Episode 79: Glacier National Park Cold Cases Transcript
Air Date: March 03, 2023
Case Summary:
With over 52 million acres, the US National Park system is home to some of the most breathtaking natural features on the planet. Tens of millions enjoy these parks every year. Join us this week for an installment of, “National Park Cold Cases” as we explore Glacier National Park. Cases covered in the episode: Joseph & William Whitehead, Frederick Lumley, & Patrick Whalen.
(This is an auto-generated transcript and may include errors)
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[Music]
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thank you
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[Music]
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thousands of people have mysteriously vanished in America's Wilderness join us
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as we dive into the deep end of the unexplainable and try to piece together what happened you are listening to
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locations unknown [Music]
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thank you [Music]
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thank you what's up everybody and welcome back to
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another episode of locations unknown I'm your co-host Joe erato and with me as always is a man so good that if the
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Avengers were real he would totally get recruited Mike Vander Bogart ah thank you Joe uh thank you to all of our loyal
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listeners for tuning in once again to locations unknown just a couple of quick updates here first new patreon shout
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outs a lot of them this week uh Jennifer Pizano Jacob Lopez Rashaan
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Duncan Joanna Arbok Joshua Fairchild Kelly Ballard Donna Steffy and Brent
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chulusky thank you all the new patrons you guys are awesome thank you for having easy
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last names too that's always appreciated but thank you so much uh we will be
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moving into new studio space here in a few months yep and your help will allow
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us to uh really start building it out from day one with new equipment and what's funny is I don't think we told
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General audience yet so you just broke the news oh did I break the news that's fine but we can do it oh yep we're we're
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like a couple episodes away from it being in there oh so we could cut this out no leave it it's funnier I totally
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forgot that yeah we only told Patron supporters yeah so uh this is actually great advertisement you're gonna hear
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new cool things first on patreon before they actually have unless I just like totally have a stroke yeah so so uh so
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uh yeah so we're got a studio space that we're gonna be moving into April 1st and um we're gonna do we gotta
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do something special yeah we'll probably do something especially for the patreon subscribers we can do a 24-hour live
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stream I always think because we said we were gonna do that I've been thinking about that we might have to yeah we
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might have to I totally didn't mean to do that no that's fine you know me I
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don't care yeah what a better uh not a better way to do it so I uh yeah just
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like nonchalantly said yeah about the studio yeah so yeah so we're moving in uh it's uh right downtown Milwaukee
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prime location oh yeah it's we we gotta we got a pretty good deal from a supporter of the show yeah uh it's
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be us doing a podcast where we are on the first floor of a main building downtown Milwaukee corner office with
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Windows as we're gonna be recording it's it's pretty awesome yeah we'll uh we'll have to do a big like like you said a
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live stream for two weeks we'll have to figure out a time we might not be able to do it for the first one because you have a new baby and all that your stuff
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we could like rotate in like guest hosts oh yeah well well we gotta plan it It's gotta be we're gonna have to have like
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people yeah it could just be like Andy could fill in for a few hours yeah we'll we'll just do randos like local friends
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of ours who like I you know are people in the community maybe I don't know 24
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hours is a long time yeah we'll have to bring TVs we don't have that much interest I mean it's gonna it's gonna be
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a couple hours of video game streaming podcast probably because yeah the things we like we could just like
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fall asleep like and it'll just be us sleeping some of those make money all
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right let's let's continue yeah continue so uh we also uh if you want to call the show leave us uh episodes suggestions
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24 to 24 Hour podcast suggestions yeah well and with uh being on the live
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everybody let's get up and gear out I said that backwards let's gear up and get out to explore locations unknown
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[Music]
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foreign
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with over 52 million Acres the U.S national Park system is home to some of
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the most breathtaking natural features on the planet tens of millions enjoy these Parks every
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year join us this week for an installment of National Park cold cases
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as we explore Glacier National Park
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[Music] thank you
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[Music]
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[Music]
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so this installment of the cold cases and national parks is near and dear to
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my heart um probably yours too Mike Glacier is one of my favorite Parks it's large uh that was the first time I think our
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first trip was the first time I did that many miles in the back country yeah no a glacier one foot yeah Glacier is one of
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my favorite Parks um we've never actually done an episode on Glacier so that's why I kind of
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picked it this week for the the cold cases oh yeah um but no this is great because we both
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have hiked the park Joe's hiked it multiple times um so we have first-hand experience of
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probably a lot of the places that these people have gone missing in yeah I was just flipping through some of the photos before the show I'll put them up on the
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screen later on Mike's talking but I actually have a picture of a missing person uh that uh I forgot that I took
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the flyer yeah not the actual person the flyer of the missing person because last time I went we got briefed as we always
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talk about that the trail we were on that it that gentleman had gone missing uh so I think it gave me obviously the
