National Park After Dark - Three Points of No Return: Bermuda Triangles of North America

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

It’s safe to say you have heard of the Bermuda Triangle. That terrifying slice of sea that swallows ships whole and plucks planes out of the air. But did you know this isn’t the only place where strange phenomena occurs? There are other triangles to be feared. This week we visit Yosemite National Park’s Tenaya Canyon, where an alleged curse is to blame for deaths and mishaps, Vermont’s Green Mountain National Forest where a string of disappearances left locals dumb founded, and to Alaska’s final frontier – to the triangle responsible for over 16,000 lost souls.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!SimpliSafe: Home security just got better. Visit the link for 20% off an entire new system and first free month of monitoring service. Away: The modern lifestyle brand that creates luggage for every time of trip. Visit the link for your 100 day trial. Aurate: Fine jewelry that is ethically sourced and sustainably made. Get 20% your first order with code NPAD.\For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs.

You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear open that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic.

Imagine for a moment you are reading a book. Enthralled in one of the most interesting stories you've ever heard. The type of book that consumes you and that calls to you when you are pulled away from it. You have committed hours to this particular story. cracking open the book bindings, eyes devouring each word as your fingers rifle through the pages. You see the end is near as the number of chapters begin to dwindle. You reach the last page, on the edge of your figurative seat, only to find the last sentence, incomplete.

What, you may exclaim, that's it, but what happened? Closure. Defined as often comforting or satisfying sense of finality, it is something. something that we expect, but do not always receive. The human desire for closure can be found in a myriad of situations, such as the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the death of a loved one. Without closure, we are often left scrambling, even desperate for answers. It is perhaps why we are so perplexed by and infatuated with unsolved mysteries.

There is a reason why it is so frustrating to be presented with a story with no definitive end. It's because these stories have no sense of resolve. They can't be tied into a neat little bow. And while stories with closure can come from anywhere, there are some locations where they occur in droves. The Mary Celeste, which set sail from New York City in 1872 with 10 people on board, only to be found fully intact, adrift at sea, but completely deserted. The USS Cyclops, one of the Navy's largest fuel ships, set sail from Brazil in

1918 heading towards Baltimore and on the first day at sea sent a single message with no indication of trouble. The first and only message, as the ship and all 309 crew members on board have been lost forever. Or how about Flight 19, consisting of a group of five torpedo bombers and 14 airmen that disappeared into thin air never to be found? If any of these stories ring a bell, it's likely because of where they took place, the Bermuda Triangle. Also known as the Devil's Triangle, this stretch of sea in the Atlantic Ocean is notorious for snatching planes and swallowing ships. But this infamous location isn't the only triangle to be feared. There are others out there, and you may be hiking right through them. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

I know what you meant about Vermont now. I can't believe you didn't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just, I know about the Vermont, what is it called? The Bening Ching Triangle. Ah, that's what it is. I was like, I know it's south towards New Hampshire triangle. You're like the pig man. I'm like the pig man.

It has to be the pig. Nope, nope. We're sticking with triangles today. Okay, I'm just going to say this right now. We are only visiting three triangles. I made a triangle out of our locations. Oh. Just to be complete.

But there are many others out there that will list kind of at the end. So no one come at me with other triangles. I know, people, I know. We'd be here forever. We'd be lost in triangles. So we're only doing three today. But before we get into them, we do have a couple of announcements. First, you may notice that there are two episodes that release today.

So surprise. Yay. Yay. We have a, we released this episode to Patreon a couple weeks ago, but it is now out to everybody. and it is a new segment of our show called People of the Parks. Our first interview is with Mr. Kevin Grange. Kevin Grange is a wilderness paramedic and first responder. He has worked in Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton's,

and has a new book called Wild Rescues, and we had a great conversation with him. Yeah, it was really fun. We talk about his new book that he released, and he has a lot of interesting stories of his time working in the park in different rescues that he's been on, And we know that a big draw to a lot of our episodes are our rescue mission episodes and our survival story episodes. So he has real life experience with that. So it's a really fun episode that we did check it out.

It is launched today as well. So you have a little bonus one. Our other announcement that we have. You probably notice this if you're on social media at all, but we launched our merch. Yes, finally. A couple things about that. Number one, this episode is being released. October 25th. So Patreon members, that means you have one more week to use your exclusive

Patreon-only discount code. So utilize that while you can. Also, somebody asked us if this was going to be a limited release like we did last time. And the answer, it is not. We are going to be keeping this set of merch around forever, hopefully. But we love our designs. We we partnered up with a woman who does these beautiful designs. She's really, really talented. Her name. is Rayco designs on Instagram. You can check her out. She's really, really talented and she made two new designs for us. So you can go check those out. We have hoodies. We have stickers. We have crew necks. We have mugs. We have a bunch of stuff on there. So you can go check that out. If you are interested in a discount code, you can go onto our Patreon. You can find

our Patreon from our Instagram or you can go to our website, MPAD Podcast.com. And you can sign up for our Patreon there. We also have a lot of exclusive. episodes on there now, so you can check those out as well. Yeah, I think that's all. Spooky season still. Can't talk about spooky season and, you know, October and all things creepy without talking about mysterious disappearances. So that's why I chose this topic today. We are going into some unsolved disappearances and some spooky lore and legends and it's a little bit of everything. I love that. I feel like we are checking off a different box every week for what we're doing. And I'm really, excited about it. Me too. As always, you can visit the show notes for the full list of sources,

but I primarily got my information. This episode from Legends of America, Strange Outdoors, Wikipedia, and the New York Times. So we are headed to California and specifically Yosemite National Park. And we are going to a specific part of the park. And that is Tenea Canyon. I've never been to that part of the park. After this, I don't think you actually physically want to be there. So let's just visit in our minds. Located in Yosemite National Park, carved out by a glacier, this large 10-mile gash in the earth drops 4,000 feet from the outlet of Tenaya Lake and down to Yosemite Valley. And it carries water in Tenea Creek through a series of cascades and pools into a deep canyon

below clouds rest, which is a giant mountain, which is directly next to Halfdone. If you look up pictures of this canyon, it is absolutely beautiful. I'm looking at photos right now. How do you spell it? T-E-N-A-Y-A. Tenaia. Or Tenaia. Tenaia.

