motivations for disappearing on purpose Stephen Jax Jax nice to meet you buddy nice to meet you for taking the time man anything for the case right yeah it's been 16 years I'm I'm kind of surprised I'm grateful but surprised people are still interested in the case so as an investigator I'm always trying to look at all the possibilities of a case you know so basically that's why I wanted to pick your brain about things and try to know what you had to offer is there any reason that you can think of this you would have intentionally gone missing you know or trying to get away from something whether that's an enemy or something like that I don't know of any enemies she might have had how about her financials I don't know we never really talked about money she seemed pretty well off for herself I mean she wasn't asking for money but any of boyfriends or any kind of abuse in her life she seemed really happy and there's only one way up and down that mountain so even if she did want to disappear on her own it'd be kind of difficult I mean somebody would have seen her coming through Steven's responses assuming that they're genuine or undercutting The Runaway Bride Theory maybe Jenna was a normal well-adjusted girl and she just went missing because of natural causes I do appreciate your time if I come across any leads or I'll be in contact thanks Jax experts dismiss the possibility of any modern bird picking up a human Judy Benson Spencer Jenna Miller it almost happened to her a decade ago near Dillingham well it was early spring and the weather was nice so I decided to go for a jog and I was about two miles into my run when I thought I noticed something above the tree line and I glanced over but nothing was there a moment later I got this really eerie feeling that I was being followed and I stopped running and I turned and looked and that's when I saw this enormous shape rise up above the tree line it passed in front of the sun I didn't know what I was looking at and then I realized I was looking at the biggest bird I'd ever seen in my life it was as big as a Cessna that's when I realized it was circling and I remembered that birds of prey circled just before they're about to attack so I ran into the woods I was scared out of my mind and the bird circled once more and flew away I waited moment and stepped back out on the road and I hightailed at home as fast as I could I'll never never forget what it felt like to be prey to that bird Marlo's video in hand Ken and Jax meet up to visit Dr James Klein an ornithologist who is an expert on local birds Dr Klein hi hi Ken Gerhard I'm curious to get Dr Klein's opinion on this potential Thunderbird video but first I want to get his take on the endemic species the types of birds that are native to Alaska that might explain the Legends and the sightings we're here to gather more information kind of pick your brain about the history and taxonomy of large bird species and particularly here in Alaska what tell us about the largest birds in the world today the largest wingspan of any living bird known today is that of the wandering Albatross now it's got a wingspan of about 12 feet and it doesn't reside in Alaska so we're not going to see it up here the largest predatory bird in the entire world is the Andean Condor so the Andean Condor is going to have a wingspan of about 10 and a half feet but of course it resides in the Andes mountains and on the Pacific coast of South America so we're not going to see it in Alaska either the largest North American bird is the California condor now that's got a wingspan of about 10 feet but again its territory is going to be limited to California Arizona and during certain times of the year Southern Utah we haven't had documented sightings of them up this way so what are the largest bird species that can be found in Alaska the bald eagle and that is quite prominent in Alaska the large females are going to get a wingspan of about eight feet so again we're going to see those throughout a lot of Alaska but all four of these birds just aren't likely to be able to carry a person is it true that Eagles can only pick up about 50 about half of their body weight yeah about half is is pretty accurate yeah well definitely not big enough are there any chance that territorins are still alive today it's highly unlikely but there is always the possibility we've seen it throughout history is What's called the Lazarus taxon a Lazarus taxon is a species thought to be extinct that was then found alive the most famous example is the coelacanth believed to have died out 65 million years ago until a specimen was found near South Africa in 1938 could the Thunderbird be a Lazarus taxon territory that's still hidden in the Wilds of Alaska I do have one other thing if we could bother you for an expert opinion on a video that we're trying to get analyzed oh sure can you tell us what that bird is let's see yeah that's a nice looking specimen so can you tell us what it is the vast state of Alaska is one-fifth the size of the continental U.S but its population is approximately the same as San Francisco with so much untamed land the Alaska triangle has the highest rate of people going missing in the country could one of the causes be coming from above flying creatures with 40-foot wingspans are not fictional the quetzalcoatulous the largest flying animal of all time was this size when it roamed the skies during the Cretaceous Period could there be a similar creature alive today Legends of a massive Thunderbird are well known in Native folklore and a modern sighting could be connected to a runner Vanishing from a Mountaintop a video of just such a flying creature might answer if the Thunderbird is real can you tell us what that bird is oh it's a nice looking specimen it appears to be a turkey vulture hmm are they native to Alaska they're not native to Alaska but with their ability to to travel vast distances with relatively little energy expended it's not entirely out of the realm of possibility they could make it up here I'm honestly not surprised that this bird is a known species but Marlo did say that it was smaller than the bird he saw when Jenna went missing so maybe these are different animals altogether and this video does prove one thing large birds can be active here without people realizing it nice to meet you thanks for coming in judging the size of an Airborne bird can be difficult but Carlos Diego claims to have had a Thunderbird sighting in Sterling that solves that dilemma it was a clear spring day outside I was in my driveway replacing a battery that had gone bad in my truck when I hear something off in the distance I looked up and I saw something [Music] I figured it was just a small bush plane but I look closer and I realize this thing is this thing's not a plane at all it was moving like a bird so I started thinking it has to be much closer than I realized because there's no way any bird is that big that's when I noticed that it was carrying something people don't believe me when I say this but this gigantic bird is carrying a deer I was terrified but I couldn't move this thing flew right over me and then it was gone never seen anything like that again after determining that Marlow's video was of a known species and not a Thunderbird Jackson Kent go to meet with Tommy still a chance Marlow's earlier sighting on Mount Marathon was of a larger unknown bird but the team will need more evidence to consider the Thunderbird as a possibility hey bud well I've been looking in on finding a connection on the Thunderbird and storms and a lot of the stories that I'm reading about Thunderbird that the Thunderbirds are supposedly is flapping its ruins create any storms so I went over and checked out the NASA database the day the Jenna went missing and there's some interesting stuff here check this out oh wow this is the illusion down here we got this these Cloud systems here it's coming in off the Illusions heading right towards the Kenai Peninsula there were swords at uh-huh get the next one here look at that wow see these Ripple patterns here that's wild got a direction there and another Direction here looking at these images I can't help but visualize the giant flapping wings of a bird creating these waves in the clouds obviously I can't say that's what it is but based on the Legends I have to wonder if there's a connection between storms like this and sightings of the Thunderbird well it looks like sound waves rolling through the clouds yeah almost like something is out there creating a pulsing structure out there I think we need to find an expert on the weather a meteorologist because this is beyond me I have trouble believing that a single animal could be affecting the weather like this but something very strange is going on maybe a swarm of animals is causing this or maybe it's man-made somehow but either way it's worth investigating let's do it Alaska is known for its extremes from its mountains to its weather could there be an extreme animal a Thunderbird capable of creating storms with the flapping of its wings the team wants to learn more about the bizarre Cloud patterns that occurred near Mount marathon on the day Jenna went missing they meet with geophysicist Gary Hufford who has helped them on previous investigations is this your guy this is Gary hi Gary well hi guys good seeing you again same here you've got some interesting cases looking at we do actually um we're investigating a story of a missing person okay the first week of July years ago during Springtime up on Mount Marathon a runner named Jenna disappeared on the mountain without a trace the day that Jenna went missing there was a storm that was brewing and had had blown in and we actually were able to get some satellite images of that oh excellent have a look here we'd appreciate your expert opinion Gary this is really a neat picture because oh now that picture is incredibly interesting because we only discovered that in 2006. these are called Mountain ways Mountain Wade away caused by Rush of wind row of mountains where a column of stable air sits on the Leading Edge the push of the wind compresses the column upward forcing the air to condense and create a cloud when the air descends on the other side of the mountain it resonates like the bouncing of a spring forming clouds during each subsequent compression that look like ripples in the atmosphere Mountain ways you've got massive turbulence you've got extremely strong winds these occur often enough that if we have a storm coming in it's an opportunity to look for these kind of mountain ways and in fact I saw these clouds this morning in Cook Inlet that's significant Gary's explanation seems to rule out of Thunderbird creating these storms but the bird Marlow saw was riding the front of one and if there's a similar storm rolling in that's something we can look for I think we need to get up on that mountain see for ourselves I agree well thanks for your time Gary you bet sounds like we've