<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Living in the northwoods as we do, it is hard to escape the inevitable misadventures that occur when someone goes missing.\u00a0 Whether the final outcome of these episodes is a joyous reunion or an ongoing mystery, the connecting thread between them all are those who drop everything at a moment’s notice to join the search and rescue effort.\u00a0 For his book <\/span>Last Entry Point – Stories of Danger and Death in the Boundary Waters <\/span><\/i>(Minnesota Historical Society Press – 2024), author Joe Friedrichs interviewed numerous people involved in search and rescue efforts in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) area of northern Minnesota.\u00a0 Rick Slatten from the St. Louis County Rescue Squad provided Friedrichs with excellent insider information about the S&R process.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Slatten pointed out there is more involved with a S&R effort than sending people out into the woods.\u00a0 Without a defined search structure, a haphazard approach has the potential to destroy clues needed to find the missing person(s).\u00a0 Another undesirable outcome could be more lost people to search for.\u00a0 According to Slatten, there is a purposeful pattern followed that some bystanders may mistake as \u2018wasting time\u2019.\u00a0 At the first indication of trouble (detecting the signal from an emergency beacon or receiving a first hand report), the S&R team will gather at a staging location to organize the operation.\u00a0 By comparing the data they already have from the initial report, the team will determine the next course of action.\u00a0 If a lost or injured person triggers a beacon and stays put, it simplifies the effort to find and help them a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If the location of the party in trouble is not so easily defined, Slatten said they need to establish the search area which he describes as, \u201cAn amoeba called the \u2018max containment zone\u2019.\u00a0 The MCZ can be – and often is – changed based on the discovery of new data.\u00a0 An initial phase in helping set up this zone is to determine where the missing person was last seen (which is known in the search and rescue industry as a PLS or \u2018point last seen\u2019).\u201d\u00a0 Friedrichs further explains that evidence (articles of clothing, camping gear) associated with the person allows the S&R team to establish the \u2018last known position\u2019 and this helps to further define and narrow down the search area:\u00a0 \u201cThey also use something known as a \u2018missing person behavioral profile\u2019 to find who they are looking for.\u00a0 These tables break down situations when people with similar traits were engaged in comparable activity, went missing or were in distress, and were then rescued.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Slatten expanded on exactly how calculated the search process is:\u00a0 \u201cPeople tend to think we just walk through the woods, hoping to find somebody, or that maybe we\u2019ll trip over a body and say, \u2018Hey!\u00a0 Over here!\u2019\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t work like that.\u00a0 The public perception of a search is largely getting a group of people shoulder to shoulder and moving through the woods.\u00a0 Searching is way more scientific than that.\u00a0 We employ human trackers, canines, drones, helicopter and fixed wing aircraft, sound searching, trail running, and a ton of investigation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In Minnesota, Slatton says the only source of funding they can consistently rely on (to keep the rescue squads in business) is public donations.\u00a0 Most of the S&R work is performed by trained volunteers who usually get involved at the request of agencies like the local Sheriff\u2019s office, the State Police, or the Department of Natural Resources.\u00a0 All these agencies are funded by federal money and local tax levies.\u00a0 Most of the S&R money in his area is solicited by \u2018blanket mailings\u2019 done to the 110,000 households in their large county.\u00a0 Slatten calls it a good deal because, \u201cIt costs more than $300,000 a year to run the St. Louis County Rescue Squad and in exchange for that, the public gets about $3 million in free labor.\u00a0 So we think we\u2019re a pretty good bargain.\u201d\u00a0 Those rescued would certainly agree on this point.\u00a0 The need for trained S&R units is amplified by the sheer size of the BWCAW, an area which, if picked up and moved to the east coast, would cover the state of New Jersey.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Joe Friedrichs is a journalist who has lived near the Boundary Waters since 2014.\u00a0 He is also an avid paddler and hiker who found the police dispatch reports that the media would receive about incidents in the BWCAW were \u2018bare bones – just the facts\u2019 affairs.\u00a0 The May 20, 2020 report about three men having their canoe capsize in Tuscarora Lake was no exception:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Two of the people swam to an island and one, a 29 year-old male, was reported missing.\u00a0 Identity is being withheld pending notification of family.\u00a0 No further information at this time<\/span><\/i>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Later, when he read Billy Cameron\u2019s death notice on the air at WTIP, the community radio station in Grand Marais, Minnesota, Friedrichs said, \u201cIt was Cameron\u2019s story that broke me.\u00a0 The story could have ended there.\u00a0 Instead, I found Cameron\u2019s profile on Facebook.\u00a0 His girlfriend, Natalay Yokhanis, posted something on his wall about the situation.\u00a0 I contacted Yokhanis and asked if she wanted to talk about Cameron and what had happened to him.\u00a0 She did.\u201d\u00a0 This story became the basis for <\/span>Last Entry Point, <\/span><\/i>a book about people who got lost in the BWCAW.