Oh, wow. Yeah, it looks beautiful. It looks like there's a lot of rock climbing there. Yes, there is. Speaking of rock climbing, that is something that a lot of people go to this canyon for. A lot of technical climbing happens there. And the canyon itself has no designated foot trail, and it is notoriously difficult to navigate, particularly in the spring in the summer as the water levels are higher during that time of year.

The park service has actually actively discouraged hikers from navigating and entering this canyon due to its dangers. There are signs that warn against hiking in the canyon stating, quote, warning, this is not a trail. Travel beyond this point is dangerous without climbing equipment, return to Tioga Road. But of course, humans are notorious for not listening to warnings. So there has been some mishaps in this canyon. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session.

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This canyon has been nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle of Yosemite because of the sheer number of accidents that have happened here. Since the 1950s, at least 17 people have died in the canyon with many, many more close calls. Even John Muir had his own close call in this canyon. He experienced his first serious fall here while he was exploring and scaling the canyon walls. And he does not recall exactly how he fell, but he did. He knocked himself unconscious and he awoke lodged in between some scrub brush right before he tumbled down a series of rock and cliff faces. So he had a very close call there. In June of 1966, Quinn Frizzle, age 31, disappeared while climbing alone in the canyon. Five years later, a skull was found by hikers along with credit cards matching Quinn's name.

the skull and other bones found scattered in the area were later IDed as his. The body of 20-year-old Jonathan Ritt was found by three hikers months after he disappeared on a solo hike from Tioga Road to Yosemite Valley. He had fallen and estimated 500 feet from above. Five years later, David Wentworth was on a solo hike from Tenea Lake to Yosemite Valley. He attempted a shortcut on the rocky slabs of Paiwiak Cascade, a notoriously dangerous area used by experienced technical climbers, which he was not, and he fell 375 feet to his death before being found 10 days later. There's a lot of falling going on here. In July of 1974, 16-year-old Eric Staxstad was

hiking Mount Watkins Trail when thick fog and inclement weather rolled in. Eric, against the pleading of the other friends he was with, he was with two other people, decided to go off solo for help. The thick fog made it really difficult to maintain visual contact between his friends and himself. So he occasionally would yell back to his group to stay in contact with his friends. All was well until Eric let out a scream. He had walked straight into a 400-foot fall. So the fog had to have been so bad. You can't even see your friends and then you just walk off a cliff.

Yeah. Yeah. Two people lost their lives on the same exact day in July of 1996 in 7,000. separate incidents in the canyon. One young man, Alejandro Hernandez, who was 23, died after he fell 130 feet off of a cliff that him and his brother were hiking. And in another part of the canyon, Sam Meyer, 24 at the time of his death, who was a concession employee at the park at the time, he and his friend were out repelling. And Sam was actually teaching his friend different techniques of climbing and repelling and things like that. And Sam rappeled down. And Sam repelled down.

into what he thought was a shallow cavern, but the water was much deeper than he thought and he didn't have the equipment needed to ascend and he ended up drowning. But not all deaths in this canyon revolve around hiking, climbing, and falling. A tragic drowning occurred in the canyon in June of 1977. Bryna and Jeffrey Roxkin, a married couple in their 20s,

spent the day swimming at Hidden Falls. When the sky became cloudy, showing signs of foul weather, they decided to leave by hiking along the trail next to Tenaya Creek. Upstream, at half dome, thunderstorms were raging. The bad weather soon found them and they took shelter under trees as hail started coming down fast. It came and went quickly though, and once it let up, the couple walked on, only to be thwarted again by hail making a comeback. This time, they took shelter under a cliff overhang. Nearby, another visitor named David Mahavi was taking cover under a ledge, trying to

keep out of the storm himself. He could see the couple from his position under the ledge, but quickly looked upstream when he heard a whoosh. His eyes widened as he saw a large mixture of water, mud, and debris rushing towards them from upstream. A flash flood. Flash flood, yep. Watch out, he yelled to the couple as he scrambled to get to higher ground. As David was climbing, he kept his eye on couple. Bryna had been caught in the flash flood and was being shoved downstream. Her husband went after her and caught up to her as she was jerked into a standstill. Her foot had become wedged between a boulder and a log. Jeffrey waited into the water and tried to free his wife, along with three other onlookers. So there are four people at this point trying to get her free. They were in the

water for almost 20 minutes, this cold, frigid, debris-filled rushing water. Suddenly, a second flash flood wave came pummeling downstream and knocked her free. Unfortunately, the wave that set her free also did her in. She and her husband were swept away and both drowned. However, the three other men survived. That's so sad. It's terrible. And that's another thing, that particular story, which by the way, the Yosemite information I read from off the wall, Death in Yosemite, one of my favorite books. But that really reminded me of stories I read in in Zion. Because I think a lot of people, when we think of people dying in Zion, we think of Angels Landing, people falling off of that notoriously dangerous trail. But there are so many people

who have died in flash floods in... Well, I remember this year they put out a ton of warnings because they got a lot of rain. There's flash flood warnings. Everyone leave. I think they even evacuated people at one point and told people not to come. But there's a chapter in death and Zion all about drowning in flash floods and it's just so tricky because most of these occurrences that are happening it's beautiful weather where you are you look up we are in a canyon in a slot canyon you look up sky's blue everything's great but you know 10 miles away if there's a storm happening and it's causing you know there's rain or hail or whatever it is and it's rushing down the canyon you won't even see it coming which obviously why it's a flash flood but um