got our hands full tomorrow the team surmises that these unique storms might prompt the Thunderbird to make an appearance witness Gary metzenberg agrees after an incident he experienced in 1998 near Valdez when I was younger I used to go to my uncle's place to split wood for them just to earn some extra cash one day I'd been working for a few hours and I sat down on a log to take a breather and I looked up at the house flying towards me was this huge bird I mean this thing was massive I had never seen anything like this before and I stand up just in awe looking at this thing I cannot believe how big it is next thing I know sting flies over the top of me and I'm able to see its wingspan it could have been the width of a house I mean I felt like a mouse in the woods it could have easily picked me up prepares to take advantage of the coming storm they gear up for a second exploration of Mount Marathon hoping to experience similar conditions to the Dave Jenna went missing man it is brisk out there my crampons almost forgot let's make sure we pack our snow pants because it's gonna be hot getting up there but it's gonna be cold when we get the top yeah I'm thinking about that just going down the checklist you know Tommy if Gary's right about the storm this could actually work to our advantage large birds are often known to take advantage of the thermal air drafts that are you know come in in the front of storms I mean sometimes it's a playful thing sometimes you know obviously with bigger heavier Birds they can really use those updrafts to their advantage because again it gives them a surge of air that they can kind of glide on well this can increase our chances of actually seeing some really big birds well hold that thought guys got ourselves a new toy on this case it's very important that we have some good long-range Vision so I combine our camera with some binoculars for maximum Zoom potential so basically we have our three times Zoom our camera and then combined with the 30 time zoom on the binoculars so you know roughly 90 times magnification so it's basically a 35 millimeter camera using a 4 000 millimeter lens awesome so well short of physical evidence which is what I'm really hoping for that we can find some signs of it or a feather or droppings photographic evidence of a Thunderbird would be amazing I mean we could be talking about one of the greatest discoveries in science all right all right guys with their gear in hand the team heads out to mount Marathon hoping to stay ahead of the coming storm [Music] there's your bird already you'd be safe see you on the top side can will once again take to the skies this time to keep a sharp eye on the weather Jackson Tony will hike up the trail once more seeing if any new Clues present themselves I know he's not into this one don't remember being this deep should be able to get a better bird's eye view when we get past the tree line hopefully Ken gets better bird's eye view for us too [Music] [Laughter] hey guys [Music] looks like the forecast is spot on the horizon displays a huge mass of dark clouds headed our way it's still sunny here now but this could get really dangerous really fast if we're not careful foreign with a storm incoming the teen surveys Mount Marathon once again for any signs of a large bird hey guys good visibility right now [Music] we're going to make our way to the summit we'll see you there oh that's good [Music] it just gets steeper is that just me Tommy oh this is pretty steep man pull over into a break yeah oh boy yeah I can pull out binoculars have a look around now our witness had describes a bird that ultimately our expert told us was probably a turkey vulture and that's not indigenous this area not at all I've never heard of turkey vulture here in these areas well we have some bird that's not indigenous to this area maybe that's what's happening entirely possible uh two three years ago a penguin appeared we don't have penguins in Alaska yeah totally crazy just one just one it was found on our Waters well I'm not see anything right here I'm Gonna Keep moving yeah let's do that [Music] as Ken circles in the chopper where the weather remains clear at the higher elevation an early precursor to the storm is starting lower on the mountain looks like the weather's turning bad these are perfect foreign this is brutal I need to stop and swap out some wet clothes that was crazy weather on the lower part of the mountain has been drenching us but so far we haven't seen a thing oh these Rock crevices you think would be potential bird habitat and stuff I'm not seeing anything they might be making homes get out of this weather sure I'd want to get out of it the fact that we don't see birds red in the front of the storm could just mean that we're too early or it could mean that birds in this area don't exhibit that behavior maybe they've learned these storms are too violent and they go into hiding again you have any luck up there [Music] while their weather is nasty it's socked in here [Applause] well we're not seeing anything down here [Music] the team hurries to Rendezvous at the top of the trail they know they will have a limited time to scan the surroundings for activity before the full brunt of the storm rolls in if they're going to spot a Thunderbird they'll have to do it with enough time to get down the mountain ahead of the violent weather so what's with this weather we're drenched and now we're dry now the wind's picking up it's crazy I just noticed look at those clouds back there they're moving in we can keep an eye on that we don't want to get stuck up here definitely here we are again oh wow how's it going down there we're going okay we're all dry now but we were wet earlier looks like we might be doing some wind and another storm coming in why don't you land and come help us out [Music] you guys okay we're good yeah I haven't seen anything all day yeah no see you I think while we're up here let's pull the binocs out and have a look that's what's promising over here some of these high peaks [Music] in addition to their binoculars Ken uses the enhanced magnification unit to watch The Horizon even with 90 times Zoom he isn't seeing anything yet you know I'm just thinking a raptors have excellent Vision so you know they're going to take advantage of that to have a good Vantage Point they'd be able to survey this whole surrounding area maybe up there up there you guys heard that what was that which way to come from [Music] what was that which way to come from and I couldn't tell it was just that going through this Canyon that was the same noise what was it guys that was just the Halloween coming through the crevice there I can hear the wind there yeah that's all that was represents the up currents that Thunderbirds would want to ride hey guys these clouds are moving in wind's picking up too with this storm coming it'd be prime time to see a possible Thunderbird coming in front of it if there were a raptor out here of an earlier variation this is the perfect terrain to find one I agree man the notion of fish for the taking look at these vast expanses of land full of hooped animals that they couldn't have the location and conditions are almost identical to when Jenna went missing but the team hasn't seen anything and they're out of time in the face of the coming storm you know it's getting windy or the wind's picking it up and rain's probably going to become we don't want to be stuck up here the last thing we want to do is slip and fall and end up off one of these cliffs it's very valid theory that that's what happened to Jenna I agree it's disappointing not to have a Thunderbird sighting after all this effort but we can't stay up here as this storm moves in so we have to end our investigation [Music] as the storm rolls in the team reconvenes at a local pub to discuss their findings this has been one of the most intense investigations we've been on I would say it's really something strange going on here though when it comes to Jenna's disappearance yeah there's so many factors there was no places that she could go missing up there off that trail and then the search after was it you know intensive search so I don't think something would have been missed it's not like some of our other hunts where we've had surgeons that were very limited this one was a very extensive search the fact that Foul Play was ruled out plus this is a heavily trafficked Mountain they have that huge race here every year it really makes for a disappearance how much more intriguing aspect there yeah yeah exactly the myths and legends have been around for a long time about Thunderbirds there are so many things out there that are named after a Thunderbird most myths out there are based on reality you know could this have been an eagle they have some big snow owls and and other types of hawks out here these other birds may have been mistaken for you know this Thunderbird creature they're large but not large enough I don't think to have invoked these Legends of the Thunderbird well guys for me it all comes back to eyewitness testimony I mean here you have examples of credible people that you know are giving credible testimony about something they've saw that is utterly remarkable you know the thing about the Thunderbirds in relation to other Cryptids like Bigfoot where people have like a fleeting sighting is there are a number of accounts on record that include actual physical attacks on humans that's not a case of misidentification when you talk about something actually swooping down from the sky and attacking somebody my own personal belief after researching this for 12 years and interviewing dozens of credible eyewitnesses is that some aspect of the Thunderbird phenomenon is genuine there is definitely something going on here now whether or not that's what got to Jenna you may never know but we certainly can't dismiss the possibility that Thunderbird exists and that it could be responsible for some of the disappearances in the Alaska triangle [Music] for now the question of what happened to Jenna Miller remains one of the great Mysteries of the Alaska triangle how does one disappear from a Mountaintop it's well known that Alaska is home to many large birds of prey and some of them show up here unexpectedly it appears to be a turkey vulture but could there be one big enough to Target a human could have easily picked me up and stealthy enough to remain hidden skies above you've got massive turbulence you've got extremely strong winds the fossil record proves flying animals of this magnitude really existed and if native tribes are to be believed they haven't disappeared completely this gigantic bird is carrying a deer maybe this elusive creature is one more reason people go missing in Alaska [Music] [Music] in 2013 vacationer Rick Nelson set out to explore lake iliamna in southern Alaska he had been doing his own adventure tour of the state and decided he wanted to kayak the circumference of this massive body of water he