\u00a0 Some were rescued, some died and were recovered, and some disappeared from the face of the Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One tale that resonated with me was that of Harold Hanson of Ramsey, MN.\u00a0 In October of 2021, the seventy-eight-year-old decided he wanted to hike to the top of the state\u2019s highest peak.\u00a0 He took his nineteen-year-old grandson along and by 2:30 pm on October 10th, they had reached the 2,301 foot summit of Eagle Mountain.\u00a0 Twenty minutes into their descent, Hanson\u2019s right leg went limp, he was cold and felt he had to lie down.\u00a0 A young couple they had talked to on the summit caught up to Harold and his grandson and saw he was in trouble.\u00a0 The young woman continued another half mile down the trail until she found cell service and she called 911.\u00a0 It was 3:00 pm when the call was received at the Cook County Law Enforcement Center and the emergency personnel were at the trailhead to Eagle Mountain by 3:35 pm.\u00a0 It took until 4:25 pm for the responders to reach him and the story ended up with a happy ending.\u00a0 It also included a small twist no one saw coming, but it serves as a cautionary tale about why people venturing into the BWCA Wilderness (or any wild area) need to plan for any contingency.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0About the same time the responders began readying Hanson for his evacuation by stretcher, a storm rolled through with heavy rain, high winds, and golf ball sized hail.\u00a0 By 5:41, they had to halt their downhill trek under a large spruce to avoid the hail.\u00a0 A tornado warning was issued at 5:44 and the EF2 level tornado (which can include winds up to 120 MPH) later touched down farther to the north near Adler Lake off the Gunflint Trail.\u00a0 It was the only October tornado in BWCA history and the first in the area in fifty years.\u00a0 Weather in the BWCAW is always the unknown wildcard commodity for those who venture there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Hanson\u2019s story reminded me of hiking in the Huron Mountains during the three summers I worked there.\u00a0 We often hiked up some of the peaks during our off hours from the kitchen, but on other occasions, I would strike off on my own.\u00a0 I was asked to deliver camping supplies to one of the lakes farthest from the main compound.\u00a0 Guides leading overnight hikes with the club member\u2019s kids could then travel lighter and simply load the supplies in the boats stashed on Mountain Lake and row off to the far campsites.\u00a0 This gave me access to a club truck and the keys for the gates that restricted motorized vehicles from the club\u2019s interior trails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The trails I would hike solo were well marked and doable in a couple of hours time so it never felt like I would end up turned around and have to spend the night in the woods.\u00a0 Just the same, it was eerie to be sitting on a peak taking in the scenery knowing there wasn\u2019t another human within miles of my location.\u00a0 The DNR wouldn\u2019t admit it back then, but there had been sightings of mountain lions in the Huron Mountains\u00a0 (something we were aware of but didn\u2019t dwell on when hiking there).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One rule held for all such excursions at the club.\u00a0 You always left the key in the club truck when exploring the backcountry \u2018just in case\u2019.\u00a0 My third summer there, I found out exactly why this rule was in place when I was on the way back from a Mountain Lake supply drop off.\u00a0 I drove down past Mountain River Falls and parked near Pine Lake.\u00a0 I had never hiked to the overlook above Pine Lake so having plenty of time on my hands, that is exactly what I did.\u00a0 I had just settled in to take a breather at the top of the overlook when I heard the truck (parked a quarter to half mile below my location) start up and drive off.\u00a0 I was a little alarmed because this more than likely meant someone was having trouble on the hike I had just supplied.\u00a0 It also left me with quite a hike back to the main compound.\u00a0 At least there was a slightly shorter trail across the north end of the lake (including some boardwalks built over the swampy areas) so I didn\u2019t have to take the longer route following the road.\u00a0 One of the guides had slipped and broken their arm ascending the trail to Mountain Lake.\u00a0 The other guide (who was sent to get help) said he was really happy to see the truck as he made his way on foot toward the main club compound.\u00a0 Had he been twenty minutes later, I would have been back in the driver\u2019s seat myself.\u00a0 There were no cell phones in the early 1970s so we never went hiking without letting someone know where we would be, just in case.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Joe Friedrich tracked down some of the hikers who had been successfully rescued from the BWCAW.\u00a0 One was Bob Klaver, a professor from Iowa State University.\u00a0 Klaver was solo hiking in an area crossed by the Border Route Trail.\u00a0 After his second day on the trail, he was making his way to Partridge Lake when his canister of bear spray caught on a tree branch and discharged.\u00a0 The spray covered his torso and got in his eyes which left him temporarily blind.\u00a0 As his vision cleared, he made the conscious decision to hunker down there and wait for rescue rather than chance getting turned around in the dense forest.\u00a0 When his university friends reported him missing, Search & Rescue went into action.\u00a0 In the end, Klaver was spotted by a passing float plane who saw him waving his red sleeping pad.\u00a0 When they reported his location, he was safely extricated.\u00a0 Slatten praised the professor for not losing his head and hunkering down as he did;\u00a0 it is always easier to find a stationary target after all.