Young Writers Society

Hello! I'm writing a murder mystery romance set in Yellowstone and towards the beginning, someone goes missing. Does anyone know anything about the procedure (besides what is on the nps gov website) or what the rangers would do about it? I've got a loose idea, but if anyone knows anything more, that'd be great!

When I was in kindergarten, my dad got my friends and me lost in the Delaware Water Gap National Park.

Now, this was back before cell phones were common, back before even pagers were widespread, and it occurred in an area where natural mineral deposits interfered with all sorts of signals, so depending on when your story is set, details may vary.

But basically, as soon as my mom reported us missing, the park rangers she spoke to pay-phone-called the main office for backup, and they organized search parties based on the trail we were supposed to be on as well as for the trails that intersected with the one we were supposed to be on. The search parties were sent out to as many trail ends as possible, the goal being for the rangers to work their way to a meeting point somewhere in the center of all the trails, and they had my mom wait at the end of the trail we were supposed to come out of with one of the rangers, just in case we managed to find our own way out.

About an hour later, my dad lead my friends and me out of the woods because he'd finally found the correct trail after leading us in really large circles on intersecting trails for five hours.

We were a bunch of very tired and cranky kindergarteners who fell asleep in my mom's van as soon as we were buckled in.

Calling off the search was actually a lot more involved than organizing it because some of the rangers were in areas where their radios didn't work, and so the ranger who'd stayed behind with my mom had to head to the designated meeting point with the good news that the lost hikers had been found.

I expect with modern technology, though, organizing and conducting searches is a lot more streamlined and efficient.

Thank you so much! Going through the research page I realised I completely forgot to thank you, so here I am, thank you again! That certainly helps a lot It's nice to get different views and since I don't work in a National Park or know anyone who does, nor have I ever gotten lost, I really had no idea how to go about writing that.