headed off alone with a small cache of supplies four days later his kayak was found upside down and empty in an Alcove his belongings were nearby intact what Maritime accident could have separated him from his kayak and if he reached land why would he leave his belongings behind the mysterious circumstances of his disappearance have led many to invoke the legend of Ileana Lake that an enormous creature haunts its depths and attacks with impunity whatever happened Rick has never been seen again inside the vast Frontier of Alaska is a mysterious triangle where each year five out of every thousand people go missing out there [Music] Three Investigators look for answers Jax of former police officer can a specialist in strange phenomena and Tommy an expert on Alaskan Legends together they uncover mysterious sightings and ancient legends exploring the possibilities of those who go missing in Alaska the Team Heads across iliamna Lake at the southwest corner of the triangle toward the Alcove where Rick's kayak was discovered it's a secluded spot far away from any towns it's got about 45 minutes guys right on look how huge this lake is one of the dimensions here 77 at the longest 22 by the widest how many thousand thousand square miles I just can't imagine that this guy was actually trying to kayak the whole lake that's a long ways you'd be out here for a long time trying to paddle the circumference of it so Rick Nelson comes from Missouri and he's been out here for about three months exploring Alaska from when I gathered he didn't ever seem really prepared with food and gear or any kind of planning it sounds like maybe that caught up to him so I mean what do you think happened I mean the normal things you know we're in a large body of water did you drown even experienced boaters fishermen go missing and die every year so you're talking about an inexperienced guy with a gung-ho attitude not preparing very well for the elements it was all a recipe for disaster according to those who encountered Rick he seemed very Cavalier in his adventures could he have simply underestimated this huge and challenging Lake I think there's one X Factor here that we can't rule out the lake iliament monster Illy the Ileana lake monster is a legend that dates back centuries to the native klingens it's said to be fish-like in its Anatomy but much larger than any local aquatic species witness descriptions vary but a composite image suggests a 30-foot long animal with a blunt head for ramming and a row of piercing teeth for tearing prey modern sightings of this creature date to the 1940s with dozens of reports from a wide variety of witnesses I mean I think we have to consider the possibility that that may have played a factor in this disappearance from what I've heard about this lake is it's not a really like a lake it's like a small sea this is the largest freshwater lake we have in Alaska it's not like a normal lake to go partying on you know it's really rough and dangerous to be out here every year people go missing in the Alaska triangle searching for adventure without being prepared but I've grown up with ely's stories so I'm curious to find out if there's any truth to them iliamna Lake stretches 77 miles long and nearly 22 miles wide approximately the size of Rhode Island it also achieves depths of almost 1 000 feet its Waters drained to the Southwest through the que Jack river which connects the lake to Bristol Bay and the Bering Sea I mean this lake is connected to the ocean right so I mean there is a potential for sea marine animals holy cow what is that hey Captain can you swing around got it that was huge huge a large Splash has caught the team's attention it could be just a fish but in the Alaska triangle anything unexpected could be a lead how deep is it Captain it's almost 400 feet here I'm gonna get the fish finder all right Tommy retrieves the team's fish finder which uses sonar to detect any marine life swimming below okay you'll Monitor and all operate we got 150 feet here at cable you ready yeah it's good still got pretty decent visibility here how many feet we got left there Tommy that is it let's get it all reeled out all right well let's just let it set and see what we get whatever made the splash appears to have fled the area nothing I think we should keep going to the spot where Rick's stuff was found and keep her eyes peeled for any other marine life Captain can you take us to the Alcove please all right I'll fire it up [Music] team docs close to the location where the kayaker's belongings were found they brought a kayak of their own which they'll use to place an underwater camera out in the Alcove it will monitor the water for any sign of large animals swimming nearby let's stop here look for a minute got a nice game Trail through here so signs of wildlife out here maybe this guy maybe he rode ashore left his kayak on the shore and the bear got him everything floated away what do you think easy explanation when I just got to ask myself why was this kayak overturned it kind of leads you to believe this happened on the water true you guys ready to keep moving get to the Alcove yeah [Music] so guys I'm pretty sure this is the exact area where they dredge the water for the body of course they didn't find anything at all oh look at this the wind's kicking up and the current blowing right into the Alcove here lake iliama has a pretty good current to it right you've got feeder rivers on the North and East End and then the drainage is on the queen Jack River on the bottom right so it's pushing everything in this direction leaving the possibility that you know the Refuge or if there was anything left it would push it and deposit it right here where we are which makes sense that this is where they found the kayak the fact that all of this stuff ended up here but he didn't is the heart of the mystery and one of the prevailing theories is that he was out deeper in the water and you know capsized out there and his stuff kind of pushed this direction well would it make sense that he would kayak out towards the deeper water I mean his goal was to to kayak the circumference of the lake and stay towards the shallows right I mean I I agree it doesn't make any sense but maybe he just decided oh I'm gonna go right across and wasn't prepared for it there are a lot of aspects of this mystery they're just don't add up if you fell out and drown near this Alcove his body should have been recovered if it happened out in deeper water his gear should have been more dispersed well could there be any other animal out here that could have pulled his body away I guess it's possible I mean we're in Alaska there's all kinds of animals on the coast here and you know we're connected to the ocean and this is a massive Lake who knows what's out there well guys the only way for us to really tell was get out there and drop this camera down here prepares to Anchor an underwater camera in the Alcove with the missing kayakers gear was found the camera is equipped with a battery pack that will give it up to 50 hours of Life the weighted rig will be suspended from a floater allowing it to scan the waters it'll send a feed to the team's computer which will save the footage for examination all right well now the cameras are all set once it gets back let's get back out to open water the team heads out toward the deeper water of the lake going against the current from The Alcove if the kayaker met his Fate on the Open Water it would have likely happened along this path they'll keep an eye on the sonar for any signs of life especially any predators that might feed on the salmon trout or other sport fish known to inhabit the lake yeah it's the smoothest glass you know it's worth noting that most of the sightings of the Loch Ness monster for example in Scotland have occurred in conditions just like this many people usually say that the water is very flat and calm very smooth like this iliamna is different than the global archetype of the traditional lake monster mysterious monsters have been reported in Northern lakes around the world in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake the Ogopogo monster dates back to Indian legends that claim it requires an animal sacrifice to Grant safe Passage in Norway's Lake seljord Selma is known as a serpentine Goliath that will knock over boats the most famous is Nessie the Loch Ness monster of Scotland like most of its Brethren it's described as either snake-like or dinosaur-like with a long neck that can rise from the water Illy however seems to defy the mold sightings liken it more to a gigantic fish than its fellow lake monsters vacationer Heidi Baker saw a glimpse of this creature back in 1998 while hiking I took a vacation to Lake iliamna I had heard it's a great spot for boating for really good hiking and one day I was hiking along a path that overlooked the lake and I stopped to admire The View I noticed a v-shaped ripple in the water that was moving against the waves and it's strange but I couldn't see what was causing it so I looked closer and saw sort of a thin-like shape in the water and it was just a glimpse it was almost ghost-like in appearance and as I was watching it eventually disappeared and didn't come back up being an outdoorsy person most of my life I've seen many different types of fish but I've never seen anything like that before I know it sounds crazy but I think it was the only on my monster you're an early omnid it seems like we're just dealing with a giant monstrous fish of some kind something that's grown to a monstrous size you guys see anything no what about you a couple of markings on the sonar there what do you think we're dealing with that here fish wise well I know I know there's King Salmon Sockeye and rainbow trouts out here at least we're seeing evidence that there's a viable food source here there's something big go check it out I just saw the shadow under the boat I'll check it out what direction Tommy do you got a bearing Alaska has long been a destination for those who like to live on the edge the vast acreage of the Alaska triangle is a place where people can explore new worlds and shed old ones but this area also has the highest rate of missing persons in the country are people simply unprepared to blaze new trails here or are there dangers lurking that even skilled survivalists can't anticipate an adventurer goes missing on Lake iliamna the reputed home of an enormous underwater monster the team wants to see if there's evidence this creature might be real there's something big going under the boat you should check it out I just saw the shadow it's under the boat I'll check it out what direction Tommy do you got a bearing zombie check the sonar how big was it Captain I'd guess 10 feet but I didn't get a good look it's gone gone we go too deep it went to the side good deeper I still would have seen something well if this thing was as big as you said it was probably probably a very powerful swimmer so you know obviously