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idea of holy cow we never covered that show I think I've thought about it while I was out there and then yeah got back
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and then life hit me in the face multiple times and I I got a concussion from Life hitting me in the face and
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forgot about it so without further Ado we will go into Glacier National Park uh
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it is 1.013 million Acres it is the 12th largest park uh it is in Montana and was
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established in on May 11 1910. uh they see uh this is according to 2022
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numbers uh which might be still a little low uh 2.9 Million visitors a year puts
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it 31st for most visited uh and according to archaeological evidence Native Americans first arrived in
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Glacier area some 10 000 years ago the earliest occupants with lineage to
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current tribes were the Flathead or the Salish and the Kootenai uh the Shoshone and the
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Cheyenne the black feet lived on the Eastern slopes of what later became the park as
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well as the Great Plains immediately to the east the parks region provided the blackfeet shelter from the harsh Winter
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Winds of the Plains allowing them to supplement their traditional bison hunts with other game meat today the blackfeet
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Indian Reservation borders the park in the East while the Flathead Indian reservation is located west and south of
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the park so here's some interesting facts about Glacier the Park's nickname is the crown of the continent it also
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has it has also been called America's Switzerland thanks to the jagged mountain peaks that somewhat resemble
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the Alps it is a really beautiful aggressive mountain range yeah the park
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suffers from devastating wildfires fires burn through the park every summer and sometimes during other Seasons which
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each year now more than more than more severe than the last fires in recent
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years have destroyed homes historic cabins and the 100 year old Sperry Chalet which has fortunately since been
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reconstructed I don't remember uh when we were there at least when I was there fires like when I was in Yosemite you
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could tell the area we walked through had just been hit by a fire but yeah we hiked through that small section remember where like it was still pencil
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sticks yeah but a lot of a lot of the smaller growth was already coming back so it was still green yeah it wasn't
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like freshly charred uh the park had 80 glaciers when it opened that's
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significant because now just over a century later it only has 26. in addition to being a national park
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Glacier is also a UNESCO biosphere Reserve an international dark sky Park
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part of the Waterton Glacier International Peace Park the world's first part of the UNESCO world heritage
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site home to Six National historic landmarks it took 14 years to build going to the
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Sun Road uh the Park's iconic Road was under construction from 1919 all the way until 1933 and even then it wasn't fully
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paved until 1952. the park straddles the continental divide the Continental Divide runs from
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Alaska to Mexico and goes straight through Glacier National Park on its way going to the Sun Road crosses the
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Continental Divide at Logan pass where the elevation is 6646 feet
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so we'll talk about climate glacier's weather is highly variable and can be extreme in Winter most of the park is
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covered in several feet of snow and there are many cloudy snowy days that's where they close going to the Sun Road
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for a majority of the Year actually because it's not even worth snowplowing in Spring rainy days and cooler
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temperatures are common even through the months of June hot days and cool nights are normal throughout July and August
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hikers setting out on a warm summer day should expect changing conditions and bring rain gear and extra layers of
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clothing we know that from personal experience oh yeah it would go from Super sunny and hot to rainy then back
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and then rainy again a lot of your stuff got wet yep and it was worse too because like you the sun would come out you're
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like all right I'd hang all my stuff out the dry and then rain cloud would come and just re-soak it all and you're like God dang it yeah
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uh in Fall temperatures begin cooling down and snow may occur even at lower elevations as early as mid-september
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packing extra layers is the key to a comfortable visit regardless of the Season that is a hundred percent true
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lots of layers in the driest corners of the park along the northeast and Northwest Northwest
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edges rainfall averages 23 inches a year while the lowlands of the West Side receive about 30 inches of precipitation
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on average since moisture-laden air is forced up high up into high elevations
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at the Continental Divide and cools the annual precipitation average jumps to 100 inches or more in isolated Mountain
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Kirks I don't know how to say it Circus Circus to Soleil circs yep I'm going to yell that for that one snowfall settles
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to around 16 foot average snowpack that's crazy yeah that's uh I mean
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single story home that's taller than a single story home yes that's the average it's almost a two-story building yeah I
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think I've seen images on their Instagram of like they'll get snow drifts that are like 30 40 feet isn't that a glacier where they have the big
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like trucks with the huge like snow blowers on the front of them I think there and they do that in the Rockies too yeah
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I mean isn't Glacier technically part of Rocky the Rocky Mountains yeah yeah good point I meant Colorado Rockies yeah the
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Colorado Rock I just always refer to as the Rockies but yeah the East Side gets less overall precipitation and is prone
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to high winds downslope gusts are often 50 miles per hour more sometimes reaching a hundred miles an hour
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uh the winter Chinook or snow eater wins regularly create a temporary spring raising temperatures over 30 degrees
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Fahrenheit in just minutes if cold Arctic air pools deep enough on the east side to spill over the divide and
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collide with Pacific moisture raging blizzards can result one dumped 44 inches of snow in a single day that's
