Emil Alexander Gardiner, 26, disappeared from the Dillingham, Alaska area on March 13, 1989 while on a snowmobile run from Dillingham to Clark’s Point. He was last seen in heavy cold-weather gear: a blue down-type jacket, full-length brown Carhartt coveralls, a brown beaver hat, white snow machine goggles, brown shoe packs, blue cotton gloves and black mittens.

A search located his snowmobile tracks and shoe prints on a sandbar in the Nushagak River below Lewis Point. The snowmobile tracks led into an area of open water; his shoe prints led away but ended abruptly at another patch of open water. The Alaska State Troopers in Anchorage are the investigating agency. The official record for the disappearance was created on March 17, 2020.

The circumstances remain unresolved and the case is still open. If anyone has information about Emil’s route, the river conditions that day, or remembers seeing him or his snowmobile, please come forward.