it could have swung Away really fast as fast as it came into view I'm not sure that the captain saw anything at all maybe the shadow was just a cloud overhead either way trying to find an animal in a lake this size by chance is a classic needle in a haystack scenario I think we need to go talk to some experts though maybe dig up an eyewitness or two yeah that would be good hey Kathy take us back we'll do heading back all right thanks with their initial outing not providing any leads Ken and Tommy travel to Anchorage to meet with marine biologist John Parlier they hope his expertise on iliamna marine life can help direct their search hi John hello hi I'm Tommy Tommy nice to meet you hey John Ken Gerhard Ken nice to meet you nice to meet you we are investigating a case of a missing kayaker up at Lake iliamna curious as to whether there might be a tie-in to these Legends of a mysterious creature up there the lake area monster what could it be the most exciting possibility would be the plesiosaur that is known by the fossil records you have died at about 70 million years ago they are reptiles so they're air breathers so they would need to surface to breathe and I think a creature of that size having to surface on a regular basis would still be much more visible other potential organisms or the beluga whale problems with those they're very surface oriented a new Theory this or fish the oarfish is the best known embodiment of a sea serpent ever found with rare sightings dating to the 1700s this snake-like creature wasn't observed live until 2001. or fish are believed to get over 50 feet long and weigh 600 pounds they typically reside in deep ocean waters but when seen at the surface they're undulating swimming style and lack of scales make them seem less like a fish and more like a monster problem being for them to enter fresh water would mean an incredible change in their physiology which they cannot do they would die in the time it took them to enter the lake what about some of the other big fish well I have pictures of potential Big Fish King Salmon very very popular fishing area some of them can reach 100 pounds rainbow trout much smaller obviously the fish that I'm most interested in this is a white sturgeon they are native to all of the Pacific coast these have been known to reach well over a thousand pounds you know these are very migratory fish they've been known to come up into the Columbia River leave the Columbia and migrate up the Fraser River in Canada they like to investigate New Habitat as it were and then we have all the steel species that it could be potentially there and there have been times when seals will pod up and be on the surface in a large group and that's been one case where a man thought for sure you saw a sea monster moving away from his boat the way they were moving made it looked like a serpent in the surface Ilium lake is one of only five places in the northern hemisphere with a population of freshwater seals little is known about this reclusive group of animals it's only been confirmed in the last couple of years that they are year-round residents could glimpses of these unexpected animals surging through the water be the source of many supposed ILY sightings so that would be my guess as far as something known do you know of any eyewitnesses that could possibly help us here I actually do you know somebody his name's John Chamberlain he appears to be your credible witness that would be awesome yeah I'll get you guys in contact with him [Music] after making contact with the witness John Chamberlain Ken and Jax go to his house to ask him about his experience hello hey hi how are you John hi yes I'm John hi I'm Ken good to meet you this is uh my partner Jax hey how you doing Josh so thanks for agreeing to talk to us about your early Omni experience you might have some information that would be useful to us sure yes I do one time in the morning I was on the North End of the lake there all of a sudden while I'm hiking I see this this Ripple of water coming towards me on the left side and I couldn't see anything in the Ripple I don't know what was in there I can also bam it hit me on my left side but I went ahead and used my paddle to help keep me Steady and when I did that I felt a jerk on it and so I lifted her up and and part of it was missing there what part of iliament was this he said it was the north side yeah the North End and I do still have that paddle if you wanted to see it oh yeah yeah okay I'm curious to see what this paddle shows because hard evidence trumps a good story every time oh wow yeah there it is wow crazy look at that it's serrated right over this section I mean does it break off like that these little paddle old when you're using it no that would be the diameter of the jaw right there I mean that's far out of the range of a salmon or a trout it's definitely not a sturgeon because they don't have teeth they have big suckers on the bottom of their mouth the bite mark appears to rule out both sturgeon and seals as culprits could the team be dealing with a creature that's never been identified lake iliamna is the largest lake in Alaska covering more than one thousand square miles this vast habitat is home to enormous numbers of sport fish like salmon trout and grayling it also hosts a rare population of freshwater seals that thrives on plentiful food but does it contain something else a monstrous creature first described centuries ago in clingeth lore and could it be adding to the number of people who go missing in the Alaska triangle a witness's encounter indicates a previously unidentified creature but what kind of creature could it be the team planted an underwater camera near the spot where a missing kayaker's belongings were found Tommy has been going through the footage and has found something the others should see check this out you got something watch this cool that's just a seal though yeah it's a seal just cruising by but wait for it check it out that's strange what is that that's what you want to check it out what do you think that's a that's a fin right there right yeah that's that's definitely a fin look how huge that is it's a pectoral fin it's not the tail there yeah the team can see only the tip of the fin that's got to be huge but based on the size of the Shadow it's clearly a large animal Tommy do you have that book John gave us the marine biology and biology yes yeah let's do some comparative analysis here check that out that's a sturgeon well this looks a lot more round and solid yeah it's around more rounded fin this one looks split or maybe it's two fins potentially could be a sturgeon fin I mean sometimes fins get injured when fish are younger bitten off the largest sturgeon top out at about 12 feet long could the creature captured in this image fit that description or is this something much larger it's just not a good enough image but whatever it is it's big it is Big shape and appeared to be chasing seal well guys we know that there's been a seal population at Ileana for years and they're rarely seen we really don't know much about them so it's also reasonable to assume that there could be something else out there that's also rarely seen something very large that's feeding on these seals and that is a real mystery the possibility that something could be feeding on the seals here without decimating the sealed population does have a biological precedent the Pacific sleeper shark a deep water dweller native to Alaskan ocean waters is known to feed on seals when it Ventures toward the surface but at its preferred depths prey is scarce so it adapted the ability to keep food stored in its stomach for a long time requiring fewer meals could an animal in Ileana Lake be similarly living off the modest seal pods here and could its infrequent feedings explain why it's so hard to spot you know I think honestly we need to get an expert opinion with regard to the seal population in Ileana someone who's familiar with the seals and what they look like well I'll go with you let's do it the connection between the seals of Ileana Lake and the monster has been witnessed before Martin Puck claims to have seen it firsthand in 1997. so I was up fishing lake iliamna and this was a number of years ago and I found this really promising spot there were all these seals out in the water and I mean with the seals there I assume they've got to be feeding and having a big school of fish under there so I cast out my line and I mean I just let it out there waiting for a bite all of a sudden I looked up and the the seals were gone they had just taken off and I started scanning the water for them I saw this big shape kind of under the water it just came out of nowhere huge and I tracked that for a little while before it kind of disappeared back under it's just too big to possibly be a seal I mean way too big everyone up here knows about the iliamna monster and I have no doubt that's what it was [Music] hoping to learn more about how the seals might play into the iliamna Monster Legend Jackson can arrange a meeting with Stephen Pratt a long time Bush pilot who works in the iliamna area Stephen hey Ken Gerhard hey Ken good to meet you nice to meet you thanks for meeting us on short notice you're welcome I'm Jackson good to meet you Stephen we're up here investigating the case of a missing kayaker out here on lake iliamna and we're looking at a possible connection to the lake iliamna monster so right now we're kind of focused on these freshwater seals trying to get more information on those we're hoping you have some insight well you know we've been flying the lake for years and we see the seals somewhat frequently well you know only very recently did scientists confirm that the seals were year-round residents of the lake we've been seeing the seals for years and there's been some biologists coming around and investigating this and it seems like they're just getting on to what we've been talking about for years and we noticed they tend to head up into the Northeast portion of the lake in the winter months and then in the summertime we see them heading out along the que Jack River there on the Southwest end of the lake you know I think they're probably pretty hungry from the winter months and and the salmon starts coming in and it seems like they're wanting to fatten up from a long hard winter it makes sense okay this is all starting to add up I think the monster sightings are following the same path according to Stephen the seals Traverse a regular circuit around the lake from their winter resting grounds to their summer feeding grounds then back again John Chamberlain had his encounter while kayaking in the early spring and Rick Nelson went missing in late summer factor in additional sightings by season and a pattern emerges so the sightings of the Beast seem to follow a pattern right following the migration pattern of the seals I got you so we still don't know what we're looking for but maybe we know where to look for