November 1966. Two couples are chased through the West Virginia night by a humanoid creature doing 100 mph. Then over a hundred more witnesses come forward. Then the UFO sightings start. Then Men in Black show up to warn people into silence. And thirteen months later, a bridge collapses, 46 people die, and every single Mothman sighting stops. Cold. This week on Yeti to Rumble: the full deep-dive Mothman episode. The sightings, the researchers, the theories, and the question no one has answered: why did it all stop the day the bridge fell?

Sponsor: Top Squatch use code YETI15 for 15% off your order at topsquatch.com

Sources:

1. Keel, John A. The Mothman Prophecies. Saturday Review Press, 1975.

2. Wamsley, Jeff. Mothman: Facts Behind the Legend. Mothman Press, 2001.

3. Wamsley, Jeff. Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes. Mothman Press, 2005.

4. Barker, Gray. The Silver Bridge. Saucerian Press, 1970.

5. Barker, Gray. They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers. University Books, 1956. (Early Men in Black documentation.)

6. Strickler, Lon. Mothman Dynasty: Chicago's Winged Humanoids. Independently published, 2017.

7. National Transportation Safety Board. Highway Accident Report: Collapse of U.S. Highway Bridge, Point Pleasant, West Virginia, December 15, 1967 (NTSB-HAR-71-1). U.S. Department of Commerce, 1970.

8. American Society of Civil Engineers. Silver Bridge Collapse and Creation of National Bridge Inspection Standards. ASCE Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

9. The Mothman of Point Pleasant. Documentary. Director: Seth Breedlove. Small Town Monsters, 2017.

10. The Mothman Legacy. Documentary. Small Town Monsters, 2020.

11. The Mothman Prophecies. Film. Director: Mark Pellington. Starring Richard Gere and Laura Linney. Sony Pictures, 2002.

February 1959. Nine experienced Soviet hikers enter the Ural Mountains. Their tent is found slashed open from the inside. The bodies are scattered across the snow — some barefoot, some with injuries a forensic doctor compared to a car crash, with no car. Some clothing is radioactive. And multiple independent witnesses reported glowing orange orbs in the sky above the mountain that night — testimony the lead investigator later said he was ordered by the Communist Party to destroy.

Russia says it was an avalanche. We're not so sure.

This week: the Dyatlov Pass. The Menk. The orbs. The coverup. All of it.

Podcast Sponsor: Top Squatch use code YETI15 for 15% off your order

Sources:

• DyatlovPass.com (by Teodora Hadjiyska and Igor Pavlov) The most comprehensive independent archive: translated case files, diaries, photos, maps, autopsies, and timelines from the original Soviet investigation. It's the go-to for raw primary sources. Link: https://dyatlovpass.com/
• Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eichar (2013) A highly regarded nonfiction bestseller with access to journals, photos, interviews (including survivor Yuri Yudin), and the author's own trek to the site. Balanced and narrative-driven—great for storytelling. Widely available on Amazon/Barnes & Noble.
• "Has an Old Soviet Mystery at Last Been Solved?" by Douglas Preston (The New Yorker, May 2021) Excellent long-form article covering the history, theories, and the 2019-2020 Russian reopening/avalanche conclusion. Thoughtful and well-sourced. Link: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/17/has-an-old-soviet-mystery-at-last-been-solved
• 2020 Russian Prosecutor-General's Office Conclusion Official ruling after the 2019 reopening: death due to a slab avalanche forcing the hikers to flee, followed by hypothermia. Announced by Andrey Kuryakov (summarized in Wikipedia and many reports). Ties into the scientific modeling from Swiss researchers (Gaume & Puzrin, 2021 Nature study). For details: Wikipedia entry on Dyatlov Pass incident (well-footnoted) or cross-reference with dyatlovpass.com case files.
• BBC Interactive Feature: "The Mystery of Dyatlov Pass" Solid overview with diaries, letters, photos, and interviews—includes perspectives from Russian authors/books on the case. Good for visual/multimedia elements. Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/SoLiOdJyCK/mystery_of_dyatlov_pass

The Arctic was supposed to be warm. It wasn't. Twenty men paid for that mistake with their lives.

In 1879, the USS Jeannette sailed north chasing one of the most seductive myths in scientific history — the Open Polar Sea, a supposedly warm, navigable ocean surrounding the North Pole. The theory had been on maps since 1531. The world's most respected geographers swore by it. A media mogul funded an entire expedition to prove it.

The ice had other plans.

This week, Russell, Mitch, and guest Jake unpack how a centuries-old geographic fantasy sent 33 men into the Arctic — and brought only 13 of them home. Plus: the shipwreck debris that drifted to Greenland three years later and accidentally revolutionized our understanding of the Arctic Ocean forever.

Featuring: bad science that lasted 350 years, a newspaper publisher who treated exploration like content, and the eerie modern twist nobody saw coming.

Sponsor: Top Squatch use code YETI15 to get 15% off your order at Topqsquatch.com

Sources:

• Wikipedia: Open Polar Seahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Polar_Sea A solid starting point with historical context, key figures (e.g., Robert Thorne, August Petermann), and references to its influence on 19th-century exploration.
• Wikipedia: Jeannette Expeditionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_expedition Detailed account of the expedition, its connection to the Open Polar Sea theory, the ship's fate, scientific contributions, and aftermath (including the transpolar drift discovery).
• JSTOR Daily: "The Open Polar Sea: Myth and Science at the North Pole"https://daily.jstor.org/the-open-polar-sea-myth-and-science-at-the-north-pole Excellent overview of the theory's evolution, scientific rationales (e.g., geomagnetism, currents), and why it persisted despite evidence.
• WHOI Oceanus: "An open polar sea?"https://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/feature/an-open-polar-sea Explains various explanations for the theory (warm currents, salinity myths) and how the Jeannette's failure helped debunk it.
• History.com: "The Doomed Expedition to Sail Across the North Pole"https://www.history.com/articles/arctic-passage-expedition
• Hampton Sides – In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette (2014)
• U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command: USS Jeannette (1879–1881)https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/us-navy-ships/alphabetical-listing/j/uss-jeannette--1879-1881-0.html Official naval perspective with primary source references, photos, and reports from the era.