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insane holy cow that's so much snow uh do you remember that vid I think I post the video on our Facebook of the dude
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who was hanging onto the flagpole uh on a Mountaintop I think it was and he was like being blown vertically I
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think that was glacier no but I mean if you get 100 mile an hour winds yeah you'll be able to stand out there uh
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Glacier National Park is home to 26 glaciers 175 mountains 762 Lakes 200
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waterfalls 563 streams that's over 2865 miles of streams in the park alone
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that's a lot yes uh the whole park is dominated by the mountains if you've ever been there it's mostly mountains
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and you're basically finding paths through them um and it was largely carved out by the
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last ice age yeah so that's really cool these glaciers have largely disappeared over the last 12 000 years evidence of
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widespread glacial action is found throughout the park in the forms of u-shaped valleys uh I gotta look this
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word up because I can't pronounce it it's like Kirk's Kirks circs circs you want to keep reading while I pull up the
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uh translator flow Lakes like uh fingers from the base of the highest peaks oh
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the the FI what's the one that we went to where it's like five waterfalls that are glacial runoff that go into isn't
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like glacial Lake yeah uh there's a picture of us I'll pull up when you're talking because it's it's me you Ben
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Shay I think it was just me you Ben and Shay yeah were there and it was beautiful the water was pristine yeah so
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the highest point in the park is uh Mount Cleveland coming in at 10 479 feet
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and the lowest point is Flathead River AT 3150 feet there we go surfs it just
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circs you're right like Cirque du Soleil circs okay so my bad
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uh I'll jump back in types of animals there are black and grizzly bears we got
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to see a couple of the Grizzlies got to Camp with the the special forces of the Park Service yes uh officer Peach yeah
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officer officer Peach and he was like the hardened like the it was like little John like the perfect name for him
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because he was like the like Rusty like I've been up here for years his name's
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officer Pete I just remember him walking up to us with a 12 gauge shotgun what are you guys doing yeah what the hell
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you boys doing here I'm like I'm like we have permits yeah we should tell that story at the end we
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will we'll make you hang on you gotta listen to the whole end we'll tell you the story yeah uh there are bighorn sheep elk links mountain lions
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Wolverines and Eagles those are just some of the animals in the Park yeah there's a lot more yeah
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um water so you got to watch out for hypothermia and Giardia if you're looking out for stuff like that uh
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Giardia is when you don't treat your water and you have to go to the bathroom a lot I call it number three yeah
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um so the other thing you have to look out for is bears are Grizzlies in the park and because people do come through
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they have been known to attack that's the story we'll tell you later where we are approached because a bear was going into people's tents uh looking for food
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and going after people so you do want to avoid running on the trails because they can scare Bears especially if you're on
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switchbacks you turn a corner and scare a Grizzly you will not win no uh you want to carry bear spray and make lots
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of noise uh when you're especially when you're going around blind Corners you want to hey bear hey bear things like
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that Bells our group never had a problem being quiet so yeah uh you do want to secure your food and
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garbage if you can hang it that's great otherwise uh if you are at Back Country sites a lot of them have the food cages
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you can lock it up yeah you just don't want it on you because you do not want to wake up to a Grizzly sniffing in your tent no no sir uh with mountain lions uh
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it's the same kind of anywhere you don't want to be alone especially if you're tinier make noise because they don't
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typically want to mess with you and you do have kids keep them in between two larger adults yeah you look out for
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ticks uh and rodents can get into your stuff and make you sick so you want to look well in the uh the rodents in
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Glacier actually also have been known to carry hantavirus so um that's you can get that by inhaling
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like particle forms of rodent droppings and you're in so yeah if they're in your food they're going to be leaving urine
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and droppings and then you don't you don't want uh the Honda virus and you don't you know what
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oh God I told you I have six kids yeah dad jokes just come naturally to me
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uh terrain so many accidents occur when people fall after stepping off trails or roadsides or by venturing into very
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steep slopes you want to stay on the designated Trails this is true there are several trails around there that have
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very steep Cliff drop-offs they even have like hoses remember it's like old hose bolted to the wall to help you hang
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on well and you don't want to like we've said this before like you go off Trail you start you know wrecking the natural
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environment there yes a lot of times you'll sometimes in Parks you'll see areas that are like roped off and
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they'll be like regrowing the natural like habitat so just stay on the trail yep stay on the trail it makes it more
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beautiful for everyone doing it yeah uh snow and ice snow fields and Glaciers present serious hazards snow Bridges May
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conceal deep crevasses on glaciers or large Hidden cavities under snow fields and collapse under the weight of an
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unsuspecting hiker so you don't ever want to slide on the snow Banks people often lose control and slide into rocks
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or trees and exercise caution around any snow field that's really really a big issue for people who don't live in
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mountainous areas yeah you've no idea how steep something is until you get moving on it on ice and then you can't
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stop I worry too as you're sliding down like a snow field what if there's like a rock it's just like like just a half an
