Yellowstone Mass Shooting Foiled, Horse Rescue, Heat Incidents, and More | National Park News

just after midnight on the morning of July 4th, Yellowstone's 9-1-1 Dispatch Center received a report that a woman had been held against her will By a man with a gun in a residence at Canyon Village. It was also reported to law enforcement Rangers that he threatened to kill her and others, Including alleged mass shooting plans at crowded July 4th events. when day broke, responding law enforcement Rangers located his vehicle Unoccupied in the Canyon area and with the individual. large 20 law enforcement Rangers, including the parks special response team, were strategically deployed to protect areas with park visitors and Employees. while searching for the suspect and the parks, 9-1-1 Dispatch Center notified surrounding jurisdictions.

at about 8 a.

m Law enforcement Rangers posted near Canyon Lodge, Which houses employee in public dining rooms encountered the man who would later be identified as 28 year old Samson Lucas pariah fussner of Milton, Florida. Fussner reportedly walked toward the service entrance of the facility while firing a semi-automatic Rifle, the building was occupied by about 200 people. at the time, several law enforcement Rangers engaged Fussner. Fussner was shot by the Rangers. one law enforcement Ranger was shot in a lower extremity.

Rangers with emergency medical training rendered aid to both the injured law enforcement Ranger and Fussner. Fussner died at the scene. The injured Ranger was transported to an area hospital in stable condition and has since been released. No other physical injuries were reported. Fussner was an employee of Zantara parks and resorts, Which is the company that runs most of Yellowstone's campgrounds, restaurants and lodging facilities?

The FBI is now handling the investigation quote. Thanks to the heroic actions of our law enforcement Rangers. Many lives were saved here, said Superintendent cam Sholly. these Rangers immediately confronted the shooter and took decisive action to ensure he was no longer a threat to public safety. We're working now to provide maximum support to those involved and their families.

and then on Thursday, July 11th, at about 1040 a.

m A car with five occupants drove off the roadway and into the semi-centennial geyser Thermal feature near Roaring Mountain between Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Junction in Yellowstone. This is a hot and acidic thermal feature 105 degrees at the surface and hotter as you go down. It's about the same temperature as a hot tub. There are much hotter thermal features in Yellowstone, But a lot of tourists don't realize some of these things can and have literally dissolved bodies. all five occupants Exited the vehicle on their own and were all transported via ambulance to a nearby hospital with non life-threatening injuries.

Rangers temporarily closed both lanes of the roadway the next day in order to Safely lift the car out of the thermal feature. The vehicle was fully submerged in about nine feet of water. more in a moment, but first. this episode is sponsored by RV share. with over four million nights booked and thousands of five-star reviews from happy campers.

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many don't realize that when you hike down into the canyon, It can be much hotter than at the rim. on June 29th, Scott Sims, 69 of Austin, Texas, died trying to reach Phantom Ranch for an overnight Stay at the base of the canyon via the South Kaibab Trail. in the summer, temperatures can reach 120 degrees in the shade on the trail and, of course, hiking down in a canyon is different than hiking up a mountainside, as the second half of the hike tends to be a much more strenuous. on July 7th, a 50-year-old man died at the very end of his hike, approximately 100 feet below the Bright Angel Trailhead. bystanders initiated CPR, but attempts to resuscitate the individual were unsuccessful.

a 52 year old man and his 23 year old daughter died Friday in triple-digit temperatures at Canyonlands National Park. The pair were from Green Bay, Wisconsin, And we're hiking on the sink line trail. when they got lost and ran out of water, Rangers received a 911 text from the pair on Friday afternoon and the Bureau of Land Management Moab District heli-track personnel responded. by the time the pair were found. They were already dead.