\u00a0 It is also much easier to become totally turned around in the bush in times of stress, so Klaver did well to stay put.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A couple familiar with Boundary Waters canoe excursions admitted they were their own worst enemy when they got turned around near Oyster Lake.\u00a0 They took the wrong tributary and when the going got close to impossible, they kept going. They reasoned, \u201cIt has to get better around the next bend.\u201d\u00a0 It didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Though Chuck Kelly and Pamela Scaia weren\u2019t declared missing until Scaia\u2019s daughter reported that her mother had not returned to her job, they ended up spending nearly two weeks camped on the edge of a swamp.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t panic and rationed their dwindling resources until S&R finally found them.\u00a0 Slatten called it a \u2018textbook example\u2019 of how a successful BWCA Search & Rescue is carried out.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Friedrichs also details cases that didn\u2019t end well.\u00a0 The brothers who camped out with their sons ended up as a double fatality event.\u00a0 They had pitched their tent over the roots of a large tree.\u00a0 When the tree was struck by lightning, the electrical discharge traveling under them killed the one brother and his son while seriously injuring the other father\/son duo.\u00a0 In another unsolved mystery, Lloyd Skelton left all of his gear in his van and set off on the Angleworm Trail.\u00a0 When he never came back out of the woods, the S&R teams eventually found his clothing (except for his shoes) near a campsite on Whiskey Jack Lake.\u00a0 He had stepped out of his pants (leaving his wallet and keys behind) and discarded various items of clothing and disappeared.\u00a0 Being unprepared for the harsh conditions, Skelton may have had his body temperature drop to the point where the blood being sent to his skin caused him to start feeling too warm.\u00a0 People who undergo what is known as \u2018paradoxical undressing\u2019 are usually not going to survive.\u00a0 In this case, one can only assume this is what happened to Lloyd.\u00a0 Was it intentional?\u00a0 We will never know.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jordan Grider\u2019s is another case that left clues but no answers.\u00a0 Grider had been living a camping existence in southern Kentucky.\u00a0 Why he decided to try the same trick in northern Minnesota in late October is anyone\u2019s guess.\u00a0 Searchers found his hammock strung between two poplar trees and a lot of blood stains.\u00a0 Did he injure himself with a tool or firearm?\u00a0 In any event, he was not equipped to spend the cold months in the BWCA and no matter what killed him, his body was no doubt consumed by wild animals and the forest.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We started this part of the discussion with Billy Cameron\u2019s death notice – the story that set in motion Fredriech\u2019s research that led to his book.\u00a0 Cameron and two friends were not novices and were prepared for the harsh conditions.\u00a0 When Cameron\u2019s fishing line got snagged, they donned their life jackets and took their canoe out onto Tuscarora Lake to try and untangle it.\u00a0 When their canoe capsized, they spent fifteen minutes trying to right it before they started swimming for shore.\u00a0 Two of them made it to land, Billy did not.\u00a0 His body was found in the cold lake water still wearing his lifejacket.\u00a0 Hypothermia had claimed him as it has countless others who have underestimated the effects of cold water on the human body.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My old buddy Jim and I capsized a small Sunfish sailboat off Middle Island Point near Marquette on a hot June day.\u00a0 He had given me instructions on how to right the boat if this happened.\u00a0 When we went into the drink we didn\u2019t panic and soon found ourselves upright again.\u00a0 Jim asked if I had thought about trying to swim the quarter of a mile back to shore and I said, \u201cNope – way too far and way too cold.\u201d\u00a0 We were in the water for no more than five minutes and looking back today, reading about the loss of life from hypothermia recounted in <\/span>Last Entry Point <\/span><\/i>makes me glad we got back on board and safely back to shore.\u00a0 Cold water can kill you.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Press accounts of these cases get around pretty fast now that social media has entered the picture.\u00a0 Some of the deaths are avoidable but others can only be chalked up to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.\u00a0 Minnesota Governor Tim Walz lost his brother to the BWCAW in 2016.\u00a0 The 43 year-old brother of then Senator Walz died on the shores of Duncan Lake when a powerful storm roared through the area and dropped a large tree on the tent in which he was sleeping.\u00a0 Search & Rescue teams are always happy to find the missing persons but in a case like Walz, the job becomes \u2018recovery\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The western Upper Peninsula has a fair amount of wilderness one can lose themselves in.\u00a0 We are also blessed with dedicated volunteers and professionals who answer the call when someone is injured or goes missing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay – J.Geils Band isn’t searching and rescuing, but the are\u00a0Looking for a Love<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Living in the northwoods as we do, it is hard to escape the inevitable misadventures that occur when someone goes missing.\u00a0 Whether the final outcome of these episodes is a joyous reunion or an ongoing mystery, the connecting thread between them all are those who drop everything at a moment’s notice to join the 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