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inch of snow and you just hit that thing you discover it with your bum
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yeah that's not fun I think anyone everyone's seen those videos as skiers when they fall on mountains and they
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just spin uncontrollably yeah that can happen to you yeah and it's it doesn't require too much steepness if it's icy
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and snowy no ah so overall difficulty it can be difficult it can be easy yeah
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there's so much to offer at the park yeah when we hiked it I I think I mean we did some harder stuff but like around
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the visitor centers there's lots of easy hiking for maybe people that are elderly
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or people with really little kids or anybody with a disability if they're in a wheelchair they've got there's
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probably I think there's several trails that are paved that you can yeah that are handicap accessible so yeah that's
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what's nice about the bigger Parks is they they can truly cater to all yeah it's you know so that that's good so you
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want to jump into characters yeah so the story uh we've got three three different cases we're going to talk about and
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these two of these cases go back almost 100 years so information is a little sparse uh but our first case goes all
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the way back to August 25th of 1924. Joseph and William Whitehead who are
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brothers um Joseph was age 29 and William was 22
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and I actually have a poster from back in the day that has some more information on
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um you know like how tall they were so Joseph was five foot eleven 175 pounds
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he had gray eyes dark brown hair um this is kind of funny the language they
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used back then he had a ruddy complexion I have no clue what that means a runny r-u-d-d-y ruddy complexion yeah this is
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what the internet's for you keep talking I'm gonna find out what the heck means uh he wore glasses with dark rims his
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brother William Whitehead was age 22 he was 5 foot 11 and a half uh having a
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healthy red cover color huh so that's already compli I've never yeah never
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heard that before in my life but think of like an like a old Sea Dog like just
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a captain that like might be alcohol related yeah that's kind of what I immediately think because like when
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everyone has a paramedic when you walk up on an old dude whereas it kind of looks like Santa Claus yeah like ooh he
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likes whiskey yeah that was the immediate thought uh so his brother uh had brown eyes dark brown hair dark
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complexion also wore a dark Rim glasses
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um here's what they were wearing they were wearing uh gray knickers gray wool shirts this totally was 100 years ago
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they're Ruddy wearing their knickers yeah uh High tan laced hiking shoes soft
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felt hats They Carried light packs both wore sweaters one gray the other tan
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they were sons of Miss Dora B Whitehead of Chicago
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um this was interesting the family at the time offered a 1700
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reward for information on their disappearance which in today's 1700
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which in today's money is thirty thousand dollars so they did come from
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um you know I it sounds like a wealthy family so um and we'll get into more of their
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description later on that would kind of made me Chuck a little just because it's 100 years ago yeah
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um so they were both said to be brilliant young men um oh this is right here is one of one
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of the news articles from the time called them well groomed immaculately dressed city boys with a reserve
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demeanor there you go so um Joseph was a graduate of the Lewis
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Institute and a former lieutenant in the Army Ordinance division at the time of his disappearance he was
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an engineer for a universal battery in Chicago William was a student at MIT and was planning to graduate the following
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year so they were smart both for real smart guys yeah so I don't have an exact timeline of when
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they left yeah well groomed Immaculate you drive City boys with a reserve demeanor yeah stop supposing start
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figuring ah horseradish so uh the brothers were not quite pot you
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know we don't know the timeline specifically on when they left Chicago for home but the brothers left their
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mother's home in Chicago and traveled across the U.S heading towards Glacier National Park and I believe they didn't
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have a car so this would have been by train as they travel they wrote their mother daily about their trip in the
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week leading up to their disappearance the brothers had been hiking throughout the park going on Hikes to Iceberg Lake
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Grinnell Lake and cracker Lake we went to Grinnell Lake yeah we did go to Grinnell Lake
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um they had been traveling by they had been traveling in the park by car boat and horseback from Glacier Park Lodge to
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Granite Park Chalet they had planned to hike 20 miles from
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the Chalet to Lewis hotel which is now called Lake McDonald Lodge on August
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24th of 1924 and then they plan to board the Great Northern railroads Oriental
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limited back to Chicago so on August 20th of 1924 Joseph wrote home
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and this would turn out to be his last correspondence with his mom he wrote We are enjoying ourselves very much and
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taking no chances of injuring ourselves don't worry mother we want we won't get into any danger
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so now fast forward to August 24th of 1924 four days later in the early
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morning of uh Sunday August 24th the brothers walked away from Granite Park Chalet and hiked into the forest on
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their way to Lewis hotel at Lake McDonald they were spotted for the last time dressed in hiking knickers and
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smiling just 10 miles from their final destination so that would be the last time anyone
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would have seen them fast forward now to September 1st of 1924
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when neither of the boys got off the train in Chicago to greet their mom
