All language subtitles for The Alaska Triangle S01E02 The Hairyman of Port Chatham 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Alaska --

a vast, remote wilderness
twice the size of Texas...

ENOCH: There are dangerous,
unpredictable

forces at work here.

NARRATOR:
...in one of the most mysterious

corners of the globe.

A lot of things can kill you
out here without even trying.

NARRATOR: This is a place
hundreds of times more deadly

than the Bermuda Triangle.

MAN: Oh, my God.

Stories of alien abductions...

I believe it was a UFO.

NARRATOR: ...the paranormal,
vanishing airplanes,

and strange beasts...

The Alaskan Bigfoot --
he can rip you in half.

These accounts
are really widespread.

[Bleep] It peeked out
of the tree right there.

...have haunted
those who dare set foot here.

In the last 30 years,

16,000 people have disappeared
without a trace.

MAN #2: More people
have disappeared

than the Bermuda Triangle --
two to three times the amount.

NARRATOR: Witnesses tell us
their shocking stories...

[ Growling ]I was petrified.

NARRATOR: ...and we've gathered
some of the world's

leading experts
in their field...

I'm always after
scientific evidence

that can be
independently corroborated.

NARRATOR:
...to try and unlock the mystery

of the Alaska Triangle.

♪♪

The Alaska Triangle --
remote mountains,

impenetrable forests,
unexplored lakes and rivers.

It's long been home
to stories of strange

and terrifying beasts.

These creatures may have made
the Alaska Triangle their home

and could be behind any number
of the bizarre disappearances.

One of the most famous
is the Hairy Man --

half-human, half-beast,

and if the stories are true,
a man-killer.

BAXTER:
If the Hairy Man is out here,

he's a lot stronger
than a normal human

and can kill somebody
with his bare hands.

MAJOR: The Hairy Man
is a wild, hairy beast,

and he can rip you in half.

♪♪

[ Creature growls ]

NARRATOR: A huge apelike
creature out for revenge

and defending his territory.

It's a gripping story.

But could this beast
really account for the hundreds

of people going missing in the
Alaska Triangle every year?

A fascinating tale
from the last century

suggests the answer
could be yes.

Aah!

And now there's some intriguing
new evidence

that the Hairy Man
may still be out there.

[Bleep] Right --

Dude, it just peeked
out of the tree right there.

♪♪

The first stop on the journey
to find the Hairy Man

is the Port of Homer
on the Kenai Peninsula,

over 200 miles southwest
of Anchorage.

♪♪

The town is known
as the "End of the Road."

From here, there's just one way
to travel, and that's by boat.

Now Homer is the meeting place
for a new expedition.

If the Hairy Man exists,

these three adventurers
are determined to find him.

Expedition leader is seasoned
Bigfoot hunter Stephen Major.

For Stephen,
this search is personal.

He's been to the Kenai before.

I actually caught a glimpse
of what I believe

was the Hairy Man
dashing between some trees.

What I saw was
a bipedal, hairy beast.

I was dumbfounded because
I was in shock

because I was not expecting
to see that,

and I'll tell you what,
it was very exciting.

NARRATOR: Stephen is meeting up
with Adam Davies,

a leading cryptozoologist
from Manchester, England.

Adam is an expert tracker

and has been on many expeditions
on the hunt

for mysterious,
unknown creatures.

DAVIES: What I'm always after

is getting
credible scientific evidence

that can be
independently corroborated,

something that's tangible
that will pass tests.

NARRATOR: Stephen and Adam
have recruited

Army vet and police officer
Larry "Beans" Baxter

to help keep them safe.

BAXTER: My role on the
expedition is team security.

The safety of the other team
members is my priority,

and there's a lot of things
in Alaska

that can harm you
if not outright kill you.

[ Woman screams ]

NARRATOR: The Hairy Man
expedition have chartered a boat

to take them right down to
the tip of the Kenai Peninsula.

This is the renowned home
of the Hairy Man.

What we're looking for,
in a nutshell,

is definitive proof of
the existence of the Hairy Man,

and when I say that,

specifically
what we're looking for

is to have
an encounter with him.

NARRATOR:
On his last expedition,

Stephen took this photo.

It's his foot next to
a giant footprint.

Whatever made this was massive.

In the Alaska Triangle,

there's plenty of room
for giant creatures to hide.

With thousands of square miles
of unexplored wilderness

and so few people,
anything could be out there.

