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The Alaska Triangle has an average annual disappearance of over 2200 people. (Photo Credit: X)
Geographically, the Alaska Triangle connects Anchorage and Juneau in the south to Utqiagvik (previously Barrow) on the north shore.
Although the Alaska Triangle is less popular than the Bermuda Triangle, it has been linked with strange disappearances. At least 20,000 people have reportedly disappeared in the rural region near Juneau, Alaska, since the 1970s, says a report.
Geographically, the Alaska Triangle connects Anchorage and Juneau in the south to Utqiagvik (previously Barrow) on the north shore. With an annual average disappearance rate of roughly 2,250 persons, this sparsely populated area has earned its mysterious reputation.
According to IFL Science, this area came to public attention in October 1972, when a plane carrying two US senators went missing en route from Anchorage to Juneau. US House Majority Leader Thomas Hale Boggs Sr. and Alaska Congressman Nick Begich vanished while flying in a light aircraft from Anchorage to Juneau with Begich’s staffer, Russell Brown, and the pilot, Don Jonz. A search operation was initiated to find them, but neither the bodies nor the plane was ever discovered.
This led to conspiracy theories about what could’ve happened, especially since Boggs was a Warren Commission member (the official body formed to investigate John F. Kennedy’s assassination) and supposedly disagreed with the group’s findings, according to Indy100.
IFL Science states that the area has untouched wilderness, ragged mountain ranges, horribly cold weather, and bears.
Another notable case was Gary Frank Sotherden, a 25-year-old New Yorker who went hunting in the Alaskan wilderness in the mid-1970s but never returned. In 1997, a human skull was discovered along the Porcupine River in northeastern Alaska, and DNA was received in 2022. It was determined that the skull belonged to Southern, who died due to bear mauling.
Meanwhile, many suggested various causes for the disappearances. While some claim extraordinary magnetic activity in the Alaska Triangle, some believe that extraterrestrial visitors have been visiting the area.
However, simpler interpretations are that it is a vast area full of wildness and natural perils, which may explain why many have gone missing and never been found again. However, much like the Bermuda Triangle, this mystery has been solved.