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Miss White had called the MPS and asked them to search which uh MPS complied
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following uh the following weeks the park was searched extensively and was at the time said to have been the largest
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search in National Park history Lake McDonald was searched in all paths near the shoreline were checked it was
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stated at the time the park would have been packed with tourists and if they had been injured near one of the trails somebody would have heard it uh per The
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NPS there were no reports of distress several days after the search had
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started the park stated that they would utilize all available Rangers volunteers
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government workers in a systematic search of every possible location where they could be
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throughout the search so this is interesting um these guys were obviously from a you
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know they're well off um and they the media kind of picked up
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on this and said we're kind of pressuring the Park Service like you have to find these boys like it's unacceptable if you don't find
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them even people throughout the US government were contacting the park and saying you need to keep looking all
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the resources any resources you need like use them to find them sure so uh
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that was kind of the the general consensus and one of the Articles said that it was because they were highly
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educated and in good physical condition and should not have gone missing yeah well there you go that's that's why
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we need to find them so fast forward to uh September 16th and this is a
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statement from the interior secretary FM Goodwin um 13 Rangers two famous Indian guides
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and seven tried Mountaineers were out for more than two weeks secretary FM
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Goodwin reported on September 16th of that year there never has been a search
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in the National Park conducted with more Vigor and effort so
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um very interesting it gets much more interesting I can't believe uh this next part so after almost six
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weeks of searching the MBS MPS had found nothing Miss White had become so
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frustrated with the search that she contacted President Coolidge to ask for more assistance
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after contacting the president the FBI at the direction of J Edgar Hoover was
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assigned to the case and pursued pursued many leads which eventually led to lead
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nowhere and deemed not credible he's the country was so much smaller back then my kids went missing get the president yeah
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and it was stated uh Hoover personally oversaw the FBI search for the brothers in almost every month filed detailed
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progress reports with the director of the MPS or the Secretary of interior so can you imagine a Time
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where a family member goes missing and you're just like all right well call the president yeah I know right yeah get the
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president on the line and uh the FBI director just takes up personal interest in your case
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and oversees the investigation I mean that's that'd be unheard of yeah in today's I just found that really
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interesting um so fast forward now to March 14th of 1925 so what almost uh year and a half
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or half a year later the Whitehead family distributed 25 000 posters of the brothers explaining the circumstances
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and offering a reward of Seventeen hundred dollars which would be thirty thousand dollars in 2022. uh
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unfortunately the posters failed to generate any new leads on the case uh on August 19th of 1925 Miss Whitehead
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and her daughter traveled to Glacier National Park and were briefed by the park superintendent on the search efforts the Park Service explained that
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the black bears living in the area at the time were not dangerous and they did not believe animals were involved in their disappearance
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an article in the Chicago Daily Tribune from August 19th of 20 1925 stated
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Mountaineers whom with Miss Whitehead and her daughter talked were convinced that the two had met with violence
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um and a lot of people thought that they may have stumbled upon bootleggers uh
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though I don't understand what Bootleggers would be doing in the middle of Glacier I mean it's yeah where are they delivering yeah and I mean it's not
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like it's uh an easy location to get to and from yeah but you know that was the
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height of prohibition when did Prohibition run from I will look it up um I feel like 1925
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was probably like didn't Prohibition end in the 30s uh
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1920 to uh January 17th 1920 to December 5th 1933. so the 1925 it was kind of
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like the heat of prohibition at that point yeah um so I don't know maybe not out of the
30:44
are there small mountain towns or need booze maybe they're taking Trails maybe yeah maybe they didn't you know there
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was no aerial surveillance back then so if you're out in the middle of nowhere it'd be a great way to hide
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um so final comment on this Dora White had believed the conjecture writing the Secretary of interior I want my two sons
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Dead or Alive surely I'm not asking too much they belong to me I have a right to them my two sons were murdered or
31:09
kidnapped in a national park and I am pleading with the government of the United States to find them so the Mom
31:15
was convinced they were murdered in the park
31:20
and a lot of people at the time in the media thought that it could have been you know they stumbled upon organized
31:26
crime related to bootlegging um very interesting case I had never heard of this before yeah I mean it's
31:32
over 100 almost 100 years old so um it's
31:37
you know it's weird when you go to the National Park Service Cold Case page they have like there's like 20 or 25 29
31:46
people on there but you know this is a cold case I mean they weren't found you
31:51
know why don't they I don't know why they don't list these but um okay moving on to our next case two
31:58
out of three here uh this one takes us to August 13th of 1934 so still going back quite a ways
32:05
the gentleman's name was Frederick h loomley uh you went missing like I said August
32:12
13th of 1934 he was a male age 27. I don't uh unfortunately have any more
32:19
description about him I couldn't find any additional information he was an Ohio State University
32:25
assistant professor so um age 27 is already a professor you
32:30
know probably a pretty smart guy so yeah again we don't have detailed information
32:36
on exactly when he started hiking but um Frederick set off on a solo hike from
32:41
goat hunt hot hot hot hot hot
32:46
