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October 2008. Preston Morrow and his dog are hiking near Mammoth Lakes, California. Looking up the beautiful mountain trail, they spot something odd. A wad of $100 bills. Preston counts $1,000 next to it, ID cards, all belonging to Steve Fossett. Preston tries to return his find. Maybe the Steve Fossett guy is nearby. On second thought, the name actually sounds familiar. But Preston doesn't find any local hikers with that name, he tells the authorities. They say Steve Fossett vanished a year ago without a trace. Until now. Fawcett's disappearance made headlines. He set off for a leisurely solo flight in Nevada and never returned. The largest search mission in United States history. Couldn't find him. But after Preston found the IDs, a new search recovered pieces of Fawcett's plane and even two bones. Why weren't they found before? It's not like authorities didn't scour this area. They flew over it 20 times. The answer may lie in the location. A metaphysical conundrum where 2,000 people, hikers and pilots vanished into thin air. Sometimes, like with Fawcett, evidence suddenly pops back into existence. The ones that remain missing, however, they may be trapped in Area 51, the land of the dead, or even in a time warp. All of which are said to be within the Nevada Triangle. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, a Spotify podcast. I'm Carter Roy. New episodes come out every Wednesday. We'd love to hear from you. So if you're listening on the Spotify app, swipe up and give us your thoughts. Or check us out on Instagram at at the Conspiracy Pod. Stay with us. September 3, 2007. Steve Fossett entered his sleek single engine plane, the Bellanca Super Decathlon. The aircraft equivalent to a millionaire's Bugatti billionaire. In Fossett's case, when the 63 year old wasn't making a fortune in finance, he ruled the skies. He was the first to complete a solo global flight around the world in a balloon. Then he was the first to do it in a plane without stopping to refuel. In February 2006, Guinness awarded him another record. The world's longest non stop flight. That one wasn't easy. He flew non stop for 76 hours, only sleeping for 10 minutes at a time. During the nearly 26400 mile flight, not only did his fuel tank leak, but his ventilation system broke. He unexpectedly had to burn through his water supply to cope with the resulting 130 degree cockpit. During landing, the plane's tires burst, hitting the Runway. But Steve still walked out of the aircraft safe and sound. Suffice it to say, once Steve was in the sky, he fought immeasurable odds to stay there. Despite his skill, he usually wore his Breitling emergency watch while flying. It's a consumer wristwatch that contains a small transmitter that can pinpoint your location in the case of, say, a plane crash. But on this fateful September day, he did not wear his watch. He likely didn't think he'd need the Breitling for this flight. It wasn't one of his death defying stunts. It was just a short jaunt. Setting out from a Nevada airstrip and circling the Sierra Nevada mountains. According to his wife, it was his equivalent of a Sunday drive. He was expected to return to the takeoff site by 11:00am however, by about noon, the airstrip crew began to worry. Fawcett took off six hours ago. And his plane only had a flight endurance of 5 hours. Where was he? The Civil Air Patrol was called in to do a search. They're a civilian offshoot of the military that handles aircraft emergencies. The airstrip crew likely only called them as a precaution. This was Steve Fossett, after all. He knew the limitations of his small flyer. He probably got carried away with his joyride, noticed the plane was nearing its limit and landed to refuel. The thing is, no one received any kind of message from Steve. Even though he didn't have his emergency watch, his plane should have sent a distress signal. So there was nothing saying he was in danger, but nothing saying he was safe. And the rescue mission didn't bring any answers. Soon, hundreds of volunteers and officials joined the cause. High and low across the Sierra Nevada mountains. An area double the size of New Jersey. A massive investigation. In fact, this routine flight did manage to break a record like his others. According to the San Diego Air and Space Museum, it resulted in the largest air and ground search in American history. And yet, Fawcett was nowhere to be found. He just vanished. The weirdest part is this wasn't unheard of. In fact, during the Fawcett search, rescue teams discovered eight planes that nobody knew even crashed. It doesn't stop there. Those eight planes, Fawcett, they're just a fraction of the disappearances around here. In an area that spans Vegas, reno and Fresno, 2000 planes and people have gone missing. Which is why this area has become known as the infamous Nevada Triangle. Now, you may be rolling your eyes. Oh, what's the Nevada Triangle? The TEMU version of the Bermuda Triangle. I know. I did too. But believe it or not, Bermuda's pythagorean terror has nothing on Nevada's the Bermuda Triangle, which, by the way, when I was a kid, I thought this was, like, the scariest place in the world if it was real or magical. And it's an area spanning Puerto Rico, Florida, and, of course, Bermuda. And it is probably the most infamous stretch of ocean. According to some counts, about 20 planes and 50 boats have disappeared in its vortex since the 1800s. Those 2000 Nevada Triangle disappearances, those all happened in the last 60 years, about three a month. And that's just what we're aware of. Remember those eight crashed planes that weren't reported until the search for Fawcett? There could be more out there. Speaking of those eight aircraft proved that Fawcett's rescue team conducted a thorough search. They sifted through the Sierra's rugged mountains, terrain, wildlife, and didn't find him. On October 2, about a month after he vanished, the search was called off. About six months later, Fawcett was declared dead by a