The Locations Unknown Podcast chronicles unsolved disappearances in North America’s wilderness. We use our decade of backcountry experience to bring a unique angle to the true crime genre, almost a mix of the shows Unsolved Mysteries & Survivorman.
About Locations Unknown
Thousands of people have gone missing in America’s Wilderness in unusual circumstances. Many of theses disappearances are unexplained and have never been resolved. Law enforcement officials have failed, or sometimes refused to offer any plausible reasons for the disappearances. The disappearances span almost 100 years and are widespread across the United States and Canada. Upon further investigation, the disappearances also appear to share similar circumstances that are not easily explained. Some of the strange circumstances include groupings of disappearances in several prominent national parks, frequent storms hampering search and rescue, specially trained canine units refusing or unable to locate scents, missing individuals turning up miles from where they went missing in locations already searched, and missing individuals being found in a semi-unconscious state without any memory after their disappearance.
Confounding the problem, the National Parks Service has refused to create or produce a national registry of missing persons in National Parks. When questioned on this lack of accountability, the NPS (National Park Service) has responded with the answer that SAR (Search & Rescue) & NPS officials work off institutional memory and do not coordinate with other parks on cases that may have similar facts. This is an alarming revelation in that unresolved cases may never get solved if officials working on the case leave their role or retire. Without this registry, the public may never truly understand the magnitude of this problem and could explain why the NPS has never addressed it. If the public were made aware of the alarming and unexplained disappearances it could negatively affect park attendance.
Glacier National Park
About the host (Mike)
As an avid backcountry hiker, I’ve traversed some of the most beautiful landscapes North America has to offer, including the Canadian Rockies, Glacier National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Mt Rainier, Zion National Park, Olympic National Park, and Volcano National Park to name a few.
I don’t seek to discourage anyone from taking in the beauty of North America’s wilderness, but seek to educate people on the dangers they may face so they may be better equipped to handle anything they might encounter.
Along my travels I’ve met some interesting characters, have had to deal with a few medical scares, had some close calls up on the cliffs, and even camped overnight with armed park rangers searching for an aggressive Grizzley. By no means do I have all the answers, but over the last 10 years I’ve learned a lot the hard way, by experiencing it.
Mt Kilimanjaro - Africa
About the host (Joe)
Joe has been hiking, camping, climbing, and or paddling in the outdoors ever since High School. He found his love for the outdoors on yearly trips with conservation club to the Northern Minnesota Boundary waters.
Since then he frequently goes on new trips every year with College friends and family. Joe is always seeking out more remote and beautiful places to reach and visit. Recently Joe began the journey to fulfill a bucket list of Climbing the seven summits. Joe and a small group of customers at his adventure travel company Summited Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
Like Mike, Joe is passionate about the outdoors and absolutely loves mind-bending mystery. Locations Unknown is a perfect show for the combination.