THERE ARE PLENTY of mysterious tales about Thomas Bay in Southeast Alaska, which prospectors named “Devil’s Country” in the early 1900s, but the most prevalent is the legend of the Kóoshdaa Káa. Tlingit stories say the Kóoshdaa Káa is a shapeshifting otter-like creature that lures people into the wilderness, sometimes tricking them to their deaths.
Many Tlingit, whose people have lived in Southeast Alaska since time immemorial, won’t go into Thomas Bay to this day. They believe it’s haunted. Growing up in Southeast Alaska, I’d heard stories of the Kóoshdaa Káa being a furry monster that could shapeshift into the form of a loved one, or play tricks like mimicking the sound of a crying baby to lure you into the woods or out to sea. Once captured, its victim would turn into a Kóoshdaa Káa as well. The Tlingit used to believe anyone who went missing at sea or in the forest likely became a Kóoshdaa Káa. There’s an unverifiable account of a landslide in Thomas Bay wiping out a Tlingit village and killing hundreds, whose bodies were never recovered—all turned into Kóoshdaa Káa.
Then about 10 years ago I decided to travel from my home in Juneau down to Thomas Bay to see what all the talk was about. The peaks in the area still bear names like Devils Thumb and Witches Tit, but I found that the wilderness and the sinister stories that went with it had been largely tamed. The place was crisscrossed with logging roads. Small cruise ships were anchored in the bay. When I got home, I penned a tongue-in-cheek account of the adventure and sent it to a handful