♪♪

But what is the Hairy Man?

Like Bigfoot, around here,

stories of him are well-known
and go back generations.

Dr. Robert Alley
is a cryptozoologist

and former professor
of the University of Alaska.

He's made a study
of firsthand accounts.

The Hairy Man
is a large, bipedal,

completely hair-covered,
manlike creature,

very similar to Sasquatch
or Bigfoot,

possibly related, very large,

up to maybe even 8
or 9 feet tall,

very fast, very territorial,

and it could be quite aggressive
if provoked.

These accounts are
really widespread.

NARRATOR:
But there's one place

with, by far, the greatest
Hairy Man story --

perched on the very tip
of the Kenai,

the abandoned settlement
of Port Chatham.

MAJOR: I believe that
Port Chatham, Alaska,

is an area that the Hairy Man
has claimed for his own.

I really do believe
that is his territory.

ALLEY: It's remote.
They wouldn't feel pressured.

And it gives him a refuge,

and it would be one
that they want to protect.

NARRATOR: There's good reason
to think the Hairy Man

lives around Port Chatham.

Back in the early 1900s,

there were some
terrible events here,

and no one's lived
in the area ever since.

♪♪

[ Creature growling ]

Aah!

Hugh Newman
is an English author

who's been
researching the story.

In the early 20th century,
Alaska was a wild frontier.

When the settlers came in,
they found this wonderful area,

Port Chatham, you know,
stunning natural beauty,

but also, salmon
was rich in that area.

What's strange about it to me

is that it wasn't inhabited
by Native Americans.

There was no
indigenous population

in this specific area.

So when the settlers came in,
you know,

it was kind of easy for them
just to set up base there.

They opened a cannery
for fishing.

So despite its isolation,
it began to grow,

and it became a thriving
commercial area.

NARRATOR: But an early entry

in the cannery supervisor's
logbook

is a telling sign
of what was to come.

NEWMAN: In 1905, in the local
logbook of Port Chatham,

something menacing was recorded
as being in the woods

around the area
of the fishing village.

♪♪

[ Man screaming,
creature growling ]

NARRATOR: The logbook states

that the entire cannery
was shut down.

The workforce left the site
and didn't return

until the next season

because of something
menacing in the forest.

Then a few years later,
the situation got even worse.

MAJOR: Around the 1920s
through the 1930s,

there were people that would
go up hunting in the woods

and not return.

There were people
that would go up in the woods,

and they would find dismembered
and mangled bodies

that would float down
in the lagoon.

In conjunction with that,
there were sightings

of a very large, hairy,
manlike beast.

[ Creature growls,
man screams ]

So was it Bigfoot?
Was it Sasquatch?

Was it some kind of hairy beast
that was terrorizing the locals?

NARRATOR:
The dismembered bodies,

arms and legs were ripped off
and tossed into the river,

and these were no bear attacks.

A bear would not be able to
dismember and mutilate a body

leaving no claw marks,
leaving no fang marks,

and that would have sent
a very distinct message

that Hairy Man
was responsible for this.

They wanted to be left alone.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
The settlers got the message.

They were being attacked
by a Bigfoot-like creature

who wanted them gone.

♪♪

Investigative journalist
Jerry Glover

knows the story well.

By around about 1949, the town
was completely deserted.

All the inhabitants left
Port Chatham,

which is very remarkable

given that it was
a commercially active area.

But the inhabitants felt that
they could no longer live there

and have never lived there
since that time.

The place
has always been deserted.

♪♪

DAVIES: If the Hairy Man stories
are true,

what it's been able to do
is successfully

push back civilization,
which is very rare indeed.

There's a mystique to the place,

paranoia, an evil vibe.

NARRATOR: Now Stephen and his
team are on their way.

They're out to solve the mystery
of the Hairy Man

once and for all.

There's a lot
of different theories

as to what the Hairy Man
could be.

Some people believe that

it's a large, bipedal,
undiscovered ape.

Some people believe that
it's some kind of spiritual,

supernatural being,

and that's why
we're going to Port Chatham

is to get some answers.

NARRATOR: If they solve
the mystery of the Hairy Man,

it's possible that the team
could solve the mystery

of the Alaska Triangle itself.

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: The Alaska Triangle
could be home

to all kinds
of mythical monsters

and unknown creatures
from giant sea serpents

to killer birds
as big as a small plane.