it true this pattern could mean that the iliumna monster whatever it is isn't targeting people maybe it's going after seals and humans and kayaks are a case of mistaken identity you know Steve we could use some help on this investigation many of the sightings of the monster have been from a float plane if we could have a bird's eye view of the lake I think that would help us see this thing let me know when you'd like to go and be glad to take you out perfect sounds great we'll get all our stuff together we'll let you know as soon as we're ready okay thank you good to meet you fellas Steve thanks [Music] in 2013 a would-be Adventurer disappeared while kayaking on Ileana Lake a legendary monster said to reside here could be to blame the team has discovered a correlation between sightings of the Beast and the seasonal migration of the iliumnacio population could a predatory animal have mistaken the kayak or for its favor prey and could that be part of a recurring pattern of attacking kayaks in search of a meal the team wants to test this Theory by taking a life-sized lure a dummy in a kayak to a wading boat which will transport Jackson Tommy to the southwest corner of the lake they'll be joined by a professional diver who will stand ready to enter the water and record footage of anything approaching under the surface hey what's up you doing great hey guys this is Alec our diver you ready to jump in there for us I'm ready hey Steve hey Ken good to see you again good to see you thanks for joining us Ken will join Bush pilot Stephen in the skies above scanning the water for any signs of unidentified life the Team Heads toward the lower Terminus of the lake where its Waters drain into the que Jack River on its way to the Bering Sea the iliamna seals are reported to be active in that area hey guys I'm out of your position I've got eyes on the boat it's like we were sailing up here we're doing as much as we can to lure this creature in but our theory is that the animal might go a long time between meals so if this mannequin isn't tempting enough this could all be for nothing might not be an a b and some have speculated it could be a military submarine undergoing constant refinement and testing in this remote body of water Alaska is home to nine military bases seven of which were started in the 1940s as a response to World War II A Renewed urgency for military preparedness spawned lots of Technology development at these sites some have speculated that iliamna's size and location could allow testing of an underwater craft to go largely unnoticed and the existence of the monster legend provides the perfect cover but would a top-secret military submarine explain the damage to John Chamberlain's kayak battle and what connection would it have if any to Rick Nelson's disappearance how about Straight Ahead Tom right up there that's the mouth of the queen Jack right there tell me if everything's true we've been researching the Seal's going to be here it's the right time of year so we think we'd get up there and turn the boat around turn the boat around trolling speed through all the kayak and the mannequin and see what happens yeah we'll put the fish finder down too you want to tell Alec to get ready to yeah let's do that push them out we rigged the kayak so we could tip it over and dump the mannequin in the water if some kind of animal is checking it out maybe that will encourage it to strike all right it's trolling pretty good then you drop the fish finder in right here yeah this is a good speed here you want to keep an eye on it yeah yeah let me jump in the corner here hey Captain you maintain this speed for us I'll stay right here thank you sir all right got a good view we're all set right on the sonar fish finder beams signals Into the Depths that reflect back to the surface painting a picture of anything below if there's an animal between them and the floor of the lake they'll see it good picture all right nice and slow bud a little bit of current right there it's a bunch of Darkness man we got the camera down and kayak out with mannequin in it smooth sailing [Music] you see anything look [Music] okay it's moving directly toward you do you Lake iliamna sits at the southwest corner of the Alaska triangle this enormous body of water has seen a number of people go missing it also has a history of eyewitnesses reporting what appears to be a monstrous Beast roaming its Waters how could such a large animal live here while remaining so elusive is it possible it might have a low metabolism that allows for extended periods without food enabling it to remain hidden in the depths the animals that are most notorious for extended fasts are Marine based frogs can go for months without eating by achieving a state called torbor a kind of super sleep when food is scarce some can even survive being frozen during winter with their organs protected by high levels of glucose until they thaw in the spring crocodiles can go even longer without food up to three years these animals gorge on large mammals then settle into a sedate State until more food becomes available but even more impressive is the lungfish not only can It survive both in the water and on land it can live without food for four years by going into a hibernation State and slowly digesting its own muscle tissue the team doesn't know if the creature they're pursuing has similar capabilities but whatever it is might be approaching them right now whoa whoa look it's moving directly towards you do you copy over okay we're gonna drop the mannequin then again the mannequins out all right Al can you get in the water the diver Alec enters the water with the camera but he'll also have a spear gun handy his goal is to document anything that comes by and only use the weapon if needed in self-defense Alec is equipped with a communication system that will enable him to stay in verbal contact with the boat and clear loud and clear hey Kim we don't see it anymore to you guys I'm not seeing the shadow anymore I'm not seeing the shadow I don't know where it went over again we're going to make the mannequin move around a little bit see if we can give it some lifelike movement maybe it'll Attract it back Alec you see anything nope got nothing here stay alert buddy this is now the second time we've seen something big in the water that disappeared on us if this is the iliamna monster it might have an instinct a high sensitivity to Danger it knows when to back off we might have missed a chance to identify it hey Ellen why don't you reposition further away from the mannequin so you don't scare this thing off copy that yeah we don't know where it went at all we've got no eyes at all all right I'm seeing a huge Shadows so the boat it's moving directly towards you do you copy over it's not going after the mannequin it's going after the diver Jackson diver I don't see his bubbles anywhere Jackson over come in I'm going up on the Belt okay Jackson diver come in again we lost sight of the diver it's not going after the mannequin it's going after the diver Jack's the diver I don't see his bubbles anywhere Jackson over come in I'm going up on the bow okay Jackson diver come in again we've lost sight of the diver what do you mean we lost communication with the diver are you serious yeah he just stopped respawning can you search for him from there okay I'll keep an eye out for him see anything Jax no nothing I can't see bubbles or anything I don't see anything back here no bubbles at all Jackson over come in I got nothing Tommy guys I'm seeing something surface about 30 yards for the stern right behind you tell me I got bubbles over here port side port side can't I got him on the port side you okay right on he's giving the thumbs up okay he's all right what happened down there yeah are you hurt at all grab my hand [Music] you're right you okay man something hit my tank spun me around and my comms went out it was there one second and it's gone the next could never get a clear look at it our mannequin and the kayak are still out there so I think whatever was in the water was after you he saw something big was harassing him I don't know if it was a monster or an angry seal but either way it's not safe for anyone to be out there whatever though man nobody else is going in the water we're done okay let's pull that stuff in I'm gonna contact Ken let's get her gear hey Ken we're all done here we got him in we're gonna pull everything in the dog copy that I'll meet you at bialco over having acquired no tangible evidence of the monster but with no safe way to draw it in again the team reluctantly calls an end to the day's hunt they reconvene onshore to discuss what happened you guys doing all right we're doing good what was that there was definitely something there something massive moving by the boat how did it seem like it was invisible to the diver what do you guys think the murky water I mean is that why we couldn't see it possibly but you know I've got another theory think about this nature presents many examples of remarkable physiological adaptation you've got electric eels you've got deep sea fish that are bioluminescent animals that are able to change the color and texture of their skin to hide right have you guys ever heard of aquatic translucency like a jellyfish you have yeah exactly certain marine animals particularly invertebrates and juveniles you know larval stages of certain types of fish are virtually invisible they're able to allow certain amounts of light to pass through their body translucency in aquatic animals is an evolutionary advantage typically adopted by prey species to avoid being eaten some species like certain squid only have this characteristic when they're young and at their most vulnerable others like jellyfish maintain this feature throughout their lives but is it possible that translucency isn't reserved for marine life that's lower on the food chain could an apex predator have this design allowing it to more successfully stalk its prey what if the animal here in iliament is something new something completely undiscovered and it's been able to you know basically take on this adaptation rendering itself essentially invisible cloaking itself huh exactly that's really interesting Ken I mean that would explain some of the experiences and witness statements that we've gotten a little Lake this big though something to that size and degree you're describing I mean it's almost impossible to find it's going to take a lot more time than we have to be able to find that exactly huge Lake out there and that's why the lake iliament monster legend has endured with 70 percent of the world covered by water we've only begun to scratch the surface of the kinds of marine life that exist could a lake be the home of one of the most significant species still to be discovered on the planet it would require a lake of enormous size and with a plentiful food supply both of which iliamna has in Spades and if other Legends around the world are any indication