September 1981 – Brooks Range, Alaska
In a tragic twist that reads like a wilderness ghost story, Carl McCunn, a 35-year-old Texas-born wildlife photographer, died deep in the Alaskan wild after a simple miscommunication left him utterly alone. McCunn chartered a bush plane in March 1981 to drop him with supplies next to a remote lake in Alaska’s Brooks Range, intent on spending the summer photographing local wildlife and living off the land.
McCunn in what is believed to be one of his last photos (img wikipedia)
He arranged for a pilot to fly him in, but in a devastating oversight, never finalized return transportation. As autumn’s bite began and supplies dwindled, McCunn realized he had no way out. Tragically, when a rescue plane later flew overhead, McCunn reportedly waved with a “casual” hand signal, inadvertently signaling that he was okay—a gesture he later recorded in his diary as a devastating mistake.
By December, after nearly five months in the wilderness with food gone, McCunn wrote in his journal about his regret and his failing strength. Eventually, he died of starvation, his body and meticulously kept diary discovered months later by Alaska State Troopers—a haunting chronicle of hope, isolation, and human error.
One searcher commented on the case: “He was so close, yet so far. A simple wave took on a life-and-death meaning.”
Adding to the irony, just two years earlier, Christopher McCandless would famously perish under strikingly similar circumstances, cementing Alaska’s reputation as a land where a single misunderstanding can mean the difference between adventure and tragedy.
Sources: Wikipedia • The New York Times • UPI • Morbidology • Fact Republic • Bivo • Reddit /r/todayilearned • WikiTree • YouTube 1 • UPI (follow-up) • Prezi • Reddit /r/awfuleverything • YouTube 2 • California Digital Newspaper Collection