The People of the Pit (1918) is a short story by American writer A. Merritt.

One night, when it is in sight, a beam of light shoots into the sky, and an injured man crawls into their camp.

He was also a prospector, and tells them a fantastic tale of his experience with the People of the Pit.

A travel book titled In the Alaskan wilderness had been published the previous year by George Byron Gordon, with maps and photographs of the region.

[1] The story has been cited as a possible inspiration of Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness.