Why has part of the Alaskan wilderness been called the Bermuda Triangle?
What if you were stranded several miles offshore in cold weather? |
The so-called Bermuda Triangle slices through four of the state's regions, from the southeastern wilderness and fjords to the interior tundra and up to the arctic mountain ranges. Its points include the large swath of land from Juneau and Yakutat in the southeast, the Barrow mountain range in the north, and Anchorage in the center of the state.
Because of the high rate of disappearances, one area of Alaska has been called its Bermuda Triangle. See more pictures of Alaska.
Even the native Alaska Tlingit Indians that live near Juneau have integrated this peculiar mystery into their religious culture. They believe an evil spirit named Kushtaka, a cross between a man and an otter, captures people who have drowned or gotten lost, whisking them away to his realm never to be seen again.
Evil spirits or not, the rate of people reported missing in Alaska is almost twice the national average. While many cases involve runaways or people who return home, Alaska also has the highest percentage of missing people who are never found [source: Tizon].
In 2007, Alaska state troopers added 2,833 missing person notices to their Missing Persons Clearinghouse that maintains all related information [source: Alaska Governor's Office]. In a state with just over 670,000 residents, that figure averages out to about four in every 1,000 people.
Along with missing persons reports, state troopers oversee search and rescue operations. In 2007, they performed 42 missions related to overdue hikers, 85 related to overdue boaters and 100 related to overdue snow machine operators who were temporarily missing [source: Alaska Governor's Office]. The Civil Air Service also assists with search and rescue missions, and Alaska's branch received the most state funding and saved the most lives in 2006 out of all other state branches [source: Civil Air Service].
Why are so many people becoming lost or stranded, sometimes forever, in Alaska? Is a Kushtaka spirit skulking in the wild or is Mother Nature to blame?
On the next page, we'll try to solve Alaska's Bermuda Triangle mystery.
Missing in Alaska
Test your knowledge in the Bermuda Triangle Quiz.
In July 1993, 24-year-old Chris McCandless set off into the Alaskan wilderness determined to live off the land. After 112 days, he died of starvation, and four months later, a moose hunter accidentally stumbled upon his body.
The subject of the best-selling novel "Into the Wild" and 2007 motion picture by the same name, McCandless' tale symbolizes to many the romanticism and brutality of nature. Twenty-two miles from the nearest road, McCandless removed himself from the typical man-made dangers often associated with premature death. Nevertheless, it didn't take long for him to succumb to the will of a potentially greater threat -- the environment.
Joel Sartore/National Geographic/Getty Images
In 2007, 19 rescues were performed for Mount McKinley climbers in Denali
National Park.
More than half of the nation's federally-designated wilderness lies in Alaska [source: National Agricultural Law Center], and many of the permanent disappearances in Alaska are linked to the pristine, yet sometimes perilous, natural elements. Bound by 33,000 miles of coastline, the land contains more than three million lakes, untamed wildlife, and winters that blanket vast reaches of the state in snow and ice. Likewise, of the hundreds of search and rescue operations performed each year, a majority are the result of people literally becoming lost in the middle of nowhere.
Accidental injuries are the third-highest cause of death in Alaska, twice the national incidence rate [source: Alaska Division of Public Health]. In addition to car accidents, this category of fatalities can also include people falling down mountains or slipping in the spaces between glaciers, called crevasses. Of those accidental deaths, drowning is the third-highest cause [source: Alaska Department of Public Safety]. Many times, the cold temperatures cause bodies to sink to the bottom of the water rather than float to the top, adding another challenge to finding missing people.
Eastcott Momatiuk/National Geographic/Getty Images
Grizzly bears are just one threat to
safety in the Alaskan wilderness.
The Denali National Park, where Chris McCandless set up camp, sits in the middle of the so-called Bermuda Triangle and gapes across an area slightly smaller than the state of Massachusetts. Home to Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, yearly temperatures fluctuate between 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12.7 degrees Celsius) in the summer to a mere 2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 16.6 degrees Celsius) in the winter.
The brief climbing season lasts only from April to June, but at least 28 people have died there since 1996 [source: Associated Press]. According to the National Park Service, 19 people were rescued and two people died out of the 1,218 Mt. McKinley climbers in 2007.
Each year, scores of tourists visit Alaska to see that unspoiled land found in the so-called Bermuda Triangle and experience none of the dangers detailed above. Nevertheless, the Alaska Department of Parks and Outdoor Recreation urges those who visit the more remote areas to be prepared for the natural elements -- and dodge the clutches of the Kushtaka.