these creatures might be more common than we think it could be one more reason people continue to go missing in Alaska [Music] [Music] in 1957 a fisherman was coming in from a day on the ocean hoping to outrun an approaching storm as he cruised along hinchenbrook Island he saw a column of smoke and assumed it must be a village where he might find shelter the man went ashore to investigate but instead of finding Sanctuary he found a mystery The Village was there with an act of fire going but there was no one to be found it was as if everyone had vanished suddenly he saw a massive bear-like Beast which sent him racing back toward his boat was the bear real or the embodiment of an Inuit Legend the torn gasuk or bear God while some view this being as a protector lore suggests it will unleash its wrath when displeased since then the area has had seven more sightings of the Beast but no one from the town has ever been found inside the vast Frontier of Alaska is a mysterious triangle where each year five out of every thousand people go missing out there [Music] Three Investigators look for answers Jacks a former police officer can a specialist in strange phenomena and Tommy an expert on Alaskan Legends together they uncover mysterious sightings and ancient legends exploring the possibilities of those who go missing in Alaska the team approaches hinchenbrook Island in Prince William's sound the abandoned Town believed to be a fishing Village of about 70 people was discovered near its Southeast Corner guys what I don't get I mean we've investigated a lot of cases where we've had individuals disappear we're talking about an entire Village of people I mean what would cause an entire Village to just vanish it is really strange I mean for no bodies to be left there yeah there's no record of any type of natural disaster like an earthquake or tsunami or anything like that volcano the fisherman claims he's looking around you know sees this large white bear you guys were talking about a village that presumably was pretty familiar and had lived with bears for a long time you know I think it's kind of a stretch to say that it's just you know a bear we're talking about a bear we're talking about a bear that's big enough and bad enough and scary enough to cause an entire Village to vanish I mean this sounds exactly like the Inuit legend of the torn guess who the bear God the tongasuk legend describes a giant white bear that can act as either protector or accuser as the master of whales and seals it was often invoked by fishermen for a successful outing and even by shamans for the curing of illness but some say it would pray viciously on those who disrespected nature what are we just dealing with some sort of exceptional bear you know there's a lot of explanations guys before we get into you know a god bear or a demon bear I think we've got a lot further to go on this one before we have any kind of answers maybe there was a singular bear with a genetic Quirk that allowed it to grow really large Evolution allows for that sort of anomaly one such anomaly has been found in cattle and other animals a condition commonly known as double muscling it's caused by a genetic mutation that inhibits the myostatin protein which regulates muscle growth resulting in larger more powerful animals if a bear had this condition it might come across looking like a monster the team arrives at the Landing site where the fishermen pulled ashore 60 years ago a reported location of the village is up in the woods they remain Vigilant one sighting of this white bear was reported just two weeks ago by a hunter pretty dense brush out here so this white bear just be a polar bear but this really makes sense down here maybe it's not a pure polar bear they have crushed bread with Grizzlies polar bears are the largest bears in the world which makes them the largest carnivores on land males commonly reach 1500 pounds and can get well over two thousand but in Alaska their range is limited to the north and Northwest fringes of the state however cross breeds of polar bears and Grizzlies have been found in the wild could this have led to a white bear that's comfortable in warmer climates well check this out guys oh yeah look at that we still got some structure standing it's been a long time look at all that growth Tommy we got to look for signs of bear here any Paul March tracks scratching the building I agree we need to be looking for everything though guys we're going to find out what happened to this Village the abandoned Village has shades of another American mystery The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island established in 1587. Roanoke was the first English colony in the New World but when a supply ship showed up three years later everyone had vanished theories range from an attack by hostile Spaniards to a failed relocation in search of resources but these Alaskan natives were skilled survivalists and had no known enemies limiting such theories careful now there could be squatters or wild animals that aren't happy to see us The Village has been uninhabited for nearly 60 years but Relic hunters and other visitors have cleaned out most of it we're clear Tommy coming out the team searches the sparse remains of the settlement they know the odds of finding evidence this long after the incident are slim but there could be traces of biological matter that offer some insight I pull out my UV light hoping that I might get lucky and find some old dried blood or something but I'm not seeing anything you guys seeing anything not yet I'm just in a bunch of broken down buildings this place is falling apart here we're clear here okay we're good to go buddy what's the plan let's search all around it looks for everything you know many times we can find at all you know Bears people blood it's some sign of what happened in this Village I think we need to check the perimeter of the village here I agree as the team widens their search Ken breaks out a metal detector if there are any shallow Graves there could be jewelry or other artifacts that might reveal them [Music] leaving no stone unturned huh man I'm finding nothing besides remains bones anything you pretty much can rule out plague and famine I mean we're so close to the coastline all this Lush landscape there's no way people die to famine no and if it was a plague if people died there'd be remains absolutely you'd see something hey guys seeing this so yeah I mean look at these These are definitely been placed here in a circle this could mean something Ken has found a small ring of stones it's unclear whether it's function was ceremonial or survivalist we just kind of looks like a fire pit to me you have potential squatters and maybe even residences here can we just dig this up a little bit and see what's underneath all right we can do that [Music] are out there Tommy yeah it's been buried a long time definitely looks like a vertebrae doesn't it yeah those are bones for sure about it looks like a fish to me I know for my research that stone circles have a lot of significance the Inuit people would make sacrificial offerings to some of their spirits well I don't know if this is just a meal or part of an offering yeah it's hard to say sacrificial offerings are a part of virtually every known religion grounded in the principle of bringing the best of one's bounty to the deity that provided it but anything less could draw the God's Wrath could these fish bones represent a sacrifice to the bear God taurangasuk ruler of the sea and could they be from the time when the village was still populated fish is the offering of choice to the torn gussu so my theory may have some validity perhaps this bare Spirit found this offering was not substantial enough and so it you know drove the people out of this area well whatever happened we need to back it up and keep moving well we're definitely not gonna know what it is until we get it analyzed so let's get into the lab and keep moving my guess is someone passing through here recently took a break and cooked a fish hopefully a forensics analysis can tell us for sure let's see what else we can find is the day winds down with no more evidence found the Team Heads back to the shore to meet up with the boat for a ride back to the mainland well I'm excited to find out what these bones are yeah yeah that's hey guys we got some Building Material here I think that's just drifted in or it could be from the village oh I think it actually drifted and it's all rounded it's been on the beach for a long time could have been a cabin or part of a dock the Barnacle for something we got berries in there it's on Rock you can check that out what is this that's not Driftwood what do you think could have done that what's that from let me see that that could be interpreted as teeth marks right let's see what you like that Tommy what do you think I don't know all right well if that is a bite then what could possibly make a bite that large nothing that I know of maybe it's not a bite mark the idea of an animal attacking a boat doesn't make sense most animals will swim away before risking that kind of Confrontation but I have to admit that missing chunk does look a lot like a bite mark I know it's bigger than a sea lion can do a little Sharp salmon sharks salmon sharks not going to bite through this thick of plank I mean guys this opens up a whole nother mystery I'm not qualified to make a determination to what this is so I think we need to get this in the hands of an expert the interior of Alaska has vast stretches unexplored by Modern Man what unknown creatures might be lurking in this enormous expanse and could they be contributing to the large number of people that go missing here a northern Legend of a massive bear God called Torn gasuk seems to be based on a real animal the polar bear but polar bears don't exist in the southern part of the state where a sighting tied this Legend to a vanished Village one possibility is that the witness saw a commodity bear a black bear with a recessive gene that turns 10 percent of its population White this has earned it the nickname spirit bear the problem is commodity bears are a small species too small to match the testimony and far too small to drive away an entire Village of natives the team found some fish bones at the site and a strangely damaged board that they hope will shed light on the mystery Ken and Tommy visit the zoo to meet with Tim Bertram an animal expert who's examined their evidence come on in hey Tim hey it's my friend Tommy Tommy nice to meet you hi what do we got I got your results in and what we have here is a large flat fish so I did have them run some tests in the DNA sample came back that it is a halibut can you tell us anything about the age unfortunately carving dating of uh bones of this Nature has a wide margin of air you couldn't really tell the difference between a 10 year old bone and a 50 year old bone my best guess is it's been weathered and buried for a few decades