Dark Winter Nights

Two Alaska storytellers dealing with frustrating mysteries are featured on this episode of Dark Winter Nights, True Stories from Alaska. Richard Mustain tries to stop his freight truck for a man on the side of the road one dark, blustery night. And Polly Napik Andrews pines for stability as she goes from foster home to foster home with her sister, but eventually solves the mystery of how a family can be whole.

Rachel Osborn is ready to fight to protect her family, and Karl Monetti converses with a wolf in the wilderness, then, years later, dines with a river rat who’s been away from other humans too long.

Life-long adventurer Dick Griffith was on the Dark Winter Nights stage twice. His recent death made us want to share these awe-inspiring and sometimes funny moments he shared with host Rob Prince.

Jamy May Wagner discovers a giant woolly mammoth tusk sticking out of a river bank and Matthew Sturm’s climbing companion insists he’s going to summit the mountain or die…or both.

One man tries to feed 60 people with frozen turkeys for Thanksgiving and a woman discovers you shouldn’t just burn wood for fun in Alaska.

Dave Runfola and his family and friends suffer an unthinkable tragedy and learn how to grieve that loss in an Alaskan way.

Anne Lilley tries to sleep at night under an ant farm made of voles and Gwen Helms accidentally bearsprays her maid of honor.

Laura Reed gets rescued by the US Army and Melissa Shippey misses her exit while mushing in the backwoods of Alaska.

Dave Frey gets trapped in the wilderness with four boys from the Fairbanks Youth Facility medium security jail and David Bowen sees something in a reclusive student that no other teachers have seen.

Peggy Sullivan performs an exorcism so she can go to lunch and defense attorney Bill Satterberg ends up on the defense himself.

Ryan Peterson takes a DNA test to see if he’s predisposed to any health issues and ends up finding his birth family.

Burr Lemare, Patty Burchell, and Ken Hughes all share amazing stories from Nome, Alaska!

Jenny Brown gets a valuable lesson in wilderness survival and Dan Flodin learns where his tax dollars went.

Pat Levy tries to prevent the worst man-made disaster in Alaska and Chris Zwolinski almost starts one.

Art Warbelow thinks he’s got a ghost in his garage, but his sister Cyndie knows better.

Randi Carnahan discovers to her horror that she doesn’t know that much about beavers and Bruce Miller zips up more than he bargained for.

Kaiti Ott turns her car into a fishbowl and Ashley Carrick breaks the cardinal rule of Alaska: Don’t Drive Naked.

Correspondent Ryan Peterson explores the little free libraries of Fairbanks and interviews their creators.

David Rockney witnesses how a ladder truck can make a bad situation much worse and Jenn Jenkins’ friends think a ladder is going to literally eat her leg.

Harper O’Brien’s grandfather gets scared by a squirrel in bear’s clothing, host Rob Prince discovers squirrels have an appetite for mushrooms and breaking and entering, and Glenner Anderson finds out why the Finding Bigfoot Reality TV show never finds Bigfoot.

Putt Clark’s mom makes her family to the most disgusting archaeological dig in history and Ryan Peterson tells the story of the Mother’s Day gift that refuses to quit giving.

Richard Dickman and his brother teach themselves how to fly WHILE FLYING, and Ryan learns how background checks work in Alaska.

Jessica Thomas barely survives when her pickup truck goes through the ice, but it turns out to be just the start of her problems.

Atileo Frizzera accidentally becomes the poster boy for chainsaw chaps and Karl Monetti takes advantage of a plane crash to recruit a rugby player.

Lorien Nettleton gets auctioned off in the Talkeetna Bachelor Auction Matthew Sturm decides the best way to make it through a tricky kayaking situation is to get naked.

Ray Smith runs with a pack of wolves and Jan Hanscomb finds it hard to rid her house of an uninvited bear.

Sean McGee tells the story of a police bust gone awry thanks to ice and Dick Griffith literally freezes his butt off.

There’s a mysterious evil force that lives in Alaska and it’s called “The Blowhole.” Anyone who has ever seen it has learned why they always say, “Don’t stop in the blowhole.”

Josh Weiser tells the story of the most incredible experience he ever had as a tour bus driver in Denali National Park.

Dawn Erbeck shares a story about the hazards of bringing jewelry into the wilderness and host Rob Prince shares his personal experience with a life threatening case of lost and found.

Sarah Sullivan discovers as a little girl that her mother’s threat assessment radar isn’t as tuned in as she thought it was and Taryn Hughes delivers her own baby in her truck on the way to the hospital on a frigid Fairbanks night.

Champion dogmusher Brent Sass shares the hilarious story of his first attempt at caribou hunting and Bill Schnabel tells the story of how not to raise pigs for bacon.

Matt Irinaga is saved by a mysterious stranger emerging from the ice fog and Phoebe Rohrbacher meets the nicest man in Alaska in the un-nicest of ways.

Deb Horner picks up a furry hitchhiker who refuses to leave her truck, Kat Betters picks up a dead hitchhiker who miraculously comes back to life, and host Rob Prince tells the bizarre story of the time he picked up a hitchhiker in his 1982 DeLorean sports car.

Jabin Collins experiences a life-altering car accident that threatens his dream of playing high school football, but not all things that are “life-altering” alter life in a bad way.

A woman goes on a remote canoeing trip with a guy friend and gets stranded when they wrap their canoe around a huge rock.