Yeah, it's terrifying. So that's what happened to this particular couple. And all of those stories that I just mentioned, they're either missteps, mishaps, wrong place, wrong time. Clearly all of these tragedies were accidents, right? Yeah, these don't seem like a Bermuda Triangle kind of death. Well, the answer to that question is dependent on who you ask, because according to local legend, this canyon is cursed.

Oh. Throughout the 17 and 1800s, Native peoples in present-day California and elsewhere were being forcibly removed from their homelands and relocated to reservations. In the mid-1830s, a small group of fur trappers were the first non-native people to set eyes on present-day Yosemite, but it actually didn't gain much attention by the Europeans until the 1850s when the gold rush hit. By this time, an estimated two-thirds of California's native population of approximately, 300,000 people had already died due to introduced European disease and homicide. And it was in the mountains and valleys of what is now Yosemite that the last groups of free native peoples made their last stance. With the influx of European settlers and rising tensions between them and the last remaining tribes, John McDougal, the governor of California at the time, authorized an all-volunteer militia

called the Mariposa Battalion. It consisted of over 200 men whose mission it was was to, quote, pacify local Indians and prevent further raids, end quote. This battalion had heard of a secret valley that was allegedly protected by witchcraft and difficult to penetrate, as the people that were living in this valley would roll rocks down its walls towards intruders. The battalion headed straight towards it as they heard a group of natives were hiding out there, refusing to relocate. They met with Awanichi Chief Tenaya, who was adamant about not wanting his people to be a part of the relocation. After speaking with the battalion, it was revealed that if they were forcibly removed and relocated, that they would be placed with other groups of native peoples.

And Chief Tenaya was really worried about this, not only because they were going to be taken from their lands, but if they were relocated, they were going to be brought to a specific place with, other native groups that were their enemies at the time. Yeah, like that's not going to go well. Right. So he was worried for his people. And allegedly, he said that, okay, we will surrender, we'll sign a treaty in a couple days, like give us time. So days pass, no signs from Chief Tenaya or his people. So the battalion are upset, to put it lightly. And they press into the valley. So they get into the valley and set up camp near present-day Bridal View Meadow. It's here that they captured over 70 members of the tribe, and they were mainly women and children, and they held them hostage while they burned the homes of the village and their large stores of acorns, which they heavily relied on for food.

And it was their tactic and goal to starve out the rest of the tribe because they burned down all their food sources. That's so horrible. The whole thing's horrible. I mean, it's just such a dark stain on U.S. history is just everything that we've done to native and indigenous peoples. I just don't get how you even think to do that. It's a work tactic. I just don't even get how you think to do that as a person. Well, their tactic didn't work.

And to boot, some of the tribe members that had escaped being captured, circled back, and came for the ones that were captured and snuck them out of camp at night. So they got all their people back. So they literally captured all these people and then just hung out there for the night and then in the morning they woke up and all of them were gone. And it doesn't say if it was over one night, I think it was a few nights, but you get the you get the gist. Still. Yeah. So at this point, Captain John Bowling is pissed and he ordered an expedition into the valley in May of 1851 to either kill or force a surrender from the tribe. And during this expedition, three of Chief Tenaya's sons were captured.

One of his sons was released to send a message back to his father of the situation. So he leaves, goes to his father, tells him of the situation, and he still, the chief is still hesitant and reluctant to surrender. So at this point, the battalion has his other two sons. They tied them back to back against a tree, but they broke free and made a run full. They were shot at, and while one of the boys was wounded, he managed to escape. However, Chief Tanya's youngest and alleged favorite son was killed. Shortly after, the chief himself was captured, at which point he yelled, Kill me, Sir Captain.

Yes, kill me as you killed my son, as you would kill my people if they were to come to you. Yes, sir, America, you can tell your warrior to kill the old chief. You have made me sorrowful. My life dark. You killed the child of my heart. Why not kill the father? But wait a little. When I am dead, I will call to my people to come, and they shall hear me in their sleep

and come to avenge the death of their chief and his son. Yes, sir, America, my spirit will make trouble for you and your people, as you have made trouble to me and my people. With the wizards, I will follow the white people and make them fear me. You may kill me, sir captain, but you shall not live in peace. I will follow you in your footsteps. I will not leave my home, but be with the spirits among the rocks, the waterfalls, in the river and in the wind. Wherever you go, I will be with you.

You will not see me, but you will fear the spirit of the old chief. That's a threat, I'd believe. So to this day, Yosemite Valley and Tenea Canyon are supposedly haunted by those spirits. A lot of people think that a lot of the accidents and deaths that occur in this area. can be attributed to Chief Tenaya and his curse. And now the canyon's named after him, too. Yes. Well, I think you're right.

