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How many people have disappeared in America’s National Parks
NPS SAR Hot spots 2017
Revised April 2024
NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) has said that more than 600,000 persons go missing in the United States every year in all circumstances. Around 90 per cent of these missing people are recovered annually, both dead or alive.
However, tens of thousands remain missing for more than one year, according to NamUs.
Journalist Jon Billman's research in his book “The Cold Vanish” estimates that an estimated 1,600 people are currently missing in the United States. However, he states that this number is a “rounded guesstimation,” and he believes it is “wildly conservative.” David Paulides, the author of the Missing 411 books, estimates North America has at least 1,600 unexplained disappearances.
The US National Park Service (NPS) has 424 national park sites and 63 national parks, but somewhat controversially, it does not directly collect data on the number of visitors to its parks. The same applies to the Department of the Interior, which oversees the NPS and the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service.
The Department of Interior data sent to the New York Post
However, a redacted report published in the New York Post in June 2023 from Department of Interior records gave some clues about numbers. The data provided was inconsistent in the level of detail included and incomplete as part of privacy regulations that prevented the agency from releasing more than the 60 pages provided.
Despite outlining roughly 1,100 missing persons reports dating back to 2018, the records are likely only a glimpse at the recent history within the American National Parks network.
The report stated that in 2022, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park had 12.9 million visitors, and between January 2018 and February 2023, 34 missing persons and three deaths were reported.
Grand Canyon National Park responders prepare to carry out a rescue on the North Rim, August 26, 2022.
The Grand Canyon National Park had 4.7 million visitors, with at least 56 people reported missing since the beginning of 2018, and at least six people have been found dead.
But these official Department of Interior figures have been questioned. A retired chief of emergency services at the Grand Canyon told the Post that people die from heat stroke, lightning, drowning on the river, suicides, accidental falls, and air crashes. He estimated that during his time at the park, about 12 people died in the canyon every single year.
According to the reporting, there have been at least six people found dead and 56 missing persons at Grand Canyon National Park from 2018 through February 2023. in that time as well. Most of those people were found.
The NPS SAR (Search and Rescue) Dashboard
The NPS SAR (Search and Rescue) Dashboard from 2017 reports the number of incidents where SAR operations occurred and where no one was located in a particular incident.
According to the data, 3,453 search and rescue missions were reported, and 182 deaths were recorded in American National Parks. See the 2017 Annual SAR Dashboard
If search and rescue parties cannot locate the missing person, no records are required to be kept by the NPS about the missing person's case or the circumstances surrounding the event. When the missing remains are found, no records are required to be maintained.
National databases NLETS and NCIC
However, several federal systems capture information relating to law enforcement-related incidents, including disappearances. Whether these are captured depends on the degree of involvement of the County Sheriff and whether they are logged. However, these tools are only for viewing by law enforcement, not for the general public.
A system called NLETS (National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System) does exist in the United States. It is a secure information-sharing system that local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies use to communicate and share data. NLETS links every law enforcement, justice and public safety agency for sharing and exchanging criminal justice information. The network includes an interface to the SD LETS network, allowing criminal justice and public safety entities to cooperate with other states and federal government agencies.
The FBI also has the NCIC (National Crime Information Center), the lifeline of law enforcement. It’s an electronic clearinghouse of crime data available to virtually every criminal justice agency nationwide.NCIC was launched in 1967 with five files and 356,784 records. Today, it has over 17 million active records and averages millions of transactions daily. NCIC helps criminal justice professionals apprehend fugitives, locate missing people, recover stolen property and identify terrorists.
Heidi Streetman petition to “Make the Department of the Interior accountable for persons missing in our National Parks & Forests”
Heidi Streetman
A petition by Heidi Steetman to “Make the Department of the Interior accountable for persons missing in our National Parks & Forests” was started in 2022 and has reached 12,635 supporters out of a goal of 13,000 as of April 2024 (Link to Petition).
Streetman is an educator with stints at the Community College of Denver and Regis University and is currently at the Colorado School of Mines . She has been pushing for improvements in the procedures surrounding disappearances on public land for years
She is demanding that a national, publicly accessible registry/database be created in which all missing persons are accounted for in U.S. national parks and forests and on BLM lands. The purpose of this would be to make the government accountable for keeping track and reporting of the missing, to inform the public of the facts surrounding missing persons cases on public lands, and to keep account of all missing individuals and the circumstances under which they went missing on public lands.
In September 2022, Representative Joe Neguse, the Democrat who represents Colorado's 2nd Congressional District, with Republican Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, co-sponsored the Tracking and Reporting Absent Community-members Everywhere (TRACE) Act, which is intended to "improve information sharing efforts for missing persons on federal lands by making a series of improvements to the existing National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database, including requiring the Department of Justice...to include additional categories to record cases in which the person went missing on federal lands, such as descriptions of search efforts, cause of death (if remains are found), ongoing search efforts, descriptions of any belongings found and location details."
The Act was introduced into Congress on June 6, 2023, but has not yet passed into law as of April 2024.
Q. Which U.S. National Park has the most significant number of SAR incidents?
The statistics indicate that Lake Mead, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Rocky Mountain are the parks where people are most likely to run into trouble. Still, of course, these are the parks with the most significant number of visitors or with more dangerous terrain or water.
Number of SAR incidents by U.S. National Park:
Lake Mead National Recreation Area (Nevada ) - 563
Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona) - 290
Yosemite National Park (California) - 233
Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado) - 165
Sequoia and Kings Canyon (California) - 138
Zion National Park (Utah) - 114
Great Smoky Mountains National Park ( Tennessee–North Carolina) - 100
Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah) - 86
Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming) - 59
Glacier National Park (Montana) - 58
Mount Rainier National Park (Washington) - 54
Cape Cod National Seashore (Massachusetts)- 53
Yellowstone National Park ( Wyoming, Montana and Idaho) - 53
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (California) - 51
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (Utah and Arizona) - 50
Carlsbad Caverns National Park (New Mexico) - 47
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Sources
https://nypost.com/2023/06/11/grand-canyon-national-park-ranked-the-deadliest-since-2018/
https://www.foxweather.com/lifestyle/grand-canyon-is-deadliest-national-park
https://nps.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/b526c87ae21f4a669eb6c9238c2c4bcf
https://www.westword.com/news/missing-persons-on-public-land-in-colorado-and-beyond-update-15009322?fbclid=IwAR1hKG8X3bk0fkl0VBKD1TWWsmP3asYk1Kvi41oR4Q_Mmd6m5QZXYlAaEnE