Chicago court, a victim of the Nevada Triangle. But he wasn't lost forever. At least a small part of him wasn't. A year after Fawcett vanished, hiker Preston Morrow stumbled across Fawcett's ID and a wad of $100 bills in the Sierras. He's the hiker from the beginning of the episode. The hiker's discovery initiated another search. Soon, pieces of Fossett's plane and two large human bones were found. The bones were tested and matched Fossett's DNA. The rest of his body, though, was still lost. As for why he crashed, the National Transportation Safety Board inspected the wreckage and found no signs of mechanical issues. So the crash was likely due to the Sierra's notoriously high winds pulling Steve into a mountain. He would have died on impact. Mystery solved. But not quite. People question the discovery. Fossett's plane was found only 65 miles away from his takeoff site. Again, this is the man that flew more than 26,000 miles in a single flight through an electrical failure, through turbulence that almost broke his plane apart. The man knew how to get himself out of trouble. Plus, why were pieces of his clothes, cash and ID scattered? Shouldn't they have remained in the wreckage? Some say the rest of his body was dragged away by animals. I guess they also took the cash and IDs out of his wallet and sprinkled them around the mountain. The plane itself was found somewhat intact, but in no way whole, with no signs of a fire that would supposedly burn away the missing pieces. So what? The animals Also dismantled the plane. I feel like you would need opposable thumbs for that. The whole thing just didn't add up. But for the Nevada Triangle, Steve Fossett's tragedy is just the tip of the iceberg. Because like we said, he's one of 2000, to name a few. There's Lieutenant Leonard C. Leyden's military plane in 1941. Then a B24 bomber in 1943 called the Lucky Lee A, along with one of the rescue planes looking for it. Lt. David Steves in 1957. Charles Ogle in 1964. Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708 in 1969. Maj. Ross E. Mulhair in 1986. The list goes on. And some of these disappearances are even more unexplainable than Fawcett's. Let's revisit Hawthorne Nevada Airlines Flight 708. In February 1990, it was transporting 32 passengers from Nevada back to California. The round trip flight was specifically for high rollers, hence the plane's nickname, the Gamblers Special. Midway through the short flight, the plane's communications dropped. It had vanished. Rescue teams searched the Sierra Nevada mountains through hail and rain. According to some accounts, these weather conditions caused two rescue aircraft to crash. Five rescuers even died. Six months passed before the wreckage was finally found on the top of Mount Whitney, the highest point in the Sierras. Like with Fawcett, an investigation revealed no aircraft malfunctions. Let's go back even further to July 2, 1957. A man walked up to a campsite in California's Kings Canyon National Park. He was disheveled, a bit gaunt. He told campers his name was Lt. David Steves. The odd thing is, 23 year old Lt. David Steves was supposed to be dead 54 days earlier. His T33 training jet left Hamilton Air Force Base and disappeared. The military searched for him and his plane, but they came up empty. So they mailed his mother a death certificate. But now that he was suddenly back and alive, David recounted his story. During his last flight, part of his plane exploded out of nowhere. Luckily, he ejected himself before it fell out of the skies. Unluckily, when he landed, he sprained both his ankles. With no way to call for help, Steve's had to crawl throughout King's Canyon for 15 days. He found an abandoned cabin with some leftover food and hunting supplies. Thanks to those, he was able to survive until he was strong enough to leave and find those campers. A heroic tale that the US Air Force found fishy when David's plane never turned up. They accused him of selling it to enemy forces. Due to a lack of proof, he was never charged. However, he was forever deemed a traitor. He spent the rest of his life looking for the T33 wreckage to clear his name until he died in 1965 in a plane crash. Steves might still be considered a traitor if it weren't for some boy scouts. In 1977, they found his cockpit while hiking around Kings Canyon. Now, that's just the cockpit. As for the rest of the plane, we couldn't find any reports that it was ever found or identified. One more while we're at it. Even stranger than the last in 1941, Lieutenant Leonard C. Leiden was flying over the Nevada Triangle. A malfunction compelled him to parachute out of his aircraft. As he soared down to safety, he watched his plane go down into Kings Canyon National Park. He knew where it landed, but when he or officials went to that spot to retrieve the plane, it was gone, never to be seen again. So these aircraft either disappeared for years, like Steve Fossett's plane, or they vanished for good. Now, sure, maybe animals could have dragged Fawcett's remains around the Nevada Triangle. But they probably wouldn't do that with crashed planes. They can't exactly eat metal. So where do all of these disappeared planes go? Why do some suddenly appear even after thorough and professional searches deem them lost? Some believe it's because smaller aircraft can't handle the area's high winds. Extremely high winds up to 400 miles per hour. One professor at the Desert Research Institute has said trying to fly over the Nevada Triangle in a small plane is like trying to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. And once they crash, the mountains and wild vegetation essentially hide the planes from rescuers. However, that explanation is a bit too convenient. It doesn't explain why experienced daredevil pilots like Fossett and can't seem to escape. Plus, what about the military men? They were in advanced fighter jets, not small hobbyist aircraft. And then there's the Nevada Triangle's neighbor, throwing a wrinkle into any logical explanation. Area 51 the new year brings new.