The Search for a Ranger Who Was Lost and Never Found

April 26, 2021 11:40 AM

Investigators, family, and friends are still trying to close the case of Paul Fugate, a naturalist at Arizona’s Chiricahua National Monument who vanished without a trace in 1980. In the garage sat a Ford pickup, the tires flat, which Dody and her husband, Paul, had driven home from the dealership in 1971. No pictures of Paul were anywhere that I could see, but his presence was all around. There was the old nameplate from his desk: “Paul B. Fugate, Park Ranger.” And pinned to the wall was a bumper sticker, white letters on a forest green background. “Where is Paul Fugate,” it read. The absence of a question mark suggested less an inquiry than a demand.

Paul was a monument naturalist who answered visitors’ questions, curated exhibits, and put together trail guides and plant lists. He was 41 then, and had a Texas twang, blue eyes, a woolly brown beard, and a ponytail that ran to his shoulders like a middle finger to his superiors. He was also known to smoke a joint when the mood struck him, and he chafed under the buttoned-down Park Service of that era. “Give ’em a bad time” was the Fugate family mantra. He had been fired from the monument once before but successfully sued to get his job back, to no one’s great pleasure—not even, really, his own.

Paul loved mountains as much as he despised bureaucracy. The Chiricahuas are part of a chain of isolated “sky islands” that rise more than 5,400 feet above the Sonoran Desert floor. Eroded tuff spires known as hoodoos peek out from ridgetop forests; spotted cats prowl the stone labyrinth below. The monument is named for the Chiricahua Apache, whose most revered leader, Cochise, waged a long war with the U.S. government in the late 1800s.

For all the monument’s hideouts, there were only so many areas one would normally patrol, with just an eight-mile-long, dead-end road, a single campground, and a system of trails that could be hiked in a single day (pdf). Paul didn’t bother taking his radio, ID, or billfold, or $300 worth of cash and checks. He didn’t even take his trusty pocket glass for examining plants.

via LongForm

posted by jquinby (12 comments total)

I saw this sign at the Monument for the first time literally just the other day.

A half hour later I nearly got lost in the Echo Canyon Loop: the space up high seems nice and open, but that can easily lead you off trail. I had to keep my eye on the nice shiny cars in the trailhead parking lot to lead me back to civilization.

I should note that I don't lose my way easily. I can see how someone could get snarled up beyond repair.

No regrets: frigging beautiful place.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 12:00 PM on April 26, 2021

Reminds me of the Amy Wroe Betchel case from Wyoming. Covered in depth in the Podcast Frozen Truth
posted by interogative mood at 12:58 PM on April 26, 2021

Chiricahuas are one of my favorite places in the U.S. Hard to get to, totally worth the effort.
posted by mcstayinskool at 1:03 PM on April 26, 2021

That was a weird throwaway at the end of the story about the drink at the bar, and not having prints to compare with. Surely they'd be able to pull prints in his cabin from something? Unless it happened a very long time after the disappearance, which would make it pretty weird for someone to "bag" the glass for the Sheriff and the Sheriff to even bother pulling fingerprints. If that event really happened.

I didn't see it linked anywhere but the National Park Service still has the missing person and reward news release up for Paul. $60k is enough money to keep an eye out if you are walking in the Chiricahuas.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 2:23 PM on April 26, 2021 [4 favorites]

Thanks for this, I love these odd unsolved mystery stories and their weird hangings-on to certain facts (the semicolon!) and their ethereal quality because so much of this was so long ago.
posted by jessamyn at 3:43 PM on April 26, 2021 [2 favorites]

Upon being invited to the home of an elderly woman you suspect is struggling with mental health issues, you feel it necessary to say to her face that she should clean up more?
posted by tigrrrlily at 5:56 PM on April 26, 2021 [5 favorites]

One thing with people that go missing in the backcountry is that they can be almost impossible to find even if you know exactly where to look. The Chiricahua Mountains are a place where there are so many nooks and crannies over a vast area; there’s a reason Cochise was able to hide out there for so long despite a long period of concerted efforts to root him out. I know of some missing person cases at Grand Canyon where they either took a very long time to find the body or still haven’t when they know where to look. A woman went missing in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson after starting out on a popular trail in 1994. Never found. The terrain out here is unforgiving and the Chiricahuas are probably the trickiest of all.
posted by azpenguin at 8:21 PM on April 26, 2021 [7 favorites]

Not the same park, but there's the Bill Ewasko rabbit hole

Link to said rabbit hole on Tom Mahood's site. Must avoid temptation to lose the rest of the day re-reading the story of the Death Valley Germans.
posted by automatronic at 8:25 AM on April 27, 2021 [6 favorites]

The Metafilter thread on the Death Valley Germans for those who don't get the reference. But yeah I'd lose all day on that again if I let myself - there have definitely been a few times in the last few years when that story has prompted something at the back of my mind to make a choice on whether I drive on up a road I don't know when the fuel light is on or take time to back track to a gas station, or stop by the side of the road and double check I have the supplies I thought I had before proceeding into the hills etc.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 10:19 AM on April 27, 2021 [5 favorites]

Somewhat related to the previous comment, as recently as a month ago there was a death when a tourist couple decided to take their vehicle off the paved road in Death Valley. They were prepared enough to bring three days of water with them, which was probably a factor in there being a survivor. They were Arizona natives, so probably had heard many times the importance of taking adequate water with you in case you are stranded on the side of the road in the desert southwest.
posted by RichardP at 8:37 PM on April 27, 2021

The vanished-hiker rabbit hole is deep indeed. One of the things that strikes me in reading the searcher accounts is the moment that the searcher (Tom Mahood above) generally proposes that the missing people have crossed a line into a survival situation. My gut tells me (ha) that identifying this point as it approaches is a sort-of combination "spidey-sense" plus a situational awareness.

Couple of years ago I was in SJC for business - before heading home on an afternoon flight, I took the morning off and drove over the hills to a state park, figuring I'd see about an easy day-hike. I'm looking at a map now and honestly can't remember which park it was.

Anyway, when I got there, as I recall, the gate was unoccupied - no ranger or anything like that. The parking lot, likewise was completely empty. I think I only passed a handful of cars on the way to the park, period. When I got out and found the trailhead, the first thing I saw was a sign warning me that I was entering mountain lion habitat.

Suddenly I had A Very Bad Feeling. Like, hairs-on-the-back-of-my-neck-standing-up sort of thing. I putzed around the park a little longer and went back to the car. I don't know what my odds of an encounter were. There are no large predators like that on my side of the country. Closest we have is the black bear, which is way more likely to run like hell from you. I did figure that if I ran into an issue, the relative solitude plus my unfamiliarity with the area could potentially jam me up pretty bad.

I don't regret skipping it that day, though I would like to go back at some point. Probably with a buddy that I can outrun.
posted by jquinby at 8:42 AM on April 29, 2021 [2 favorites]

... the moment that the searcher (Tom Mahood above) generally proposes that the missing people have crossed a line into a survival situation. My gut tells me (ha) that identifying this point as it approaches is a sort-of combination "spidey-sense" plus a situational awareness.

That definition works for me, and your story backs it up. The hair on the back of my neck stirred in sympathy.

I've had to back off a bit from solo hiking after being diagnosed with a condition that could leave me SOL if I had an episode while in, as you put it, "relative solitude." That makes me a little sad, but as long as I make sure to line up pals to go trekking with, I don't have to miss out.
posted by virago at 8:20 PM on April 29, 2021 [1 favorite]