For more information on surviving in the wilderness, read the links on the next page.
Alaska Pictures
David Madison/The Image Bank/Getty Images
A dogsledder and his dogs glide through the Arctic National Park in Alaska.
Darryl Leniuk/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images
Two people hike on a glacier in the Chilkat Mountains in Alaska.
Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Getty Images
Frigid air boils a scorching exhaust from a north slope oil facility in Alaska.
Kevin Schafer/Photographer's Choice RF/Getty Images
The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hovers over winter's snow-covered mountains.
Bryce Pincham/Stone Collection/Getty Images
The sun peeks over Denali National Park's Mount McKinley in Alaska.
Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Getty Images
A worker walks on heating pipes at an oil processing plant near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Alan Kearney/Photographer's Choice RF/Getty Images
This hiker seems to be on top of the world in Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
Hugh Rose/Visuals Unlimited/Getty Images
A visibly chilly man pauses under a thermometer registering 43 degrees below zero.
Stocktrek Images/Getty Images
An F-15 Eagle aircraft from the 65th Aggressor Squadron flies over the Pacific Alaskan Range Complex.
Melissa McManus/The Image Bank/Getty Images
A woman skis in Valdez, Alaska.
Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Getty Images
A group of musk ox huddle on the Arctic Slope.
Heath Korvola/Aurora/Getty Images
Campers settle on a glacier in Chugach National Park, Alaska.
Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Getty Images
Workers lay down cable for acoustical emitters on the frozen surface of the Beaufort Sea.
Panoramic Images/Getty Images
A snowy Mount McKinley overlooks blooming flowers in Denali National Park, Alaska.
Panoramic Images/Getty Images
Kayaks sit by a river in Alaska.
Daisy Gilardini/The Image Bank/Getty Images
A bald eagle perches in a snow-covered tree in Haines, Alaska.
Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Getty Images
An Inuit man collects blubber from a butchered whale in Barrow, Alaska.
Lots More Information
Related HowStuffWorks Articles
- How the Bermuda Triangle Works
- How Search and Rescue Works
- How to Avoid Hypothermia
- How to Survive the Freezing Cold
- How Search-and-rescue Dogs Work
- How to Find Water in the Wild
- How the Sierra Club Works
- History of Alaska
- Bermuda Triangle Quiz
More Great Links
Sources:
- Aist, Corey and Trust, Kimberly A. "Search and Rescue Activity: 1996 - 2003." Alaska Search & Rescue Dogs. (March 31, 2008) http://www.asard.org/docs/MissionActivity96-04.pdf
- Alaska Department of Public Safety. "State of Alaska FY2009 Governor's Operating Budget." Dec. 10, 2007. (March 31, 2008) http://146.63.236.131/omb/09_omb/budget/PublicSafety/comp2744.pdf
- Alaska Division of Public Health. "Unintentional Injury Deaths for Alaska." Updated Jan. 22, 2008. (March 31, 2008)
http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dph/bvs/death_statistics/
Unintentional_Injury_Census/frame.html - Associated Press. "Two more climbers die in Denali National Park." MSNBC. May 21, 2007. (April 1, 2008)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18787367/ - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Hypothermia-Related Deaths -- United States 2003-2004." Feb. 24, 2005. (March 31, 2008)
http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5407a4.htm - Civil Air Patrol. "2006 Annual Report to Congress." (April 8, 2008) http://www.cap.gov/documents/
2006_CAP_Annual_Report_To_Congress_lorespdf.pdf - National Crime Information Center. "NCIC Missing Persons and Undentified Person Statistics for 2006." Federal Bureau of Investigation. (March 31, 2008)
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/missingpersons.htm - National Legal Center. "Wilderness: Overview and Statistics." March 18, 2005. (April 8, 2008)
http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL31447.pdf - National Parks Service. "Denali: 2008 Fact Sheet." US Department of the Interior. February 2008. (March 31, 2008)
http://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/upload/fact2008.pdf - Power, Matthew. "The Cult of Chris McCandless." Men's Journal. September 2007. (March 31, 2008)
http://www.mensjournal.com/feature/M162/
M162_TheCultofChrisMcCandless.html - Tizon, Tomas Alex. "Alaksa: the land of the lost." The Seattle Times. March 6, 2005. (March 31, 2008)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/
nationworld/2002198453_alaska06.html