Now Bigfoot hunter
Stephen Major

has turned his sights
on the legendary Hairy Man.

He's leading an expedition deep

into what's thought of as
the creature's home territory,

the very tip of the remote
Kenai Peninsula.

MAJOR: You're not gonna get here
any other way, either by boat.

We are isolated to the point
that if you had an accident

or something like that,
you're pretty much on your own.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
After a grueling trip,

the team near their destination,

and the weather closes in.

♪♪

But soon, the sight of Portlock,

the old town of the Port Chatham
area, emerges from the mist.

Can you park the boat
right off

of the old Portlock
townsite?

That should be all right.
It depends on the tide,

but we should be
able to do that.

Okay.

How far should we be
off of the beach?

Dude, man,
if we could be

less than 100 yards,
that would be fantastic.

Could he swim out there?

Oh, yeah, the Hairy Man
is a swimmer.

They have webbed feet
and webbed hands.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, they're
very well adapted.

Here's the spot.

Right here, the old
Portlock townsite, we're here.

DAVIES: Excellent,
let's get started.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Stephen, Adam and
Beans prepare to go ashore.

♪♪

It's been nearly 70 years
since all the residents

were scrambling for the boats,

fleeing for their lives,
desperate to get away.

These people must have been
terrified

of what was going on
in the woods there.

People were dying.
Body parts were being found.

And it does give a reason

why this place
is still abandoned today.

♪♪

Hairy Men clearly
are territorial.

If you're going in to the area
where he resides,

you could get in trouble.

♪♪

We've just arrived on the beach
below the Portlock townsite.

And we're heading in there to go
investigate part of the area

where the old town
used to be.

So we're gonna have
to stay on our toes.

That's why we have these to
protect ourselves if necessary,

but we definitely have to be
cautious in our movement,

be observant and go slow.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
Pieces of old machinery

are an eerie reminder

that this was once
a thriving, working community.

BAXTER: This was a bustling town
by Alaska standards.

You had fishing industry.

You had fish processing here.

They would catch the fish
out on the bay here

and bring them in
to the cannery.

It was a perfect setup,

and because of the Hairy Man,
it was just abandoned.

♪♪

NARRATOR: The workers here felt
so threatened

that they made demands
unheard of elsewhere.

The workers refused to work.

They would go on strike unless
guards were protecting them

from the menace
that was in the woods.

NARRATOR:
Up behind the industrial ruins,

Stephen finds what was once
a grisly scene.

This is a lagoon behind the town
of Portlock

where they would find
mutilated bodies floating.

♪♪

BAXTER:
If the Hairy Man is out here,

and he is responsible
for those murders,

then he's a lot stronger
than a normal human

and can kill somebody
with his bare hands.

♪♪

MAJOR: Right now
what we're looking for is,

we're looking for a good track

or a good imprint
on this heavily used game trail.

Now, we say,
"heavily used game trail,"

but we don't know
who's been using it

other than some large creatures.

♪♪

NARRATOR: The team have
infrared trail cameras

that are triggered by movement.

Good?
Mm-hmm.

By setting them up along
the trail, they hope to capture

the first clear photograph
of the Hairy Man.

Again, you've got that angle
of elevation down,

and it gives us
a nice, clear view.

Any photo would be
a world first,

but Stephen is still set
on a face-to-face encounter.

♪♪

Eventually, they come across
an abandoned hunter's cabin.

♪♪

DAVIES: Through here.

Watch the floor,
it's very unstable.

Yeah.

♪♪

MAJOR: Yeah, this thing is
gonna come down pretty soon.

It is.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
The team decide to lie in wait,

looking and listening.

♪♪

ALLEY: The Hairy Men are said
to communicate by whistling.

This is quite extraordinary
because it's also noted

all across North America
for Sasquatch and Bigfoot.

They are also said to grunt

and to whoop to communicate
over long distances.

NARRATOR:
Eventually, through the drizzle,

Stephen thinks
he hears something.

MAJOR: We've been here
for a little over an hour,

and, uh, we've got something

that's behind us out here.

We've heard a few grunts
and some whistles,

and just a little bit ago here,

I had some movements right in
the trees just right behind us.

So I think we've definitely
generated some interest

in something
that's out there

that's come down
to take a look at us.

So we're just feeling
a bit cautious.

We don't know what it is.