a goat haunt camp at the south end of upper Waterton Lake to the Waterton Town
32:53
site um on August 12th of 1934 a postcard of
32:59
Gunsite lake written the day before he had disappeared red dear K here is the drink that satisfies I have been having
33:07
early morning afternoon and evening cocktails of the one and only Aqua PIRA
33:12
ala money glacier but swimming is out two cold baths have suffice to prove
33:18
to me that uncleanliness is preferable to uncomfortableness anytime
33:23
so very uh proper uh postcard so
33:29
obviously he went on a solo hike and disappeared so after his disappearance
33:34
uh this comes from the National Park Service 28 experienced woodsmen searched the trails a boat patrolled the shores
33:41
of Waterton Lake and climbers checked nearby Mount Cleveland the search continued until winter set in then
33:47
resumed in the summer of 1935. Frederick Frederick's father off also offer a 500
33:54
reward but the Ohio State University Professor was never found
33:59
again on this case the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police helped the
34:05
investigation but neither were able to find any clues to solve The Disappearance so this gentleman again
34:11
uh went missing so um two cases pretty close to each other
34:17
our third case uh we're gonna jump forward to and I don't know is there anything you want to
34:23
share no I'm flipping through photos just like look at how clear the water is you remember that right yeah it's just
34:30
pristine yeah I think that's the biggest thing I took away from this park is this is pure pristine I mean you look at Google Earth look at it's it's Google
34:37
Earth image when you look at you're like look at how awesome those mountains look yeah it and it really is obviously
34:45
better than that but it's like this aggressive so can you find pictures of the lakes
34:51
that they were mentioned um so like upper Waterton Lake upper
34:57
Waterton um and what are some of the other Lakes I mentioned
35:03
um cracker Lake Grinnell Lake too since we were there yeah I pulled one of them up was
35:08
pictures from Grinnell Lake okay oh and then uh gunsight Lake
35:14
I've never I've never heard of any of these Lakes other than Grinnell yeah I think your nails isn't that near a
35:20
visitor center well yeah because it's the Grinnell Glacier and that's why we went like the Grinnell Glacier feeds into it and I think that's it if I'm
35:27
remembering appropriately let's see if I even have the picture from that one from our trip yeah it's
35:34
one of these because this is a picture if you zoom in that's you like that's how big this photo is yeah
35:41
it gives you an idea like look at that's you I think that's Ben and you just go out it's so vast it's
35:49
just huge because that's a glacier up in there that feeds one of the Lakes you can see the waterfall kind of there yeah like look at their Shea
35:56
way over there this is just this is an example too for those watching
36:01
um how steep it doesn't look that steep if that was ice and snow you could just slide and just not stop till you hit the
36:08
hidden rock with your bum or you get all the way to the bottom that's where like it's so beautiful but it can be
36:13
dangerous in the winter yeah for those listening we're just looking at like almost like a u and this trail goes
36:20
around this internal you and you can see like this is like all carved out from the big glaciers from the Ice Age yeah
36:25
it's really really cool yeah so all right so far uh theories on
36:32
the first two cases I've talked about any ideas or
36:39
um with it being so long ago I
36:44
I definitely feel like it's more not being prepared yeah
36:52
Maybe yeah I mean I think uh like or just lack of gear you're out in
36:59
the wilderness 100 years ago compared to out in the wilderness now yeah it's rugged when we went back country yeah so
37:05
I can't imagine what it was like when they were out there I think with the first case and we'll get into third case in a minute I think it I find it strange
37:13
that two people disappeared on the same hike that makes me think that
37:19
like some kind of criminal activity is more likely um or an accident with both of them if
37:25
one Falls the other one tries to help them I mean we've been doing a lot of cases have we ever done a case where other than that father and son that went
37:33
and that only happened because the father was missing and then the son went to look for him and got lost yeah we've
37:39
never had a case where two individuals have gone missing at the same time and
37:44
never were found yeah it's just it's unusual it usually what happens is people being a big group and one person
37:51
will Veer off and do their own thing and then goes missing yeah and then all of a sudden they never return yeah I mean I
37:57
perhaps they did uh come into contact with some bootleggers and
38:04
um we're both you know Grizzlies or Grizzlies and you don't have the tech technology and
38:10
well it irony is they said they got like local Indian guides to go look for them I mean that was probably the best thing
38:16
you could have I'm sure those people had the whole park mapped like the back of their hand yeah and they found no trace
38:22
of them now and obviously search techniques back you know 100
38:27
years ago probably don't compare to you know a sophisticated search in 2023 they
38:34
don't have any aerial surveillance um it didn't sound like in that first case that they used any kind of dogs
38:42
um you know it these people none of them are probably trained in like I don't
38:47
even probably back then they didn't even train in I think professional search and rescue technique I'm sure they got the
38:53
professional trackers out and that was like okay and then if anyone else volunteers is like all right here's where we think they were go yeah and so
39:00
I mean if they had gone missing in 2022 maybe they would have been found with today's
39:06
technology maybe not I think the second case a solo hiker
39:12
um you know that seems that's more in line with a lot of cases
39:17
we've covered and you know so long ago we don't have a lot of details of the case yeah but it you know in that letter
39:23
he's talking about swimming in cold glacial lakes I mean I tried yeah I've
39:30
tried it it's so cold it's brutal I mean maybe you know maybe he suffered a
39:36
medical emergency swimming in one of those lakes and drowned or just got hypothermia yeah on the way out or was
39:42
out too long I think uh I think my theory on the second one is something water related just be only because we
39:49
don't have a lot of information but he talks about swimming even though he says he doesn't want to do it anymore yeah it's not it means he
39:56
has done it and he's hiking alone we don't know what kind of gear he had with him
40:03
um my theory on the second one is probably something and there's so many lakes in Glacier what do we say 200 or
40:09
um I think it's a lot of them are unnamed even I don't think they're all named yeah they'll be like
40:16
the names that people come up with when they're obviously just give them names yeah exactly yeah I think I read that
40:21
there's a lot of lakes in Glacier that are officially unnamed uh 762 Lakes yeah
40:27
so and that's where um was I with you on the trip or were you talking to the Trail guide and they were
40:33
talking about their secret lakes that they go to it might have been I mean might have been Glacier yeah I know it was Glacier I just didn't know if it was
40:39
with you or the last group I went with but we were talking to some trail guides that basically said like the people that
40:45
work there no routes and things to lakes that are unnamed that no one knows how to get to oh absolutely because there's
40:51
so much space that's like their little where they get away yeah so perhaps he went off Trail went swimming in one of
40:58
these unnamed lakes and uh that was the end of it and so um yeah so so far case number one I
41:06
think it was Foul Play Just Because it's unusual they have two people go missing on the same Trail
41:11
um or maybe a grizzly attack yeah um case two I think it's something water
41:17
related uh I'm I'm with you on that one in that day and age um they're not gonna have the technology
41:23
to do a thorough search of the lake bottoms yeah and with 762 Lakes I mean
41:29
it'd be a crap shoot probably picking which ones so yeah and that was September so it's
41:36
starting to get cold yeah yeah so so our third case we're uh we're bringing it
41:41
back to uh more recent times so uh the gentleman of our third case his name was
41:47
Patrick Whalen uh he went missing on November 20th of year 2000.