yeah halibut has always been a prized food fish in southern Alaska so there's a good chance it was just somebody's meal without knowing the age of the bone we can't assume that it was any sort of offering so Tim what about the board we found I mean those look like bite marks is there any chance that those could have been made by some kind of sea creature or maybe even a bear it's interesting because they do look like bite marks and they do look like they're puncture wounds from the canine teeth of a large carnivore the combination of canines and incisors makes it likely that it would be from a mammal and not from a fish it could be sea lions they have very similar dentition to the Bears wolves also have similar dentition however what really strikes me is the distance between the two canines the canine teeth on an adult polar bear are on average about three inches apart your board actually has a gap of five inches that's a little less than double the size could this bear be twice the size as normal uh well if you multiply the distance across the canine teeth and extrapolate that that would indicate a bear that was perhaps eight times the normal size of adult Bears today in Alaska the size difference of the bite mark is only across one dimension with if the difference were multiplied across all three dimensions it would suggest a bear of unbelievable proportions well that's biologically impossible right Tim I mean the bear would collapse onto itself right I would agree this could be an anomaly it could perhaps be a bear with a disfigured jaw or something of that nature or it could be from a completely different animal there are extinct bears that do have larger sizes than today's Bears the short faced bear is an example of a pleistocene bear that grew to extreme sizes larger than today's biggest polar bears and biggest Kodiak bears it also had the different dentition than those bears that had shorter jaws and they were very powerful very muscular the giant short-faced bear was a colossal specimen that once roamed the Alaskan wilderness this enormous animal could stand 12 feet tall and its larger legs enabled it to run at speeds up to 40 miles per hour its short compressed muzzle gave it a wider spread of teeth similar to the mark on the wood but all signs are that this bear went extinct about twenty thousand years ago could there be a surviving strain living in the Wilds of Alaska was there any DNA on the sample or I know we weren't able to get any DNA off that sample okay well Tim this has been great information thanks again for your time I always appreciate it on a quest to find a more modern incident that might tie into the bear God Legend Jax heads to a local dock he's been told that one of the captains knows all the stories that have taken place in the nearby Waters hey Captain Mike oh hey how are you I'm Jax oh good nice to meet you oh pleasure to meet you yeah we'll take a whole lot of your time I just got a little interesting question to ask you my friends and I we were out on hitch Brook Island and we found a piece of Shipwrecked wood that has got what appears to be a bite mark out of it have you ever heard of any strange encounters near hinchen Brook involving animal attacks I do know a guy that oh seven or eight years ago had a bad experience out in the sound who's out fishing in that same area around hincher Brook and uh something hit the boat and he sees this massive white paw just grabbing the boat and tried to get away real quick but by the time you look again there's just a little swish in the water where something was there when you say paw you're referring to a bear paw right well he didn't know what it was but he he described it like a Bearpaw and that was all he saw that's all he saw so something that'd be pretty big to it'd have to be pretty substantial yeah so did you believe the guy well uh I don't know him that well but it seems like a stand-up guy yeah and just from the look and the terror on his face when he told me the story all right I believe he saw something well you think he could show me on a map where it was yeah you bet he said is right outside the Cordova Harbor here okay and what was our distance from the harbor well from the north end of hinching Brook it's right at 25 miles I don't know if that fisherman actually saw a bear but bears are Territorial and this happened in the same basic territory as the village so maybe there's something to this each year in the Alaska triangle thousands of people are reported missing in most cases it's one or two people at a time who disappear into this vast wilderness but what could have caused an entire Village to vanish sightings of a large white bear have called to mind the torn gasok a bear God of Northern folklore could this metaphysical being be active down here or is there a more tangible animal on the prowl the team starts prepping for an overnight Stakeout while Tommy secures a bear trap Jackson can meet with some bare survival experts the place man just in case there's a real bear out there hey guys nice to meet you so what are you guys doing here in Alaska well we're on an investigation and we think possibly might be dealing with an exceptionally large bear so do you guys want to capture or kill this and capture it first off so we can continue our investigation but the whole idea is to not die so that's the most important one for sure so I guess the question I would ask you guys what is your experience with with Firearms we're going to be using a tranquilizer gun out there but I always carry a sidearm when we meet people with Firearms we try to shy away from depending on ballistics let's go over here one point we want to make about using the firearm Clint can I have one of those to work with right there okay when an individual is in this position and they're defending themselves from a bear attack if they miss the bear they're in almost one of the worst positions for an attack and the person now goes back on their back and this is now all open to attack that's why we like spray because it's an all-encompassing wall of pepper and you know and and that deterrence do you want us to show you some bear spray absolutely yeah we've got we got a lot of bear spray here at the school I am confident in my shooting abilities but I know short-range handgun shots can miss or be ineffective so it's good to practice another option first things first grab both hands going to aim at your Target and then we'll have it high your hands a little bit higher right about there good and then what I want you to do is simply take your thumb put it forward and pull that safety off there you go excellent now this is your safety is off and you're ready to fire your thumb is gonna go right on this black lever and let's go ahead and see what that feels like and go keep spraying keep spraying keep spraying just bring it down slightly bring it down there you go good good good and [Applause] turn good job absolutely how it goes safety's back on yeah using this bear spray seems easy but if there's an 800 pound bear coming at me that's going to be some pressure I can see how you could struggle with the safety or miss the trigger and if this Bears multiple times normal size then even a perfect shot might not stop it completely the possibility of a monstrous bear is more than a theory to Paul vardel who had a strange experience near Cordova in 2010. so I was doing this Saturday hike near the coast and the path is kind of up in the woods and it gets a pretty decent Breeze in the summertime as I was hiking along I smell this like Briny ocean smell which would have made sense closer to the water but this far up it just it seemed off to me I didn't think much of it I kept hiking I come around this corner in the trail and up ahead there's this rock outcropping and just over the outcropping I can see the back of what has to be this just huge animal and the first thing that came to my mind was polar bear because it was it was white which makes no sense there's no way a polar bear would be this far south and even a polar bear is not gonna be that big and before I really registered what I was seeing I hit this low deep like rumbling growl and whatever it was dropped down below the Rocks I just froze and I sat there for like two or three full minutes eventually I convinced myself to kind of walk up around and see uh if I could see what this thing was and by the time I got up around the rocks it was gone there was nothing there but in the ground there were these huge paw prints like two or three times the size of a normal bear paw print I didn't stick around to find out what it was products anything that big would eat me whole armed as well as they can be the and heads back toward hinchenbrook Island to do an overnight Stakeout they brought bait to go with the Trap Tommy's procured it'll be set up as an offering to the bear God while also serving as a lure for any wheel Bears well we're going to set the Trap up up near a tree because we have to have an anchor to attach it to so it doesn't get away Extreme Caution out there because you know you step into that trap it'll snap your leg right off it's just it's got teeth on it all right well sounds like we got all the bases covered yeah and I can't think of anything else hey guys what's up you need binoculars look at that tree it's popping right there where there yeah how about trees right there that's something something very large and white I don't see anything I don't know what the store is getting to me but I'm convinced I saw some sort of big white creature out there in the woods we have to get there immediately foreign right there something very large and white whatever it is is in the trees now I don't know if the story is getting to me but I'm convinced I saw some sort of big white creature out there in the woods get there immediately team makes their way toward the tree line they know it's only been two weeks since a hunter reported seeing a huge white bear here so they have to be cautious hey guys I think I last saw it up this way as I saw right in this area what's that hold on oh yeah I think that's a bear track I'm vaguely seeing some toes up there this is more of a heel pad back here I don't think it's a brown bear because you definitely would see claw marks up there this track is smeared I know that the pads of polar bear feet contain lots of tiny uh papillae they help to create friction between the foot and the ice obviously the track is too compromised to see if it had those polar bears have smaller stubbier claws more more pulled back considering how fast this thing whatever it was disappeared completely vanished I don't think we can rule out something Supernatural here well guys I believe I saw something here so I think I need to set up Stakeout let's find a good spot for me to be in this area yeah yeah splitting up with and then it will maximize our chances for seeing what's out here it sounds risky but we've had our bear defense training so it's worth the