The City That Forgot Time

In the 1970s, a group of urban planners tried to build a city in Alaska where humans and animals could “coexist.” It was an experiment called Project Arkton — blending wild nature with human technology.

But the animals didn’t behave as expected. Reintroduced species began mimicking human patterns: raccoons gathered trash in piles, foxes stole wallets, wolves howled at train horns. Within five years, the entire site was abandoned.

When explorers returned decades later, they found something unsettling: streetlights still flickering, vending machines still operating, and paw prints — human-sized — frozen in the snow.

Disney’s Zootopia began production shortly after the Arkton archives were declassified. The writers claimed “the city that never worked” inspired them. But they never explained why some of the original project photos show animals standing upright… wearing clothes that didn’t exist yet.