I don't really want to go there if everyone's falling 500 feet to their deaths. Yeah, I mean, and even the sign, the one that I said in the beginning, like the warning, like go back. It's like on this old rusty looking side. Like crazy. Yeah. Like just don't. There's so many other areas of the park that you can probably. go to. I will say though, I mean, obviously for technical climbers and experienced outdoorsmen,

and it's just beautiful. It's not somewhere I would go because I'm just a nervous Nelly, but yeah. Okay, so we are leaving Yosemite. Goodbye, Yosemite. We are headed to your state of Vermont. Ooh, I'm excited. As we've briefly mentioned in the beginning, we are headed to the Bennington Triangle, and that is located in the Green Mountain National Forest. And, and it is located in the Green Mountain National Forest. And this place is wild. There's a lot to unpack here and a lot of things going on. We are just doing a brief overview of it. So if you want a really in-depth episode solely dedicated to the Benantine Triangle, the podcast Morbid did an amazing episode on it.

I remember listening to it earlier this year or end of last year at the gym. I think it's episode 206. So there you go. So for us and our purposes, we're going to talk about the forests a little bit. So this location was dubbed the Bennington Triangle by a Vermont author named Joseph Citro because of the similarities it has to the Bermuda Triangle. It is in southwest Vermont and it encapsulates a small town named Bennington. And it is a picturesque New England town. Overd bridges, orange trees in the fall, little town square.

I've driven through there. They have a cute visitor center. It has like these huge windows and a lot of cool little things in it. They have like those little, are they the singing bowls, the sound bowls? The sound bowls? Yeah, they have a big one of those in there. It's a cool little visitor center. Oh, nice.

I've actually been to the Bermuda Triangle before. Have you? Yeah, I went on a cruise a long time ago, and we did a little glass bottom boat cruise into the Bermuda Triangle, and we had drinks, and we went out, and we saw some shipwrecks that were under the water there. That's so fun. Yeah, it was really cool. And I made it back, so that was even cooler.

When I was doing research on the, just to pick some stories for the intro for the Bermuda Triangle, I almost went off the deep end there. I was like, should I just do the Bermuda Triangle? Because there's gotta be like ocean preserves and things out there, like protected areas. I'm like, maybe I can fit it into the context of our show. But yeah, those stories, like the Mary Celeste and stuff, are just... It's scary. And I don't know if it's aliens and portals and vortexes and all of that. But either way, something's up there and it's scary. Something's going on over there. So I'm glad that you made it out. But we're headed into the forest, not the ocean. Thank God. I don't like the water.

I prefer the forest anyway. Yeah. Where am I? Okay. So the town of Bennington itself is nestled right next to Glastonbury Mountain, which has a pretty spooky reputation. Glastonbury Mountain is part of Green Mountain National Forest, which was established in 1932 to actually help protect the area from overlogging. Today, it is over 820,000 acres and contains some of the most beautiful forest in the northeast. And it's actually one of only two other national forests in New England, which I didn't know. What is it? White Mountain. Yeah, White Mountain. And New Hampshire. What about, what about Baxter? I guess, Baxter State Park. I even Google that.

I'm like, it's this, I got to check the legitimacy because New England is other than southern New Hampshire and Boston and all that, there's so much, it's just so forested. Yeah. But there's only two technical national forests. So Green Mountain and White Mountain. Okay. So Green Mountain National Forest is full of opportunities for hiking, skiing, camping, biking, you name it, you can do it there.

And the first human inhabitants of the area, the Abenaki, and Mohican tribes considered the mountain cursed and used it only to bury their dead. They avoided the area and had several tales of strange beasts in the forest, including hairy wild men. They also warned of strange lights in the sky and an enchanted stone, which if you were unlucky enough to step on, would suck you into thin air and you would disappear forever. In the 1700s during the Revolutionary War, the Battle of Bennington took place nearby. Nearly 400 people lost their lives in that battle, which only added to the paranormal and ghostly events that supposedly haunt the area. So there are ghosts and there are ghost towns.

Glastonbury, Vermont was in its heyday in the 1800s. The town was centered around logging and charcoal production and had around 250 residents. It was a small yet full-blown town with a railroad system that eventually turned into a trolley system that led, nine miles from downtown Bennington up the mountain and to Glastonbury. So the town small, but it had like a post office, its own school, it had residential buildings. It was its own... It had some things in it. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of remind me of if you look up pictures. It reminds me of like a wild west town, but in the mountains of Vermont. Okay. They set up this town and like I said, the main, I almost said the main economy, that makes no sense. The main things that they did there

is, you know, logging and charcoal. But that caused two problems. First, town income was significantly down because once they stripped all the trees for logging and charcoal production, they had no income, no funds. So to help combat this problem, the town had an idea to create a tourist destination. They converted the old logging dorm into a hotel and a nearby apartment building into a casino in hopes of drawing in outsiders. But it only lasted for one season. And that's because of the second problem created through stripping the forest. And that was erosion. The area was left treeless and therefore exposed to erosion.

And in the fall of 1898, right after their first and only summer tourist season, a flash flood came. through the area and the bridges and railways to the town were destroyed. So no one could get there, leaving the would-be resort to decay in the forest. Oh, weird. We need the earth. And kind of like the Lorax in a weird way. Yeah, I can see that. Like they want all the truffalo trees for thneeds and then causes all the problems. Or the giving tree. Have you heard of that story? Yes, but I'm not familiar with it. It's a giving tree. The kid comes over, climbs on the branches and like eats, I think it was an apple tree, eats its apples, climbs on the tree, has fun. Then he grows up and he's like, well, I need a home.

And the tree is like, well, take my, just cut me down. So he cuts the tree down. And then he goes back because he needs more things and it's gone. There's nothing there. So it's like it's giving and giving with no return to me. Yeah. And then all the resources are gone. That's a sombering and sad tale.

