The year was 1924 and fur trapper Jess Sethington had decided to make his way up to the headwaters of the Unuk River without the companionship of another person. People venturing into the isolated backcountry of Alaska have an unwritten rule and that was to never go alone, but Jess didn’t heed that advice. He was very experienced after all, and his trip was not supposed to be long in duration. Jess didn’t return when scheduled and four of his woodsman friends began the tracking process. They located several of his campsites and then all signs of the trapper disappeared.

About nine years later, gold miners and brothers Jack and Bruce Johnstone, and their trusty dog Slasher, had decided to trek to the productive headwaters of The Unuk River. The labor of the day was exhausting yet rewarding as the remote area was largely untapped and begrudgingly yielding its gold in exchange for sweat and blood.

As the weary men finished up their dinner around the campfire, they heard a distant noise. A drawn out noise unlike anything the experienced outdoorsmen had ever heard. They knew the sounds of every animal in the wild and this noise was definitely strange to them. Slasher's ears perked up and he let out a low growl as he stared into the blackness beyond the light of the campfire. Their profiles glimmered in the fire glow as they listened and waited.

Suddenly the deep moan was closer and more definite. It haunted the darkness of the woods and made their hair stand on end. The waiting and listening only added to the tension. The men checked the actions on their firearms and added more firewood. The noise eventually waned and the miners retired to salvage what sleep they could for the night.

The next year, the brothers made the same treacherous journey and decided to explore an area called Sulfide Creek. In the canyon at the headwaters of the creek the men observed a giant brown bear on the far side. Upon seeing the men, the bear made a line straight toward them. Jack immediately emptied his rifle into the charging bruin, but the bear made it across the raging creek and lifted itself onto the bank, despite an obviously broken back. Jack then pulled his sidearm and completely emptied the click into the bear just before it slipped on the bank and tumbled into the raging current to be swept away. Upon returning downstream to their boat, the men found the oars splintered and their boat with a gaping hole in the hull. All of this damage was apparently done by a bear.

The Johnstone brothers returned the next year and pitched a temporary camp in a flat area and started setting up their sleeping arrangements. In the middle of the night Jack was awakened to see a gigantic dark shape silently approach him while in his sleeping bag. He slowly reached for his rifle but Slasher flashed to their defense. The dog and bear hastily chased each other into the bush surrounded by a cacophonous eruption of barking, growling and gravel and bushes snapping.

Later in the fall of the same year the men investigated the river shore near the camp and found it strewn with partially consumed salmon carcasses and bear skat and tracks. The previous night they were stirred from slumber by the now familiar and eerie groaning noises which faded as the animal departed the area. The brothers went to examine a discovered quartz deposit near their camp. As they returned to camp Slasher raced into the bushes immediately behind where they had just spent a considerable amount of time examining the quart deposit. They could not see the bear but heard the growling and saw the bushes thrashing as the bear and Slasher confronted each other. Immediately following the incident the familiar groaning sound started up once again as the bear was persuaded to leave. The brothers had to seriously consider the possibility that the bear had been silently lying in ambush for them to get within striking distance.

Keywords