Thomas Bay is a

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

located in

Southeast Alaska Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to southeast or southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian provi ...

, located to the northeast of Petersburg. Baird Glacier drains into the bay, which is also known as the "Bay of Death" due to a massive

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

in 1750, which claimed the lives of hundreds of locals at the time. In the early 1900s, the region also earned the nickname of "Devil's Country", after several

prospectors Prospecting is the first stage of the geological analysis (followed by exploration) of a territory. It is the search for minerals, fossils, precious metals, or mineral specimens. It is also known as fossicking. Traditionally prospecting rel ...

claimed to have encountered or witnessed "devil-creatures"—alleged to be a form of bipedal,

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

-like

humanoid A humanoid (; from English ''human'' and '' -oid'' "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of ...

, such as

sasquatch Bigfoot (), also commonly referred to as Sasquatch (), is a large, hairy Mythic humanoids, mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.Example definitions include: *"A large, hairy, manlike ...

(i.e. "Bigfoot"). Thomas Bay is named after

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

officer Charles M. Thomas.

Natural history

Thomas Bay is known for being rich in

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

. The wildlife of the area includes

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

s, black bears,

squirrel Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae (), a family that includes small or medium-sized rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrel ...

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...

s, and other common Alaskan creatures. The land in the area has been used for

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucksTlingit The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...

village in Thomas Bay was completely buried by a large

. Over 500

Alaska Native Alaska Natives (also known as Native Alaskans, Alaskan Indians, or Indigenous Alaskans) are the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples of Alaska that encompass a diverse arena of cultural and linguistic groups, including the I ...

people died in the disaster. After that day, the region was dubbed the "Bay of Death" (or ''Geey Nana'' in the

Tlingit language The Tlingit language ( ; ' ) is an Indigenous language of the northwestern coast of North America, which is spoken by the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada and is a branch of the Na-Dene language family. Extensive effor ...

Devil's Country

In 1900, the first documented account of the alleged "devil creatures" of Thomas Bay was written by Harry D. Colp, who had had been staying in Wrangell with three of his fellow prospectors, identified only as "Charlie", "John" and "Fred". At some point in the springtime of 1900, Charlie received a tip-off from a Thomas Bay native on how and where to find gold there:

"He told me to go up to Thomas Bay* and camp on Patterson River on the right side, travel upriver for about , and then turn to the high mountains, and after traveling about a mile and a half, I would find a lake shaped like a half-moon."

In late April or early May 1900, Charlie set-off with three months' worth of supplies, giving the other men instructions to send a search party for him if he did not return within that amount of time; Charlie had also stated that he would return sooner if the trip went well. When he returned in June 1900, he is said to have arrived with a large piece of

, much to the others' excitement, but without a coat or hat, and looking extremely disheveled. Additionally, his

canoe A canoe is a lightweight, narrow watercraft, water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using paddles. In British English, the term ' ...

completely empty, with none of his supplies or belongings having been brought back. Upon setting the quartz down in the men's shared cabin, Charlie is said to have requested a meal be made for him, so he may eat and retire to bed promptly. The men asked no further questions, and Charlie ate in silence before going to bed and falling into a deep sleep. The following day, Charlie is said to have gotten dressed and promptly left, and was gone to town for much of that day. When he finally returned, he stated to the others that a ship was departing the following morning, bound for

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, which he wanted to join as a passenger, as he desired to "never see Alaska" or hear the words "Thomas Bay" ever again. Charlie then recommended to the other men to never go prospecting in Thomas Bay themselves, as it would only cause unwanted "mental and physical pain", and that if they could collectively pitch-in enough money for his ticket to Seattle, he would recount exactly what had happened to him on his trip.

Moon Lake and the devil creatures

Charlie claimed to have arrived in Thomas Bay after three relatively uneventful days of camping, first in Ideal Bay and then Ruth Island. When he arrived in the Thomas Bay area, he could not find the half-moon-shaped lake according to the native’s instructions. Charlie said it began raining heavily for several days, causing him to remain stuck at his campsite, where he resorted to eating and sleeping much of the time. When the weather had cleared, later that week, Charlie decided to find some

grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order (biology), order Galliformes, in the family (biology), family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the Tribe (biology), tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetr ...

to hunt, and search for the lake in question in the process. He would end up hiking several miles from the campsite. Rather than a half-moon-shaped lake, he instead found and spent some time near an S-shaped lake (actually called Ess Lake). Charlie claimed that the surrounding area seemed oddly devoid of life; there were no squirrels, no birds, or any wild sounds. Wanting to get his bearings, and having found a large chunk of quartz (which he placed back in his canoe), he climbed to the top of a ridge. From that vantage point, he could spot

Frederick Sound Frederick Sound (also called Prince Frederick Sound or Prince Frederick's Sound) is a passage of water in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska that separates Kupreanof Island to the south from Admiralty Island in the north. Frederick S ...

, Cape of the Straight Light, the point of Vanderput Spit (Point Vanderput), and Sukhoi Island from the mouth of

Wrangell Narrows The Wrangell Narrows is a winding, channel between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the six Listed narrows in Southeast Alaska. There are about 60 lights and bu ...

. Behind the ridge, Charlie finally spotted the half-moon shaped lake, which is where the Patterson Glacier ends at a lake which drains into the Patterson River. It was from this point that Charlie claims that a group of "devil creatures" were making their way up the ridge from the half-moon shaped lake. Charlie claimed to have begun running back to his canoe immediately, and that he barely managed to beat the strange creatures. He also stated that he received several scratches on his back from as he managed to paddle away. He never returned to the area.

"Strangest Story Ever"

The people who have had encounters with these creatures seem to go into hysterics and are usually deemed "temporarily insane". The creatures have always been described as looking neither like man or ape, but covered with coarse hair and allegedly "oozing sores", with a foul or musky smell. They are about tall and have claw-like fingers. In 1925, a trapper reported losing a dog in the hills around Thomas Bay, but finding strange tracks, with the hind feet resembling a cross between a bear's and a human's footprints. The trapper returned later to find the traps he had hastily left; some were sprung, some were not. Some were destroyed. He set out to try to find his dog, and was never seen again. In 1974 Harry Colp's daughter Virginia was interviewed by writer Irving Warner in Petersburg, Alaska. She had helped her father in the production of the story, and was extremely familiar with it. She was sure of the basic veracity of her father's narrative, with regards to how he saw and lived it. She said that she could not, and would not, say whether her father′s story was true, false, or some sort of mental aberration. She did, however, express confidence in her father's abilities and truthfulness. Naturally, she had fielded many questions about it afterwards. She did say that large amounts of

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

were alleged to be present in the

watershed Watershed may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage) Music * Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...

at Thomas Bay, which may or may not serve to explain the strange events reported by visitors. (addition by I.W.)

References

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External links