We'd like to find out,
but right now,

we could be in a really
dangerous situation.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
Are these three hunters

about to find
what they're after?

[Bleep] Right --

Dude, it just peeked
out of the tree right there.

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: Over recent decades,

thousands of people have gone
missing in the Alaska Triangle,

lost without a trace,
but there's plenty of evidence

that the disappearances
started long ago.

In the days
of the early pioneers,

even armed hunters went missing
or were found murdered.

And it's the area around Port
Chatham on the southern coast

that saw the greatest number
of mysterious killings.

Dr. Robert Alley has been
researching

some of the more gruesome
events that took place here.

There were a few incidents
I found that stood out.

One was in the 1940s,

a man who had been killed
in a most mysterious way.

He had been struck, and it looks
like struck from behind

by a very heavy object.

[ Creature growling ]

Aah!

♪♪

There was evidence that there
were things being shifted

that normal humans
couldn't move.

People were terrified.

Very, very upsetting murders,
if you will,

and cases of missing people
in the Portlock area,

which caused the population
of Portlock

to essentially
leave the town.

DAVIES:
You show me the way, yeah?

Could you just point it
out to me?

NARRATOR: After a tense wait
in the abandoned cabin,

the three hunters decide
to go in search

of whatever it was they heard
moving around outside.

♪♪

And soon, they come across
some massive tracks.

Guys, we've got some
fresh tracks down here,

looks like a large animal.

But it's freshly compacted,

so something came through here
very recently, yeah?

The grass is compacted.

There's been no spring upwards.
They're new.

- Should we follow it?
- Absolutely.

Let's do it.

NARRATOR: Could these be
the tracks of a giant Hairy Man

making his was
deeper into the forest

away from the hunters?

Dr. Alley has been studying
Stephen's footprint photo

from his previous expedition
to the Kenai

and has little doubt
about this one.

ALLEY: I really like this track,
typical Sasquatch.

I like it because there's no
chance this could be a bear.

Bears always have their middle
toe the furthest forward,

and the thumb, as it were,
is relatively small.

The pinkie is large, but they're
always behind that middle toe.

And Sasquatches don't do that.

What they have is
a great big toe,

which can even
sometimes deviate.

This is a beautiful track.

I love this track.

Also, it seems to be
nicely wide at the heel.

And I like that, that wide heel.

In humans, you only get that
when you're a few months old.

It doesn't last for very long.

Also, no arch, you can see that
it comes right back straight,

which is
a Sasquatch characteristic

all over the place.

NARRATOR:
So in Dr. Alley's opinion,

this is the footprint
of something

like a Sasquatch or Bigfoot.

If not a Sasquatch,
then it must be a creature

that's closely related,
perhaps the Hairy Man.

But what the Hairy Man
investigators really want

is an encounter
with the beast himself.

And suddenly, they're aware
that something is out there.

Don't shoot it
unless it threatens us.

MAJOR: Let's check it out.

All right.
You go first.

♪♪

[Bleep] Right --

Dude, it just peeked out
of the tree right there.

I see it.
It's right at your 12.

♪♪

Damn!

♪♪

NARRATOR: Adam tries to draw
whatever it is to them

using his Hairy Man call.

[ Whooping ]

♪♪

[ Grunting ]

♪♪

MAJOR: Beans spotted some
movement in the trees,

and he called out and said,
"Hey, I've got something."

And I ran up the hill,
and I looked,

and what I caught a glimpse of

was something big,
tall, and hairy,

but it took off, boom,
as soon as it saw me.

And then I start
following up on it,

and before I knew it,
it was 100 yards from me,

and I just caught
a glimpse of it now

from where I saw it last before
it disappeared in the trees.

NARRATOR: In Native folklore,

the Hairy Man moves
at incredible speed.

[ Creature growls,
man screams ]

In fact, it's even said
that he can appear

and disappear at will.

Are they supernatural?
Yes and no.

They have abilities
that we find, as Westerners,

difficult to explain,
but when the Natives look at it,

it fits in
to their interpretation

of the natural world
pretty simply.

NARRATOR: In the Native culture,
there's no separation

between the spiritual
and the physical.

For them, the mysteries of
the Alaska Triangle

are just a part of life.

Perhaps the Hairy Man is moving
in and out of the spirit world.

♪♪

Back on the boat,
the team sit down

to review
the trail-camera footage.

♪♪

It isn't good news.

There could easily be something
there in the background,

but it's impossible to tell.