41:53
uh he was a male age 33 he was six feet 155 pounds he had blonde strawberry hair
42:00
hazel eyes with wireframe glasses a little bit about his personality from
42:05
friends this guy sounded like a just a amazing like special human being
42:11
uh he loved to help people working with migrant Farm hands and Hiking to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis research
42:17
before leaving Ohio he volunteered for Habitat Humanity and the Cleveland Food Bank he once took a panhandler into a
42:24
sandwich shop and bought him a meal he also joined um University Hospitals
42:30
but a university hospital but quit in 1992 for what he called a hike for Life
42:35
along the Pacific Crest Trail with an old friend from Saint Anne
42:40
mounting snow and fatigue prompted the friends to cut short the 2600 mile Trek
42:47
so occupation Hobbies he graduated from Saint Anne's grade school
42:53
um and he got a Bachelor's degree in nursing he was a registered nurse starting to become a doctor in a
43:00
naturopathy did I say that right uh n-a-t-u-r naturopathy naturopathy
43:06
which stresses Natural Health Care um we're gonna throw in the old translate machine that we pay thousands
43:13
of dollars for one is oh I gotta turn the volume up on with
43:19
that naturopathy naturopathy naturopathy it's a naturopathy oops so that's close he
43:27
loved Patrick loved to hike he actually uh his friends said he earned the title
43:32
survivalist due to hiking thousands of miles along the Pacific Crest Trail and spending hundreds of hours in various
43:37
Natural Parks so uh guy I would say is experienced he had been to Glacier many
43:45
times and enough times that Rangers actually remembered uh various contacts
43:50
with them where they said he seemed normal no issues um so very interesting
43:57
individuals so in early November 2000 Patrick's father had contacted the U.S
44:03
Park Service explaining that his uh he hadn't heard from his son and was worried that something might be wrong
44:09
uh the park uh told him that they didn't have any recent encounters with him but
44:14
would keep his name on file so on 11 uh November 2nd of 2000
44:20
while driving uh his truck on U.S Highway 89 uh Patrick actually hit a deer Witnesses
44:27
in the area saw Patrick put a pillow under the deer's head place a blanket over it and then leave food near its
44:32
mouth it it did appear though that Patrick had abandoned his truck and left to backpack
44:39
into Glacier National Park which I find strange I don't know um why why he would do that and it was
44:47
unclear from reports if the truck was still operate in operating condition but
44:52
the truck was towed by orders of the local police and was impounded on November 3rd of 2000.
44:59
so uh for almost for half a year there was
45:05
no activity regarding uh Patrick and any NPS reports until uh May 10th of 2001
45:11
when his father once again contacted the park service because he hadn't heard anything so now it gets a little interesting on
45:19
May 27th of 2001 park ranger Michelle madland was on a routine hike with a
45:26
former Park employee in the Atlantic Creek Campground area when she came across something
45:32
strange according to her report she stated that she had found an abandoned she had found abandoned
45:39
backpacking equipment in a campsite she stated that she found a tent that was partially falling down but had obviously
45:45
been there throughout the winter it was a blue REI brand tent that had all the zippers closed and no tears in the
45:51
fabric and the tent was sealed Michelle looked inside the tent and found everything you'd expect in a tent for
45:59
someone who is sleeping except the person the ranger found a pair of boots wool hat mittens
46:05
um a pack under her shorts and other clothing toiletries a stove food water
46:11
filtration system and a commercial driver's license belonging to Patrick so they found Patrick's camp
46:19
um what was missing was an empty buck knife case so his buck knife was missing
46:25
which is interesting so Michelle and her co-worker took photos of the site and then hung the food from ropes so the
46:32
Bears couldn't get it she also stated in her report that it looked like the Bears or any other animals hadn't Disturbed
46:38
the site at that point she was deep enough in the park that she couldn't establish radio contact with HQ
46:45
so she so they hiked out of the area and contacted other Backcountry Rangers
46:51
on May 28th additional Rangers hiked out to the site and started and Inside Out
46:57
search that consisted of an extensive investigation of the site and a detailed search of the area
47:02
Rangers also learned that Patrick's truck which at this point had now been towed over six months ago was still in
47:10
the tow lot um his truck was searched but no additional Clues were found
47:17
on May 30th cadaver dogs were brought into the Atlantic Creek Campground
47:22
Campground area and we're searching for any indication that a body was in the area
47:28
uh sadly after several hours of searching the Dog Handlers were convinced that there was no
47:34
um no body in the area so park officials do not believe Patrick
47:39
wintered at the camp uh but instead point to evidence suggesting the site had been abandoned since last fall
47:47
Patrick was also not issued a Backcountry permit to camp in Glacier which is required by Park policy
47:54
Park and so this is interesting too Park and tribal investigators were told by
47:59
Patrick's friends and family that the missing man had exhibited symptoms of unusual and potentially obsessive
48:05
Behavior including paranoia which may have played a role in his disappearance
48:10
so um that's too bad that there's not a lot
48:16
of information on this case on the internet sadly and it's still an open case yeah one of the first images is
48:21
from our website is it really yeah that's what I looked a second image I'm like oh we already uh
48:28
have a yeah there you go perfect um so a very strange case
48:36
um you know if he was suffering from mental health issues that makes more sense that
48:42
would yeah I don't understand why if you hit a deer you would leave your car and just
48:47
