Why People Are Disappearing From This Little Town in Alaska

Welcome to Nome, a small town located in the south of Seward Peninsula, on the west coast of Alaska. If you live here, I’ll bet you say, “there’s no place like Nome.” Well maybe not. It’s cold & snowy here, and no roads connect this town with other settlements.

And with the onset of night, locals have disappeared here without a trace. Perhaps that’s why only about 3,500 people live here. Let’s investigate this case. People disappear in cities for assorted reasons.

But it was Nome who attracted the attention of the public. From 1960 to 2004, some 24 people went missing there. That number is statistically too big for such a small population. People just didn’t come home in the morning, and no one knew what had happened to them.

All the locals in small towns like Nome know each other. There are almost no strangers here, as it’s difficult to get to Nome. There are no roads and no ferry crossing. All roads from Nome break off and lead to beautiful natural landscapes unspoiled by human mammals. You can get there and back by plane. And this is not some passenger jet, but a small biplane.

Another way to get there is by snowmobile. By the way, Nome is the ultimate point of the famous dog sled race, the “Iditarod.” Also, you can pay locals from neighboring villages and towns to bring you to Nome by motorboat. But despite this, the town has become quite famous. The frequent disappearance of people finally got needed attention. The whole world found out about Nome, and in 2009, Hollywood even made a movie about it.

For a long time, no one could solve the mystery. The police had no clues, no witnesses, nothing. There are long nights here in winter, and the air becomes so cold that the glass of water freezes in minutes. Snow can fall constantly. Therefore, if someone leaves the town at night, snow will sweep all traces away by the morning. Of course, people began to come up with their theories.

The most popular one was about someone who took people away by force. The police didn’t find any evidence that some person could do it. So, if it’s not a human, it can be some beast. And again, police found no evidence to support this version. After that, they started thinking that creatures from other planets caused these disappearances. Many locals were sure that the town was a popular destination for extraterrestrial spaceships. The plot of the Hollywood movie “The Fourth Kind” was based on this version.

More time passed. Finally, the police and the FBI launched a large-scale investigation and — they uncovered the truth. They realized that the stories about missing people were exaggerated. The popularity of Nome and the constant talk about fantastic things made people believe in the reality of these versions. Let’s assume that some of the disappearances were made up.

But still, many people are gone. What about them? The answer is bars and harsh weather. Entertainment venues are open at night. Some locals have fun, leave the bar, and go home. At this moment, a heavy snowstorm begins. Visibility is zero, and the strong wind knocks you down. This way, a person might simply get lost. And that’s it. The truth turned out stranger than most versions.

The Bermuda Triangle is a big area in the Atlantic, so the disappearance of ships and planes there seems not so surprising. But it’s much creepier when it happens on a lake. Let’s visit the Lake Michigan Triangle. It’s located between Michigan and Wisconsin. For a couple of centuries, terrible things have been happening here. People put the same legends around this place as around the Bermuda Triangle.

They reported unexplained phenomena and saw flying objects above the lake’s surface. Some believe that the triangle is a time portal. Of course, no theories have been confirmed, but strange cases have occurred on the triangle territory. One happened in 1950 when a Northwest Airlines plane with 108 passengers disappeared without a trace during a flight over the lake. Police officers saw a red light over the lake two hours after the plane’s last communication.

The aircraft probably crashed, but rescuers didn’t find any passengers or wreckage. All that’s left is just an oil stain on the water. Many ships and boats disappeared there, but one of the strangest cases occurred on April 28, 1937. It was midnight. One ship was sailing through this lake. Captain George Donner went to sleep in his cabin after a hard day’s work. Three hours later, the vessel was approaching the port.

One of the crew members went to the captain’s cabin to wake him up. The door was locked from the inside. The assistant knocked, but no one answered. When he suspected that something had happened to the captain, the assistant unlocked the door. He got into the cabin, but there was no captain there. He seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The crew couldn’t find him. Since then, the eerie disappearance of Captain George Donner remains unexplained.

Meet David Paulides. In 2008, he finished his career as a police officer and began to study the mysterious disappearance of people in Europe, the USA, and Canada. He found out that most people went missing in the U.S. National Parks. Over the past 150 years, more than 1,100 tourists have vanished there. Many of them were experienced travelers who knew how to survive in harsh wild conditions.

David has written about these mysterious vanishings. He pointed out that some of them didn’t disappear but were found alive. They woke up somewhere in the forest and didn’t remember what had happened to them. The creepy detail of all these cases is that most missing persons were young. Another detail is that many went missing before hurricanes. There are too many riddles and not enough answers in this case.

There’s the Sargasso Sea in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. This is the only sea that doesn’t have shores on land. It’s called the sea only because is defined by ocean currents. Also, golden-brown algae grow on this area’s bottom, making it seem like an orange spot in the middle of the endless ocean. The Sargasso Sea became famous because, in the 19th century, one of the most famous phantom ships in history sailed here.

In 1872, a brigantine sailed through The Sargasso Sea. Its captain spotted another ship a few miles away. He lit a signal fire but received no response. Then the captain decided to sail closer to find out what had happened. On the hull of the mysterious ship was the name “Mary Celeste.” The captain of the brigantine and several crew members went on board.

They walked around the deck and looked into the cabins and the hold. Everything was in its place. But there were no people. The cargo in barrels remained untouched, so pirates didn’t attack the vessel. The only damaged thing on the ship were the sails. They were torn to shreds. All documents except the logbook were missing from the navigator’s cabin.

The last logbook entry was added on November 24, 1872. The crew of the ship was never found. And this was one of many cases. In the 20th century, from the 60s to the 80s, there were many reports of empty boats and yachts floating on the sea. Also, some entire ships disappeared without a trace. All these cases still remain a mystery.

According to one version, the four-sided current forms water funnels. Whirlpools can quickly pull a ship into the depths of the sea. This explains the disappearance of boats. But what about cases when the vessel is still on the water without a crew?

Sometimes these whirlpools can create wind vortices. They’re like little tornadoes. What if these whirlwinds are powerful enough to throw people overboard and tear the sails? Yeah, the theory seems too fantastic. So, what do you think happened?