A new National Park. Another dead body.

 After a book reading, one of the attendees asked me why I kept killing off people in National Parks. "I've visited dozens of National Parks. They're safe, like Disneyland, only in the wild." 

Having spent the winter in Arizona, I was armed with a quick and factual answer, "Six people died in Grand Canyon National Park falls in the first five months of this year." She was aghast and accused me of making up that number. I assured her those people all died when they fell from cliffs, and the number has climbed significantly since the advent of the "selfie." A selfie usually involves someone trying to capture themselves in a picture with some attractive background. That's not a big deal if you're trying to take a picture of yourself with Justin Trudeau in a restaurant, but it's much riskier if you're back is to a cliff and you're not paying attention to the precipice behind you.

Aside from the dangers of vertical drops, national parks have a variety of animal hazards, from Bison and Kodiak bears, to snakes and alligators. A Yellowstone National Park wildlife photographer was using a telephoto lens to capture pictures of a napping wolf pack. To his horror, a pair of hikers, deeply absorbed in a discussion and not paying attention to their surroundings, walked within 20 yards of the Alpha male wolf. Rising from his bed, the wolf watched the hikers walk by the pack without the hikers ever realizing they'd passed within two leaps of a wild predator. A nature magazine published the series of photos. I wonder if the hikers were ever shown the visual evidence of their close call?

Last year, a woman in the Black Hills wandered close to a Bison calf while snapping pictures. She was so absorbed in her quest for the perfect baby buffalo picture that she didn't notice the calf's mother until it snagged her belt with its horn. Other tourists recorded the ensuing encounter on video as the woman was tossed by the Bison like a rag doll until her belt broke. The woman survived the incident, but not without mental and physical scars. A number of parks have used that video to remind visitors that the park animals are wild and they need to maintain a safe distance from them. (i.e. can you run to the safety of your car before the Bison reaches to you?)

Not all of nature's perils are cliffs and wild animals. The remains of a hiker, lost since the 1980s, were recently recovered from Glacier National Park. He'd been hiking alone and apparently got caught in a snow squall. Disoriented, he probably died of hypothermia. Dozens of park visitors disappear every year. Most lose track of the fact that they're in a place that's maintained in its rugged wild state so people can enjoy the beauty of nature. They're shocked when they wander away from the trail, or their group, and their cell phones don't have coverage. Another surprise comes when there's not an ambulance ten minutes away if they're injured. I touched on that in "Down River".

As a mystery writer, I find those true stories intriguing. By adding nasty people to the Fictional stories, there are endless possibilities. Yes, there are jerks even in pristine park settings. More National Park Service employees are injured by visitors than by animals, falls, and weather. That's a scary statistic which led the park service to issue bulletproof vests to their law enforcement rangers, as I did in "Death in Shifting Sands".

That statistic also led me to the "Grave Survey" plot. A pair of surveyors disappear in a remote area of Big Cypress National Preserve, while marking oil drilling lease boundaries. The Park Service is unable to locate them or their vehicle. Are they the victims of aggressive eco-protesters? Is there an oil company unhappy with their lease boundaries? Were they eaten by alligators? Or, is there some other human factor involved, like drugs, love, or money?

Visit my author page on the BWL publishing website and click on the cover picture to buy "Grave Survey" and discover the answer.

Hovey, Dean - Digital and Print EBooks (bookswelove.net)