You always hope
to get something,

but you have to be
realistic.

Yeah.

There's a reason this creature
has been elusive for so long.

The Hairy Man is very good
at evading humans.

And it's a matter of look,
research and opportunity

whether we find
any evidence of him.

Yeah, I always hope
to get something.

It's always a little
disappointing when not,

but it's a long shot.Got to press on.

Got to press on.Yeah.

So far, not much luck.

But so often, it's when
you least expect it

that what you're looking for
suddenly shows itself.

♪♪

We did get thermal imaging
of a bipedal, large beast.

[ Creature growls,
man screaming ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR:
The expedition to find

the Hairy Man
of the Alaska Triangle

is coming to an end,
but the hunters do believe

that they have
the Hairy Man on camera.

Adam was on deck, and he thought
he heard something.

He pointed his camera
to the shore,

and he gave his best
Hairy Man call.

[ Davies whooping ]

♪♪

So I made a call out, and almost
directly after I made that call,

I saw a large creature,
what appeared to be bipedal,

rushing rapidly down
the hillside

through the woods towards us.

Now, a bear would not do that.

If anything, a bear would go
in the opposite direction,

but this was coming
right towards us,

and it was an adrenaline rush.

It was like, you know,
"Is this gonna be it?"

NARRATOR: Adam got out
his infrared camera,

and this is the footage.

It's thermal imaging,
and this white shape

is something
giving off a lot of heat.

It's moving as well and so has
to be an animal of some sort,

but it's difficult to tell what.

♪♪

We've sent this eerie video
footage to Dr. Alley

to see what he can make of it.

It shows a figure,

evidently...moving,

and it's not
a horizontal white figure

like you'd expect for a moose.

It's vertical, and it's chunky.

It's chunkier than I would
expect a bear to be.

I haven't seen a bear stay up
a tree

and move around
like that this long.

This suggests something like
Hairy Man.

It's big.
It's vertical.

In fact, the upper part
seems to be even bigger

and wider than the bottom.

And what animal is built
like that?

That is a perfect
Hairy Man profile --

big, wide shoulders,
narrow hips.

It's intriguing.

It's not definitive, but it's
very, very intriguing.

It's truly fascinating.
It's truly fascinating.

DAVIES:
There's all these legends,

but not we've got
something tangible,

something that I've experienced,

and that is exciting.

NARRATOR: Could this be
the first-ever video evidence

of the Port Chatham
Hairy Man?

For Stephen, the expedition
is a success.

The whole time on this trip
while out in the bush,

we felt like we were being
stalked and observed,

which kept us on edge.

You know, I'm convinced 100%
that the Hairy Man is here.

I think he was observing us
that night.

You got to be kidding.

Seriously,
we found a trackway,

and I think that the area
where he came down

was the closest point
on the land to the boat.

Whoa.

[ Creature growls,
man screams ]

NARRATOR: If the Hairy Man
is out there,

what other mysterious creatures

are lurking
in the Alaskan wilderness?

Some, like the Hairy Man,
could be unknown to science.

But there is evidence that there
may be other monstrous beasts

long thought extinct alive
and deadly

in the wilds of the Triangle.

[ Roaring ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR:
Over the last few decades,

thousands of people
have gone missing

within the Alaska Triangle.

Is the vast frozen ground
hiding some sinister truth?

♪♪

Alaska is massive.

You could spend an entire
lifetime exploring

and still not see everything.

It's the ideal spot for species
to go unnoticed

for hundreds of years,
to be literally under the radar,

sometimes even
frozen in the ice.

♪♪

NARRATOR: One story from 2015
has some people convinced

that ancient dangers
could still be here.

[ Wind whistling,
ground rumbling ]

Scientists at the Alaska
Earthquake Center

picked up readings from a remote
seismic-monitoring station

that they couldn't explain.

The readings were from the
Kultieth River Mountain Station,

and the data clearly showed
shaking on the ground

as if something massive
had been moving in the area.

♪♪

Andrew Gough is a journalist
and researcher

who's been looking
into this story.

The scientists were
totally mystified.

They were wondering what
the heck could've caused this,

and they realized,
"This can't be an earthquake.

We know what that looks like.
It has to be something else."

But then they discover that
the seismic-monitoring device

was smashed by whatever creature
this was on the surface,

and that not only perplexed
them, it horrified them.

