14 Of The Most Mysterious Wilderness Disappearances Of All Time

Actor Julian Sands, 65 Jan. after traveling to California’s Mt. Baldy. The search for Sands continues, but many others have vanished in the wilderness. Here’s a list of some of the most famous disappearances of all time.

Bessie and Glen Hyde

Glen Hyde (27 year old) and Bessie (18 year old) were on honeymoon at the Grand Canyon when they vanished in the autumn of 1928. They had been sailing down the Colorado River and planned to travel through Grand Canyon. Glen was an experienced boater and Bessie did not have any. Bessie could have become the first woman to cross the Colorado River if they succeeded. If the two of them did the difficult task well, they could be awarded money and invited on a lecture tour.

After several months of travel, the couple’s boat was found full of supplies and unharmed, but with no sign of the Hydes. The couple was never found.

Dennis Martin

Dennis Martin, 6, was camping with his brother, father, and grandfather on Father’s Day weekend in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1969. His brother and children from another family were camping together on June 14th. They hid behind some bushes in order to scare off the adults. After Dennis and the other children left the campsite, Dennis’ father became suspicious and began looking for Dennis.

National Park Service rangers were brought in to help in the search. The National Guard and Green Berets also joined the search but the child was never found. One shoe and one sock, believed to belong Dennis, were the only trace ever found. Matching tracks led to a stream.

Douglas Legg

Douglas Legg, 8, was about to go on a hike with his family in the Adirondack Forest Preserve’s Santanoni Preserve on July 10, 1971. His uncle, however, noticed some poison ivy and told the young boy to wear long pants, so Legg ran the short distance back to the family’s cabin to change clothes.

Legg knew the area well, as the family owned the cabin. “mini-woodsman,” So it was unlikely that he just got lost. But after one of the Adirondacks’ largest search and rescue operations, which included more than 600 people looking for the young boy, no trace was ever found.

Paul Braxton Fugate

Paul Fugate’s disappearance is especially strange because he was a Park Ranger at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. After his shift was over, he took a walk and vanished in 1980.

Fugate was also the only permanent staff member of the park. Therefore, it is unlikely that he would leave the seasonal workers to close down the park. To make matters worse, Fugate was the person that would have organized the search and rescue, but without him, the local sheriff’s department and National Park Service (NPS) had to step in.

NPS claimed Fugate must had quit his job. It denied his wife the pension benefits they should have been able to receive. After a review, the benefits were reinstated five years later.

Stacy Arras

Stacy Arras (14 years old) and her father, along with a group of other people, were on a seven-day trip through Yosemite National Park. They were riding mules, and reached their final camp at Tuolumne Meadows’ High Sierra Loop Trail on July 17, 1981. Arras went to the mountains with her camera, but never returned.

Gerald Stuart (77) was also on tour. He walked for almost half an hour with Arras before returning to camp to rest. Others witnessed the two of them together, and saw Stacy continue her journey after Gerald settled on a boulder. The area was searched extensively but nothing was found. Stacy was a smoker but no one could find any cigarettes.

What makes Stacy’s case even more mysterious is the National Park Service’s refusal to turn over documents relating to her case.

Polly Melton

Thelma Pauline “Polly” Melton was 58 years old, overweight, a smoker, and took medication for high blood pressure, nausea, and hypertension. She still loved hiking, so she took to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s simple trail on September 25, 1981. She went with two other women, but she apparently walked ahead of them. They crossed a knoll and were never seen again.

Melton had nothing, not even her purse. It was supposed to have been a short, easy hike. Although no one heard from Melton, a year later, she received a check in her name. Police have not confirmed whether she signed the check.

There were rumors that Melton fled, leaving behind her husband and ill to start a new chapter with a new love. But no trace of her has been found.

John Devine

John Devine, aged 73, was