Sorry. Just like the lorax. Yeah, I was like, wasn't this the theme? Yeah. Back to Blastonbury. In 1936, there was actually a cartoon in the paper, Believe it or not, by Ripley. The cartoon stated that there were only three residents left in the town, which was a slight exaggeration, but not far off. By 1937, the town was disincorporated by the state. And as of 2018, the whole town has eight residents. Wait, like right now, it only has eight people in it? Yeah, well, that was 2018. So it's a disincorporated town. So there's only two towns that Vermont has ever disincorporated. And that was Glastonbury and I believe Somerville.

So you can visit Glastonbury, the ruins of the old resort. And there was a bunch of kilns there for charcoal production and things like that. And they're just decaying foundations in the forest all overgrown. It's super creepy. There's YouTube videos of it, people going up there and exploring and stuff. So that may be a little. creepy, but this is where it gets scary. A few years later, the area made headlines again, as a string of disappearances occurred in rapid succession. Disappearances in this area were not

uncommon by any means. An estimated 30 to 40 people have vanished in these woods, but between 1943 and 1950, they spiked. In 1943, two men went out hunting north of Glastonbury Mountain. Carl Herrick and his cuts in Henry set out one fall day during deer season. During the hunt, they got separated, which was not uncommon, and Henry went back to camp, waiting for Carl to show up, but he never did. So he notified police after a few hours, and searches ensued. Three days later, they found Carl under very suspicious circumstances. He was lying flat on the ground, rifle 100 feet away from him just leaning against a nearby

tree, and the ground was covered in huge footprints, which at the time, the official's guest were bear footprints. However, Carl's body had no injuries consistent with a bear attack. He was not partially consumed. He didn't have the normal injuries that would be attributed to a bear attack and or scavenging by a bear. He had been squeezed to death. What? What do you mean squeeze to death?

What? Yeah, poor Carl. And that's out on that. Moving on. Okay. Well, hold on, hold on. What do you mean who squeezed death? Like, he was picked up and someone just grabbed him and, like, where his eyes, like, I just picture, like, eyes bulging.

I don't know. What I picture is, like, his rib cage and his upper torso area being crushed. So it sounds like something literally picked him up and just, like, do you think it's Bigfoot? I'm not saying what I think. Yes, I do. Did it have three toes like Colorado? Well, they thought it was bears. But it's just odd because his body didn't show signs of any tooth or claw marks or scavenging in any way.

Yeah, like a bear wouldn't just pick you up and squeeze you and leave you. No idea. If you want to look further into that, go for it. His name's Carl Herrick. But moving on. Middy Rivers. Middy Rivers was a highly skilled outdoorsman and hunting guide, and he was in his mid-70s. He disappeared when he went missing,

while leading a hunting party in an area named Hell Hollow. Of course, why would it be named anything else? It's like in Vermont. I recently did a trail called Hellbrook. And I was like, oh, this will be great. This will be lovely. It was a super steep, rainy, wet. First hike, I really thought I might actually get injured on and I was solo hiking.

I texted you with a photo. Oh, yeah, your picture. Might die. And I was like, what picture do you want me to use for your missing poster? And you sent me what I was like, you looked like a drowned rat. And you had like, all this mud all over your face. I'm like, oh, good. Okay.

It's like, perfect. Everyone will recognize you. Yeah. So Vermonza likes to use their hell names and you should believe them if you see it. So he was in an area named Hell Hollow. He got separated from his group and they returned to camp. So very similar to the previous story with Carl and Henry. His group were not worried about him.

He was the guide and the leader of. the group. He was in his 70s. He was very, very familiar with the area and was a very skilled outdoorsman. But when he didn't return to camp or to town, a huge search party was launched, including soldiers dispatch from Fort Devons in nearby Massachusetts. They combed the forest for almost a month and found a rifle cartridge that was similar to the one that he would have been carrying with him, but his remains have never been located. Oh. Any of the footprints? No footprints.

Nothing. And it's kind of like it begs the question, how far could a 70-something-year-old man make it on his own? And then with over a month of searching and all these volunteers, it's, yeah. But you would think there would be some type of evidence. Mm-hmm. A year later, in December of 1946, 18-year-old Paula Wilden went on a hike on the long trail. She was seen by several people that day on the trail, but failed to show up for her morning class at Benning. College. An extensive search was launched including 1,000 search volunteers, tracking dogs, and the FBI.

It was even the first missing persons case in the state in which a helicopter was used. Her father was extremely wealthy and offered a $2,000 reward for information regarding his daughter. The story was big news locally, but it also was picked up by the New York Times, like this was a huge missing person's case. The last people to see her were an elderly couple. who were also hiking, and they were about 100 yards behind her on the trail at one point. They said she was wearing a bright red jacket and was pretty easy to spot, but she seemingly disappeared after turning a corner on the trail. Fowell play has been suspected, but cannot be confirmed, of course,

as no trace of Paula has ever been found. And her disappearance actually helped form the Vermont State Police, because at the time, they did not have a state police force, and they had to draw on other police personnel from nearby New York and Connecticut, things like that. So this disappearance really kind of launched the need or really solidified the need for a state police force. Oh, wow. And she was never found. So she was walking on the trail in front of someone and rounded a corner and then was just gone.

Yeah. So those were the last two people to have allegedly ever seen her alive. And you have to remember this is December in Vermont. And she's wearing a bright red jacket. So yeah. Likely there's snow on the ground. There's not a lot of foliage on the branches because, you know, everything except for the pine will fall by that time. So not to say that someone can't easily get lost, but in a well-travel trail, or at least part of the trail with other witnesses, it's very odd. Yeah, that's very, very strange. Unless the witnesses were the one who did something. They were cleared. I will say that.