There's one creature
that could have literally

caused the ground to shake,
and that's one

that's gonna seem
a little far-fetched at first,

and that's
the prehistoric mammoth.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
According to science,

mammoths died out
thousands of years ago.

But one man who knows more than
most about mammoths in Alaska

is Bruce Schindler.

I live in Skagway, Alaska,
and I chase mammoths.

NARRATOR: Bruce lives in
the southeast of the Triangle,

but he travels
all over Alaska

in search of one of the most
valuable commodities going --

mammoth tusks.

This thing
is not lightweight.

Let's get it
in the studio.

I buy mammoth tusks
from gold miners.

I take those mammoth tusks,

and I do what I can
to bring them back to life.

NARRATOR: Bruce uses
his expert craftsmanship

to carve the mammoth tusks
into ethical ivory

to combat the ban
on elephant ivory.

He's found that there are tusks
in the ground all over Alaska

because it was
the perfect place for mammoths.

SCHINDLER: The Alaskan landscape
was a fantastic habitat

because it wasn't glaciated.

It's kind of hard to live
on a glacier,

and most of
the Northern Hemisphere

was really heavily glaciated,
except for up north,

and the reason why is,
it didn't get much snow,

but it did get
a fair amount of moisture,

which therefore led
to a lot of grasslands

and food for the mammoth.

Science says that
the Pleistocene ended

10,000 years ago,

and that's when the last mammoth
would have died out,

but there are exceptions,

and on Wrangel Island,
north of Siberia,

mammoths lived
until 3,700 years ago.

And there may be some
other exceptions out there.

NARRATOR: If it's been proven
that mammoths survived

thousands of years past

their previously believed
extinction date,

perhaps they lasted even longer
in the wilderness of Alaska.

Dr. Lance Hightower,
an expert in cryptozoology,

has uncovered evidence that
mammoths might have survived

even into modern times.

So I'm reading an article here
dated in the early 1900s,

and this is about
a U.S. scientist

who had just returned
from the interior of Alaska.

He came across a trail of frozen
prints that couldn't have

been made by anything
except a giant beast.

He says they were too large
for modern-day elephants.

They seemed fresh with the
weight and depth of the print,

something that
he's never seen before.

NARRATOR: This scientist,
Dr. John Frizzell,

believed that he had found
a fresh track

of what could
have been a mammoth.

What we have is the same story

out of three different
newspapers.

NARRATOR:
These were well-respected

West Coast newspapers,

and Dr. Frizzell was accompanied
by three other men,

all of whom verified
his account.

HIGHTOWER:
Being a scientist, I mean,

they're very particular
about what they see.

They're good observers,
typically.

Could it have been
a woolly mammoth?

Possibly.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Qituvituaq Litchard,
also known as Q,

is a shaman
and Native Alaskan folklorist.

He believes modern science
may not have it right

when it comes to mammoths.

LITCHARD:
Native Americans in Alaska

definitely had interactions
with mammoths.

We have a lot of stories
of us hunting them.

We still talk about it.

Have they been extinct
for over 10,000 years,

or is it a lot more
recently than that?

NARRATOR:
In Native Alaskan communities,

storytelling is a crucial part
of passing down knowledge.

Why would we have such detailed
stories about hunting them

if it was 10,000,
5,000 years ago?

That'd be...

Like, they're
too detailed and descriptive.

I believe that we've been
hunting them

as recently as 200 years ago.

[ Trumpets ]

HIGHTOWER: I'm going through
some of these articles

dating back from 1889
to early 1900s.

Some early explorers coming in
to the territories of Alaska

and communicating with
some of the Alaskan natives.

These explorers are baffled
when some of the Alaskan natives

are drawing
in the sand creatures

that we would consider
would be the woolly mammoth.

♪♪

NARRATOR: But it appears
the newcomers

didn't just have to rely
on stories.

They were given what they
considered physical proof.

HIGHTOWER: One Alaskan native

said that they had
ivory to prove it.

And he said, basically,

"We had our hunting group
kill this monster.

There was more than one."

And the researcher says,
"Let me take a look."

And he looks on the ivory,

and there's fresh
stains of blood.

So these people are describing
what appears to be

a woolly mammoth
in our modern times.

I mean, these articles are only
from 100 years ago,

and they're from people
that are science-based.

You can't help but wonder,

are woolly mammoths
still living?

