![]() The tragic errors continued, according to an interview with Puddicombe in the 1981 Times article. If the soldiers had treated the situation seriously from the beginning, they could have easily saved him. “Doc” Puddicombe, arrived on the scene, Cashin was hip-deep in mud with the rising tide nearly to him. They surely mocked him and promised to tell tales back on base - the mighty soldier defeated by a muddy beach. Their reactions are easy to imagine, especially for stationed soldiers unfamiliar with the local landscape. They stood on the bank and laughed at him. Cashin walked a little too close to the water and began to sink.Īccording to a 1981 Anchorage Times piece looking back at the incident, Cashin’s friends initially thought his predicament was hilarious. 17, 1961, the 33-year-old soldier walked onto the Palmer Slough flats south of Wasilla with three soldier buddies. According to the contemporary Anchorage Daily Times coverage, on Sept. The primary source for the legend of Anchorage’s deadly mud flats is Roger Cashin. In 2013, Army Captain Joseph Eros, an experienced outdoorsman and Harvard graduate according to the Anchorage Daily News, tried to walk between Kincaid Park and Fire Island with a friend. He badly misjudged the environment and his abilities the bore tide swept him into the Inlet (Anchorage Times, July 16, 1981). In 1978, an Air Force sergeant tried to walk across Turnagain Arm at low tide. ![]() Her attempted rescuers waited for the tide to recede to allow them to recover her body hours later. The 18-year-old Adeana tried to push their ATV out of the mud, became stuck herself, and eventually drowned in the rising tide. As reported in the Anchorage Daily News, July 16, 1988, newlyweds Adeana and Jay Dickison went gold dredging around Turnagain Arm’s eastern end, near Portage. In recent decades, actual deaths have been few, though they serve as gruesome warnings. The pressurized water broke down the sucking action of the Cook Inlet silt and the boy was freed in seconds. Most who sink in the glacial silt are successfully rescued, but the survival rate says more about the skill and zeal of the rescuers.Īnchorage firefighters inject water under the feet of a young boy trapped in heavy mud at Ship Creek Sunday, Auf.5, 2001. Some Alaskans have survived walks across Turnagain Arm, or from Anchorage to Fire Island and back. While the mud flats are extremely dangerous to traverse, stepping onto the mud is not an automatic death sentence. The grains are so angular that they’re just locked together.” Then, when it resettles after you’ve disturbed it, it tends to be more compacted around your foot. When you step on it, you cause it to become more mobile. When they’re deposited, they’re in contact with each other in a delicate balance. A geologist explained the science of the mud to the Anchorage Daily News in 1988: “The grains are highly angular. ![]() Though similar to quicksand, the local mud flats are unique. People have indeed died on the mud flats, but the reality is far more horrifying and haunting. The longer you live in Anchorage, the more versions you will hear. Sometimes the victim is a duck hunter who pleaded to be shot, preferring a quick death over drowning. Sometimes the victim is a member of a wedding photoshoot, an attempt for that perfect Alaska background turned tragic. Sometimes the victim is a tourist who strayed a little too far from the trails. From there, victims either drown in the rising tide or are ripped in half by a rope attached to a helicopter. All the stories begin with an unlucky soul wandering too close to the water and becoming trapped in the quicksand-like mud. The deadly mud flats that line Cook Inlet, Turnagain Arm and Knik Arm are the setting for some of the most enduring and gruesome Anchorage urban legends. Have a question about Anchorage history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story. Part of a continuing weekly series on local history by local historian David Reamer. The mud flats of Turnagain Arm with the Kenai Mountains along the Seward Highway on Thursday, June 9, 2011. Updated: 1 day ago Published: July 13, 2020
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