Okay, okay. So a couple years later, in October of 1950, eight-year-old Paul Jepson was left unattended in his mother's car while she left briefly to feed some pigs. So he was just out with his mom doing errands. She left the car, fed some pigs, came back, and Paul was gone. Again, search parties were organized and tracking dogs were utilized. And the dogs actually caught his scent and they followed it to an intersection, but they abruptly lost it. This kind of led people to think that he was abducted by a motorist,

like someone passing by because he had a scent, then all of a sudden at a busy intersection, he's gone. But according to some locals, this is the same exact location where that elderly couple last saw Paula Weldon. So nothing was ever found of the boy, including the bright red jacket he was wearing at the time of his disappearance. He had a bright red jacket too? Mm-hmm. Okay. So if I go down there, do not. wear a bright red jacket. Correct. Ah, that gave me chills a little bit. Less than a month later, the Forest of Glassenberry claimed its last victim. Frida Langer was camping with her family near the mountain. In her mid-50s and in great physical shape, Frida set out with her cousin Herbert

for a hike. Again, she was familiar with this area. She has been there before, and the two of them were meandering a bit through the forest, but shortly after departing camp, while walking along a stream, Frida slipped and fell into the water. She was unhurt, but she was wet. So she was like, you know what? I'm going to go back to camp. Change my clothes really quick. I'll be right back.

It was the end of October. It was chilly outside. Like, if you get wet and you keep going, you're in for trouble. Or at the very least, you're going to be uncomfortable. So she told her cousin, hold tight. I'll be right back. But an hour passed. And there was no sign of Frida.

Again, a search was launched. And over several weeks, the area was exhaustively searched on foot and by air by over 400 volunteers, including law enforcement. Once again, nothing. That is, until seven months later. In May of 1951, Frida's body was found. It was severely decomposed, and they found it near Somerset Reservoir, which was an area that was part of the search. So she was dumped there later? I mean, it seems to be that way. Yeah. But due to the condition of her body, she was so severely decompose no cause of death could be determined and her case remains unsolved. And just as abruptly, as the string of disappearances began, they stopped. But Somerset Reservoir comes up again many years later. In September of 2019, a jawbone was found in a gravel pit near the reservoir, which led to the

discovery of more remains. They all belonged to Jessica Hildenbrandt, a 43-year-old resident of New York, who had gone missing in July of that year. Her death has been ruled a homicide, although it does remain unsolved. And her nickname was Red. Oh, chills again. This is giving me serial killer vibes. Exactly. I mean, like I said, this area of the forest has had a ton of disappearances,

but this particular string of odd disappearances in the same area seems like a person is responsible or was a person. responsible for them. And how many years later was the was red? Red was in 2019 and I just mentioned it just because it's in the area and her nickname was like one last strike. If you do look up her case, it's it's very, very sad. She was a mom. She looked like such an awesome young woman and she was from upstate New York and nothing can be obviously confirmed because it does remain unsolved right now. That's really sad. It's unrelated. to the 40s and 50s.

That was the first thing I was thinking I was like, oh no, like is it a serial killer that's starting to strike again? But that seems like a lot of a lot of time that's passed. Wow, that's really, really horrible and that's really recent. I missed when you said 2019 the first time. Wow. I hope that they find justice for her. That's really, really sad. Me too.

Obviously, takeaways from Bennington, the Bennington triangle, don't wear red, I guess. And just keep an eye out. You never know who's lurking in the forest. Okay. Last location. We are heading clear across the country and we are headed to the final frontier. Alaska. I love Alaska. We haven't been here in a while. So we saved this terrifying triangle for last. This one in and of itself is just crazy. We could spend all day here. But just to give it an overview, the Alaska triangle is formed between the points of Juno. in southern Alaska, Anchorage in south central Alaska, and then up to Barrow, which is way northern Alaska, it's only 800 miles south of the North Pole. So more than half of the nation's

federally designated wilderness lies in Alaska. And lying within the boundaries of this triangle are parts of Glacier Bay, Denali, Gates of the Arctic, and Ringgo St. Elias National Parks. And in this space, 16,000 disappearances have occurred since 1988. 16,000 since 88 that's not that long ago no oh my god that's like 33 years ago holy shit so that's how many a year 16,000 divided by 33 divided by 33 484 a year wow that's a lot of people so that's just since 198888 However, I'm going to talk about a couple that happened before then, so they're not even included. First, we're going to talk about the missing Douglas C-54 Skymaster. In the 1950s, a military aircraft carrying 36 passengers and eight crew members lost contact with ground control.

The Army conducted the largest military search and rescue mission up until this time in history, but was unsuccessful. The plane and its passengers were never found. I knew you couldn't go that long without a plane story. I'm talking about, I mean, I... I know. God, and I'm about to do another one. As soon as you mentioned a plane, I was like, oh, she's back. She's back.

She said she wasn't doing one for a while, and here we are. I just mentioned it briefly. I'm like, staying away from us. Okay. All right. So speaking of planes, um, in 1986, a Japanese plane flying from Iceland to Anchorage came across three unidentified objects that followed the plane for almost 400 miles through the triangle.

One of the objects was estimated to be twice the size of the aircraft, and they would appear and disappear and reappear all rapidly and move in ways such as stopping suddenly and then abruptly moving, moving through the air in ways that was impossible for the known technology at the time. The aircraft contacted ground control to let them know what was going on, and he was advised to lower the altitude and kind of try and evade whatever was going on. So he did so, and he was trying to evade them for a long time, but to no avail. And finally, they just kind of left and stopped following him after a half an hour. So UFOs? Aliens.