NARRATOR: Whether or not
mammoths are out there,

the vast wilderness of Alaska
still holds many surprises.

Scientists are still making
remarkable discoveries --

animals frozen in the ice,

living DNA.

Could the Alaska Triangle
be the real "Jurassic Park"?

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: Evidence has shown

that dangerous
prehistoric beasts

such as the woolly mammoth could
have roamed the Alaska Triangle

for much longer
than elsewhere in the world,

but it's possible
that the frozen ground

holds an even deadlier secret.

Beneath the surface
of the Alaska Triangle

lies a dormant threat
waiting to be awoken,

and the effects could be
deadly and widespread.

Up on the north coast of Alaska,
the ground is frozen solid,

but there are still
archaeological digs

going on here.

In 2017, a young archaeologist,
Zac Peterson,

was taking part in a dig
in the area of Utqiagvik,

formerly known as Barrow,

the northernmost city
in the United States.

♪♪

PETERSON: We were doing this
excavation in the tundra.

It was very remote,
very difficult to access.

NARRATOR: Here, the frozen
ground, or the permafrost,

can be as deep as 2,000 feet,

and some of it has been frozen
for tens of thousands of years.

PETERSON: One of the most
amazing things

about working in permafrost area

is that there is just
incredible preservation.

We would dig up tools
made of wood.

We would dig up animal skins.

We would dig up even chunks
of frozen meat,

like desiccated, mummified meat.

So a lot of the mammal remains
that we were digging through

that thawed out now
were around 800 years old.

♪♪

About two days before
the end of the dig,

I noticed this bruise,
or what I thought was a bruise,

showing up right below my knee.

This was my knee.

And the smaller circle,

that's about the size
of the infection

when I first noticed it.

And then the redness
around that,

that happened
in less than 24 hours.

NARRATOR: The redness then
started to spread rapidly.

PETERSON: I think the scary part
to me was the speed.

It's now twice the size.
It's red.

It's swollen.

It hurts to touch it.

So I show this
wildlife biologist,

and she immediately says,

"You need to go
to the hospital."

[ Helicopter blades whirring ]

NARRATOR:
Zac learned that he contracted

a rapidly spreading
skin infection.

The virus had been
lying dormant,

frozen in the permafrost
for hundreds of years

before thawing out
and infecting him.

So the idea that now I have
bacteria in my leg

from upwards of 800,

1,000 years old,
that's pretty scary.

NARRATOR: Luckily, Zac managed
to get medical attention,

and the infection was treated,

but now, cases like his
are only set to increase.

PETERSON: You hear a lot
about global warming

and the ice melting,
and it makes you wonder,

"What else could be frozen
in the permafrost?"

♪♪

NARRATOR: Over in Cardiff
in the United Kingdom,

one man has been
searching for an answer.

Dr. Rhys Jones is an eminent
biologist at the university.

With the melting
of the permafrost,

we're gonna see new species
that are coming to life,

things like bacteria and viruses

that have been locked away
in the ice for thousands,

maybe tens of thousands
of years.

NARRATOR:
And it's not just tiny bacteria

that can be preserved
alive in ice.

There is actually
scientific basis for animals

coming almost back
from the dead,

if you will, frozen completely,
and then thawing out

and being ready
to breed again in the spring.

NARRATOR: The Alaskan wood frog
freezes solid in the winter.

Its heart stops beating.

Its blood stops flowing.

They can stay in this state
for seven months.

JONES: Then they thaw out,

and they're ready to breed
again in the spring.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Science has yet to
determine if bigger animals

than the wood frog could freeze

and then be brought back
to life in this way.

And what about something
as big as a mammoth?

Could mammoths have been frozen
in the permafrost and preserved

but then thawed and freed?

Reanimated
prehistoric animals --

It simply has
to be investigated.

NARRATOR: And then some think
it's possible

that the mammoths
just never went away.

Mammoths could very well
live in pockets of Alaska

that have never really
been explored.

NARRATOR:
And if they're out there,

they'd certainly be
formidable creatures.

The ivory in the ground
is valuable,

but on a living mammoth,
it's deadly.

They can be really big.

A big tusk would be 200,
240 pounds,

the biggest tusks,
over 300 pounds per tusk.

So that's 600 pounds a mammoth
would have to wield on its face.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Only time will tell

what prehistoric dangers
are hiding

in Alaska's frozen wilderness.

This vast land doesn't give up
its secrets easily.