you know go off into the woods yeah that sounds like something that someone would do that's not in the right State of Mind
48:53
unfortunately what's interesting though is what was left in his tent in my mind
48:58
so pretty much all of his gear except his knife were in his tent which makes
49:04
me wonder you know did he was he sleeping one night and got startled and like grabbed his knife and went
49:10
outside to see what was going on and then never came back to the tent
49:15
um or like went to like go cut some wood up or something like that something and but even his boots were left in the tent
49:21
so it makes me think like it was in a panic like something happened and he panicked and if maybe if he was
49:27
suffering from paranoia he for some reason you're by yourself out there yeah I get paranoid when I'm
49:33
out there and if he could have been out there for weeks months we don't know how long he was at the site they don't think
49:38
he was he wintered it over but they don't know yeah I mean his you know even though it's winter it's the Bears are
49:44
you know hibernating but it's pretty unusual if you had food just sitting on the ground that it would
49:50
survive undisturbed for an entire winter you'd think like rodents or something something would eat it come in there and
49:56
try to eat it that's so wild so you gotta think that he abandoned his campsite after I would
50:03
say when it makes sense if he abandoned after winter set in because if it's still fall and you know
50:10
the fall too if I remember incorrectly bears are you know scouring for food getting ready for the winter yeah they
50:16
wouldn't let a meal go away yeah if there's food just sitting in a town they're hibernating you still have your
50:21
you know squirrels and what's the the marmots even uh even the the deer in the
50:26
park remember we someone told us that you didn't want to leave your salty like sweaty boots outside yeah chew on it the
50:32
deer will come and chew on it or literally like pick your boots up and walk away with them yeah they love chewing the salt out of leather so sweat
50:39
yeah so you would think like you could even you know if his boots are sitting in his tent would you know interested
50:44
deer come by and yeah I don't know so this is a very strange case
50:49
um again the mental health aspect kind of throws me for a loop you know if he's suffering from paranoia I anything could
50:56
have happened um I I'm with you I think that has a uh
51:02
thing to do with it I do yeah so um so yeah three very interesting cases
51:09
I I heard of the Patrick Whalen case I was aware of that one I had never heard of the the two older ones those are new
51:16
to me when I was researching this um it's just interesting thinking you know
51:23
like we are in the park at some of those spots that the first two people 100 years ago went
51:29
missing yeah and it's like we were just hiking around and I always wonder about
51:35
people that go missing that no one is aware of yeah there has to be in especially in some of those areas like
51:41
so we just went no one knew they went first case 1924. yeah everyone maybe thinks like oh they must have left town
51:47
like yes no clue just grab a hundred people you pass on the trail in Glacier
51:53
and just say do you know who these two people are just say their names yeah and I bet notice I would have known yeah not
52:00
a single person would say oh these two people went missing 100 years ago yeah right here in this spot yeah like they
52:07
don't even know who did if they did like last year if the pictures aren't hung up yeah so it makes you wonder how many
52:12
like while you're hiking out there have gone missing in areas you're in well I definitely think about it way more often
52:18
yeah so let's do this show it's like all right what am I going to run into out here and how many people have dealt with it and did not make it out so to
52:25
summarize I would say case number one one I'm saying Foul Play case number two water related and case number three
52:34
I think it has to do something with his paranoia something spooked him in the middle of the night and he panicked and
52:39
ran out of his tent to go see what it was and then something happened maybe he
52:45
got lost yeah or turned around or fell it's late in the year for that area yeah
52:52
he he was known for hiking later in the park than most people would that came up
52:58
and the stuff I was reading just of the weather that we know about now yeah I
53:04
think it's either with you mental health or weather condition weather related and if he ran out without any of his gear
53:10
and it started raining or it was raining I mean yeah or blizzarding or snowing like any any of that like yeah that you
53:17
would not last long no so um yeah three I'm with you I don't have
53:22
any off the deep end no there's not enough information for me to like work up a
53:27
crazy Theory yeah I mean this the Patrick Whalen one you could say like
53:32
you could go off the deep end and say like it was Bigfoot or something maybe aliens for all of them there you go like
53:39
there's the defense like there's no deep end that's not anything that you wouldn't see yeah Prometheus Studios
53:45
yeah the ancient aliens uh creators yeah so uh when they don't understand
53:51
something they just explain it away with aliens aliens yes well we can't explain because it's just the aliens so uh well
53:57
hopefully you enjoyed another installment of uh National Park cold cases yes this is a way for us to get
54:04
talk about Parks we've never talked about and cases that are not at none of
54:09
these cases we could actually do a full episode on but a couple of them together we can then yeah bring light to them
54:15
yeah there's thousands of these we got to be able to get to all of them before we die yes in a park so thanks
54:22
again for tuning in to our show we appreciate all of you for listening and sharing locations and known with your friends and family be sure to like us
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54:54
when enjoying the beauty of nature whether backpacking camping or simply taking a walk always remember to leave
55:01
no Trace thanks and we will see you all next time
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