Gamble up here guys there's a clearing up here yeah I think this is a good spot guys yeah I can stay in contact with you guys with the radio and you guys can head up to the Village sounds good sound good all right we'll check in in a few minutes the team leaves enough gear for Jax to set up an overnight Stakeout in the woods he pitches a tent and will log his time here on a video camera Ken and Tommy arrive at the village and set up the bear trap at the Stone Circle which they can watch from nearby structures doing here Tommy what's this for making a little tripod to hold the bait nice rock fish Tommy places a camera next to the bait looks like a set Karen let's go to the cabin huh it will provide a live feed to their laptop allowing them to get an up close look at anything that approaches the Trap preparing for this Stakeout is unnerving I mean if there's an oversized bear out there I've got to wonder if a tranquilizer gun and bear spray are going to be enough and if it's a bear God we might suffer the same fate as the former residents of this Village the possibility of a massive bear on hinch and Brook island is not unprecedented the test case is just on the Gulf of Alaska on Kodiak Island home of the largest brown bears in the world Kodiak bears were cut off from the rest of their species during the last ice age 12 000 years ago oftentimes an isolated population of large carnivores evolves smaller due to limited resources but the abundance of salmon on Kodiak coupled with the lack of competition had the opposite effect could a similar situation on hinchenbrook have caused the same result for a population of White bears long-time Alaskan resident and pilot Noah silver believe so based on something he saw while flying over hinchenbrook in 2004. I've lived in Alaska my whole life and I fly my plane to get around one night I was flying through some dense fog and decided I needed to get down so that I could not just rely on instrument navigation as I pulled into the clear along the shoreline I noticed a huge creature a giant really looked like a polar bear except for three or four times as big maybe 10 feet or more at the shoulder I turned around to get a better look but by the time I double back it was gone once heard of a legend of a giant Bearer and and to me now it's not a legend it's it's real several hours into the Stakeout the team has yet to see or hear anything unusual Jax scans the surrounding woods with a thermal imager looking for any heat traces that indicate a life form no signs of scout or broken branches the foliage is very dense I think there was a large bear here there'd be a lot more broken branches and can you see anything nothing grabs a thermal Cameron have a look outside here looking on our trap out there good idea [Music] it's a little surprising to me that we haven't seen anything so far that fish is a tempting food source I mean I would think that something would have at least checked it out all right it's zero two forty seven hours I've completed my thermal imaging around the camp I've seen no signs of bear or any knock down branches or signs of Scat temperatures have really dropped and it's raining trying to warm up here in the tent for a little bit hey Tommy yeah Jax real cold and real quiet how about you guys yeah same here here all right we might be in for a long one yes indeed [Music] what was that [Music] you heard that I heard that I think it came from the direction of Jax's camp here I'll give him a shout no no no don't call him you could potentially bring something to him you know what I mean if they hear the walking go on gotcha gotcha should we go down there we should lights off if the team is hearing a bear it's a frightening concern Bears prefer to steer clear of humans if it's coming close it could be on the hunt and viewing them as prey Jax what do you got man I don't know definitely like a low guttural growl so I can tell what direction it came from it sounded like it was coming from your direction that's why we come over I've done a couple 360 sweeps all the way through camp but I didn't see anything I know I heard something but there hasn't been a sound since I got outside the tent if an ammo were still around the thermal would have picked it up whatever made that noise it must have been heading somewhere else let me get back to you as a trap let's get up and see what's happening there [Music] well traps still there bait's there trocham yep Trail Cam's clean no pictures everything's undisturbed this is really disappointing the night's nearly over and we have nothing to show for our Stakeout we need to regroup and see if there's any final play we can make in the time that we have left is it head back to your cabin well if there was a bear in the area it would have definitely gone for that fish sure enough you know they're smelling it well unless it was smart and knew it was a trap so you're acknowledging that we could be dealing with something Supernatural that maybe the tongasuk could be a real thing at this point I don't know what to believe what the crap guys what happened you guys all over the place we did not leave it like this man this has obviously been ransacked man I am convinced someone is on this island messing with us start accounting for our gear man there's a lot of expensive stuff here here's my night vision computer computers still there our bag would just totally rip wide open flipped over I've got K2 I've got GPS call blaster all the food's gone all right well bears are notorious food thieves right so are humans but if we're humans you know look at all our expensive equipments here pretty damp out there man there would be like Footprints or something whatever came in here didn't leave us any identifying evidence so could this have been some kind of metaphysical bee maybe sending us a message you know guys think about it I maybe this was the torn gasuk I mean maybe this is some kind of Warning by taking our food it's trying to tell us what get out of here you have no more food you can't survive something like that all right I don't feel safe I'm gonna pack up my gear whatever's in here obviously knows we're here I don't see any evidence of who who came in here the team decides to collect their gear so they can spend the rest of the stake out at Jax's tent they'll be safer as a group if anyone or anything comes looking for more Contraband let's get rolling wait a minute again check this out look at that Jax what is that what's up white fuzzy stuff right there that's hair [Music] the Alaska triangle is known for the large number of people who go missing here but what could make the population of an entire Village vanish could the torn kasook a God in the form of a giant white bear have driven the villagers away or destroyed them completely the team was hoping to find evidence of this legendary figure or of any wheel bear that could have inspired it you're wrong and they just found an intriguing clue wait a minute again check this out look at that Jax what is that what's up white fuzzy stuff there it's hair or fur or something man is it is it like hot in the wood okay well what are we looking at in terms of indigenous animals here it's all sheep that's way too tall for that mountain goat it's the same thing it's way too up they're way too high maybe this is your polar bear here Jax we haven't found any biological evidence at all so this is kind of exciting the lab can check this out for us tell me you get that paper bag I don't know if this hair is connected to whatever stole our food but it is tangible evidence of something that was in the structure once and we need to find out what it is I can't identify that Tommy you've worked with polar bear fur does that look anything like it no polar bear fur is a lot coarser thicker and translucent this is not translucent at all it's a common misperception that polar bear fur is white each hair is actually colorless with a hollow core that reflects and scatters light in a way that creates the illusion of whiteness the same phenomenon as it play with snow each flake is composed of ice crystals which are translucent but in aggregate they appear white what that means is if this hair is from a bear it's not a typical polar bear we got a whole bunch of it whatever it is let's get that off to be analyzed the team heads for Jax's tent to finish their Stakeout but the rest of the night remains uneventful two days later they reconvene in town to discuss the results of the lab test I think gentlemen how we doing good all right well I got something for you I was honestly kind of nervous because as you know with hair samples it's kind of Hit and Miss but it turns out that the hair is human human yeah now the sample is highly degraded it's decades old I think the likely reality is that the hair belonged to someone who lived in the village you know before everyone vanished not old huh yeah absolutely so that makes sense though I mean that's what they're thinking now obviously it didn't match anybody in their database so of course not from a sample that old yeah I wouldn't expect someone from a fishing Village to be inside a DNA website well well this proves that this hair doesn't belong to a polar bear but we have other Clues we still can't explain yeah I mean if you you know consider the the smeared footprint that we found and that enormous bite out of the board that suggests a bear with a deformed jaw or a fair potentially extraordinary size it kind of fits the mold of the torn gazuke you know consider a spirit a spirit who can temper his wrath and you know essentially he was giving us a warning he was a protector so rather than attacking us he was you know basically just telling us to get out of there so so which isn't an exceptional bear or like you're saying maybe a bear spirit the team is unable to prove the existence of a physical being that would explain these bizarre bare sightings could such a creature exist genetic differentiation does show that white Bears can be found in nonpolar regions but would a purely physical bear no matter how large be enough to frighten off an entire native community sightings indicate something is behind the Tauranga souk Legend whether it's an animal or a god its existence could be one more reason wait a minute again check this out people continue to go missing in Alaska [Music]

Channel: HISTORY

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Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, the history channel, documentary history channel, history documentary, documentary, history channel full episodes, documentaries, history channel documentaries, missing in alaska, missing in alaska streaming, missing in alaska full episodes, missing in alaska marathons, watch missing in alaska online free, missing in alaska scenes, missing in alaska clips, missing people, missing, alaska, compilations, terrifying, sightings

Id: oBttsedkHeE

Length: 208min 46sec (12526 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 30 2023