Suspended animation in fiction which is indistinguishable from death. In American fiction, the first story to deal with suspended animation is the tale of Rip Van Winkle, a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819 as well as the name of the story's fictional protagonist. In the story, a British subject in the American colonies wanders into the Catskill Mountains in the years before the American Revolutionary War, and finds a group of fairies, whose moonshine he drinks. He then falls asleep for 20 years, and returns to his village in what is now the United States, finding his home town
Archie Van Winkle and his remains were cremated and scattered at sea in the Tongass Narrows, on which Ketchikan sits. A memorial headstone was placed in Sitka National Cemetery in Alaska. On October 1, 1997, a granite monument in Juneau, Alaska was dedicated memorializing Archie Van Winkle, Alaska's only Medal of Honor recipient. Van Winkle is also honored at the University of Washington Medal of Honor veterans memorial. The events for which he received the Medal of Honor, and the story of his unit there is related in the book "Colder Than Hell: A Marine Rifle Company at Chosin Reservoir" by Joseph R.