UFOs. Okay. Last plane thing. Literally. Oh, another one. Okay. Uh-huh. This is one of the most famous Alaskan triangle story.

So I had to mention it, even though it does involve a plane. So the disappearance of the House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Representative Nick Baeck. They were flying from Anchorage to Juno, which was a relatively short flight and a very well-traveled flight path when the Cessna 310 aircraft they were flying vanished. There was a massive search that lasted over a month and covered an area of 32,000 square miles. And to put that into perspective, that's the size of South Carolina.

Wow. And they never found anything. That plane and its passengers have never been found. And that huge number of disappearances that I mentioned before may seem like a lot because it is. But on average, 500 to 2,000 people go missing in the state of Alaska every single year. That's so many people. This state has a missing persons rate that's almost twice the national average. I mean, I guess it is such a wild state. Half of it you can't even get to by. car, you have to fly. I mean, the last frontier, you know, there's so much there that's not accessible or is in the backcountry or so I can imagine. State troopers conduct hundreds of search and rescue operations with rarely any luck. Most of the people who go missing are never found.

So to throw out some numbers, there are three million lakes in the state of Alaska, and the state has more coastline than the rest of the United States combined. And it also has the lowest population density at about one person per square mile. Wow. When you break it down, it is really not hard to see why so many people just vanish. There's just so much wild out there. And weather, too. Like when you mentioned the plane and it was never found, I mean, if it crashed into

some mountainside and there's a storm and it was buried forever, I mean, you know. And we're seeing a lot of that with not only on Everest, but in other, glaciated areas with climate change and reduction of permafrost and things like that around the world. We're starting to uncover a lot of things from, you know, missing people. We even, when we went to the mammoth dig, the mammoth dig site, like trying to make sure I enunciate my words, so we're not talking about mammoth dicks. We're talking about digs. We saw mummified remains of mammoth infants that were stuck in permafrost for thousands of years now that the ice is melting, they're starting to become exposed. So there's different things around the world that now that the ice is receding,

it's uncovering a lot of things that we thought we would never see. So obviously, whether large expanses of wild places are the first and easiest thing to point to when it comes to disappearances, especially in this state. But for some, such as the local Tinglek tribe, meaning people of the tides, this group of indigenous peoples, have been in what is now Alaska for centuries. They believe something much more sinister than crevasses and harsh weather are to blame for some of these disappearances. In their lore, they speak of an evil creature named Kushtaka, which loosely translates to land otter man. This creature is a shapeshifter and is evil. It imitates the sound of a woman or a child crying and they use that sound to lure victims to rivers where it will grab

them and tear them into shreds or turn them into another kushtaka. This gives me kind of spirit finger vibes a little bit. It's like spirit finger. It's spirit finger. It's spirit finger or spirit finger? It's spirit finger. I'm like spirit hand. Spear finger.

Spear finger and sirens. Very true. Land daughter man spirit finger. I mean, sphere thinker. And speaking of attacks, we all know that there are bears in Alaska. Alaska has polar bears, brown bears, and black bears. And to give you an idea of just how many, I just, statistics are just rolling in this episode. I like all these numbers.

Okay, cool. This one I was really excited about. The state of Alaska contains about 98% of the entire U.S. population of brown bears and 70% of the entire North American population, and they have an estimated 30,000 of them. Wow, that's a lot. And that's just brown bears. Damn. With that many bears, you would think that at least some of these disappearances have

bear attack written all over them. But according to a 2019 report by Alaskan health officials, between the year of 2000 and 2017, only 10 people died as a result of bear attacks in the state. So that doesn't mean that there weren't more attacks. people were hospitalized in the state as a result of a bear attack. And of course, there is no way of knowing if some of these people who have disappeared were attacked and consumed or partially consumed by a bear. But from the numbers that we have, there's only 10 people in that 17-year span that were attacked fatally. But, I mean, there's also something to say about the number of

people that are there because there's not a lot of people there. Also, if you think about it, because most of Alaska is so remote, bears there are generally not having to worry about people as much as if you see them in like glacier where there's people all the time in Alaska, so much of it is remote. I'm sure there's bears there that very, very rarely even see people. I didn't write it in my notes because it has nothing to do with the triangle. It's not in the triangle, but it is worth noting because a couple people have sent us this article in the past when we talked about bears, especially during the Night of the Grizzlies episode. There was a case recently within the last couple of years of a man that was at like a remote mining camp.

And you can see pictures of it. It's like essentially just like a trailer outside of Nome, Alaska. And he flagged down a helicopter by chance. The helicopter wasn't even supposed to be going that way. They were scientists on their way to do like a whale count somewhere. And he was flagging them down. down and he had SOS written on the top of his trailer, the door had been ripped off and he only had like a couple rounds of ammunition left because a grizzly had repeatedly been trying

to get into his trailer and repeatedly attacking his camp and trying to get to him for days. And he happened to flag down the helicopter and he was rescued. So that's a rare occurrence like this grizzly literally would not leave him alone over days and days was trying to get to him ripping his his house apart and things like that. So that's fucking terrifying. But I think that's kind of a isolated type of incident. Okay. So back to the triangle. Let's finish up the triangle thing. So another theory of what's going on this in this triangle and why there are so many people that go missing there comes in the form of the vile vortex theory. So this theory claims that there are several geographical areas around the world that

radiate extreme electromagnetic currents. There are good and bad vortexes, so positive and negative, and a good example of a positive vortex is in Sedona. Tons of people go to Sedona, Arizona, to heal and meditate, soak up the good vibes, and a lot of people say that's because the area has positive vortexes. Conversely, negative vortexes, which the Alaska triangle is said to harbor, are known to drain or deplete energy, and cause problems for both people and equipment. So think compasses spinning out of control in the Bermuda Triangle,

which is allegedly also one of these types of vortexes, along with people feeling disoriented or confused, and engine malfunctions. So all those planes could be a reason why engines fail and things like that. And there has been evidence of large concentrations of magnetic anomalies within the triangle, which have disrupted compasses up to 30

30 degrees, making already difficult terrain almost impossible to navigate. So if this Vial Vortex thing is true, I mean, I didn't do too much deep diving into it, but if it's skewing your compass by 30 degrees, you really have no idea where you're going. Yeah, that's a lot. I mean, you're heading in a totally different direction at that point. There are also abduction theories. Obviously that Japanese plane saw some unidentified aircraft. And UFO sightings are abundant in the triangle.

So that was not an isolated incident. According to the National UFO Reporting Center, since 1998, over 560 UFO sightings have been reported in Alaska, with the majority of them being witnessed within the triangle. Many people hold tight to the thought that extraterrestials are to blame for at least some of the disappearances. And not necessarily tied to disappearances, per se, but always an honorable mention. within the triangle is, of course, Bigfoot. Countless reports have come from this area, many of which actually come from Rangel St. Elias National Park.

I'm not even going to get into them because I think I hit my Bigfoot quota for this month. If you want to learn more about the Alaska Triangle, there's actually a Discovery Show that came out very recently, I believe last year on the Discovery Channel. It's called the Alaska Triangle, and each episode covers a different story or topic within the Alaska Triangle, and they have... Oh, how cool. Yeah, so some of the episode titles have to do with either UFO, Bigfoot, paranormal activity, there's sunken ships there, and just all unexplained phenomena that occurs within the triangle. So it's really cool. That sounds super interesting.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, over 600,000 people go missing in the United States every single year. And while the vast majority of those people are eventually found, whether, they are alive or deceased, some are not. The author of the missing 411 books, David Polities, estimates there are more than 1,600 disappearances in North America alone that cannot be explained, some of which, as we know, occur within the National Park System. It's difficult to comprehend how this happens. How does someone just fall off the face of the earth, especially in the age of such connectivity? Although there are no definitive answers to many people who have never returned from their journeys into the wild, there are likely explanations within the wilderness itself. Shear cliff faces in Tenaya Canyon which can easily claim the lives of those who misstep, the vast forests of the Green Mountain State, which could easily hide those with ill intentions, or the remote, rugged, and largely untouched terrain of Alaska.

But sometimes, rational explanations don't connect all of the dots. In some cases, despite logical explanations, questions do remain. And these questions usually involve a who or a what component. Who or what was responsible for some of these disappearances. Legends abound. UFOs, energy vortexes, interdimensional time portals, or cryptids, the yucca man of Joshua Tree, the chupacabra of the El Unique National Forest in Puerto Rico, superhumans in California's Shasta National Forest, the Banji of the Badlands, just to name a few.

If there's anything that we have learned through our journey with this podcast, it is that there is more to national parks than meets the eye, and it is not for the faint of heart. And that's all I have on triangles for this week, but like I said, there's a lot more of them out there. There's Bridgewater Triangle in Massachusetts. There's the Dragons Triangle, which is in the Pacific Ocean, whereas the Bermuda Triangle is in the Atlantic. There's the Nevada Triangle, which is Nevada in California. There's the Matlock Triangle in Britain.

There's like a lot of them going on. So we just don't have time to visit them all. Yeah, that's a lot. But what a cool episode. Thank you for doing that. That was very off of what you had told me you were going to do before. Be pleasant surprise. That's so interesting.

And it's so interesting because now that we're not. we all know about them. We can choose to go there if we want. Or not. Yeah. Or not. Yeah. It just seems like mysterious disappearances obviously strike accord with a lot of people, mainly because how I mentioned, there's no closure and there's just so many unanswered questions. But if you dig deep down into it, I mean, especially in Alaska, yes, there may be weird things going on in certain cases, but for the vast majority, the 16,000 people in the last 33 years, I mean, the wild is a really dangerous place and sometimes you just simply get lost in it. It's unfortunate and it's really scary, but I think for a lot of the disappearances,

Mother Nature has a lot to do with it. But I'm not discounting Bigfoot and UFOs and weird time portals. I'm just saying for the vast majority, I think we have our answer. There's some type of explanation that can be like either scientifically proven or or just some type of circumstance that could have happened. Yeah. I think the Bennington triangle had some sort of person to blame that just never got caught. Yeah, that felt like a serial killer.

I mean, and maybe eventually you never know if they will get caught. I mean, the Zodiac killer was just named. He's obviously died. DNA. You know. Exactly. So I hope everyone really enjoyed it. And if you have any experiences in any of those three triangles we talked about, or four,

if you're in the Bermuda Triangle. If anything weird happened to you, let us know. We would love to hear about it. We will see everyone next week. If you have not already listened to Kevin's episode, please go and do that. It is awesome. We hope you enjoy it. We will see you next Monday. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. State troopers conduct hundreds of search and rescue mission. Search and rescue missing. Oh my God. You can do this. I believe. I can do this. State troopers conduct hundridge. Search and rescue operations.

Somebody, side note, message us and asked if we could do an entire episode of just bloopers. I'm like, Lord knows we have the material. It's like, sure, that episode will be seven hours long. Please stay tuned. I'm like, you don't even want to know, honestly. Okay, here we go. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at NPAD podcast at gmail.com.

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