Death Valley National Park reached at least a hundred and twenty five degrees for nine consecutive days, July 4th through 12th. Then, areas of the park dealt with a multi-day power outage after a thunderstorm. Affected employees, families and pets were evacuated to nearby hotels. The heatwave included three daily heat records and peaked at a hundred and twenty nine point three degrees on July 7th. This was the park's second longest streak of high temperatures at or above 125, just behind the 10-day streak measured in 1913.

a park visitor died in Death Valley on July 6th from heat exposure near Badwater Basin. Another visitor was treated for severe heat illness and transported to advanced medical care in Las Vegas. Four others were treated on-site and released. all six were members of the same party from Germany and were visiting on Motorcycles due to the high temperatures. Emergency medical flight helicopters were unable to respond as they cannot generally fly safely over a hundred and twenty degrees.

The rotors just don't work and those temperatures something I didn't know about this. Obviously, the wind on you when you're riding a motorcycle can have a cooling effect, But once the heat index hits above body temperature, ambient air no longer helps provide relief. Also, heat illness and injury are Cumulative and can build over the course of a day or several days. a few drownings in parks. recently, too, on June 27th, A private rafting tour boat was pinned on a rock in the rapid named Hell's Half Mile at Dinosaur National Monument.

One person from the group was missing and suspected to be pinned under the raft. The group was eventually able to unpin and secure the boat, But the person, having lost their lifejacket, drifted downriver. The victim's body was found by guides about 10 miles downstream. two drownings took place on the same day at Glacier National Park. in separate incidents, a 26 year old man from India was hiking above the gorge on Avalanche Lake Trail.

he diverted from the trail and, while standing on a large rock, fell into Avalanche Creek. stay on the trail, folks. It's unclear if he slipped on a wet portion of the rock or lost his balance. Friends and witnesses saw him go into the creek, go underwater and resurface briefly before being swept up by the current and into the Gorge, and a 28 year old man from Nepal was swimming in Lake McDonald near Sprague Creek campground. According to friends.

He was an inexperienced swimmer. He was about 30 yards out when he started to struggle, went underwater and never resurfaced. on June 28th, National Park Service officials, with the assistance of a Las Vegas Metropolitan search-and-rescue team, recovered the bodies of two men who were boating with friends at Lake Mead. That went for a swim and did not return. and then, on the evening of July 4th, A 19 year old male died in a motorcycle wreck in the Zion Mount Carmel tunnel at Zion National Park.

There were no other vehicles involved in the incident. That's all for the death today. I promise, but suffice it to say, Stay safe out there. National Parks may have some railings, but they're dangerous places. Denali National Park is fully reopened as of Monday after the Riley Creek fire shut down the Riley Creek Campground and employee housing and visitor facilities.

most of the park was reopened last Wednesday, But the Riley Creek campground finally reopened on Monday in late June, National Park Service Rangers and local Emergency responders rescued a horse that had fallen and become trapped in a steep ravine at Point Reyes National Seashore. The challenging rescue, which ended up taking seven hours to complete, Unfolded when teams received a call about a fallen horse in a remote section of the coast trail. Though the rider was thankfully uninjured, responding units soon discovered the 20 year old Arabian gelding Wedged in a precarious position down a densely vegetated ravine. Access to the site was made difficult by the challenging topography, poor footing and the large animal in distress. after unsuccessful attempts to unwedge or assist the horse back to its feet, a Rescue plan was created involving a technical rope system to safely extract the animal by pulling him Approximately 30 feet up the ravine to the trail above over 15 on-site responders, low-angle rescue kits, hundreds of feet of anchor and hauling rope, Webbing cargo nets, slip sheets, animal rescue sleds and j-hooks were all used to package and haul the horse.

Once back on flat ground, and with medical care from a responding veterinarian, The horse was eventually able to stand and walk several miles out To the trailhead, where a trailer was waiting to transport him to an equine hospital. Sentinel campground in the Cedar Grove area of Kings Canyon National Park reopened on July 3rd. The Cedar Grove area was closed in 2023 due to severe road damage on highway 180 outside the park from the early 2023 winter storms. This is weird, though. hiring the necessary staffing levels required to operate all Kings Canyon National Park campgrounds has been unsuccessful this season.

the park short-term solution is to temporarily close Sunset campground in Grant Cove in order to open Sentinel campground in Cedar Grove. Officials are actively working on an alternate staffing model that may enable the opening of all campgrounds later this season. the Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia is now closed to the public for upgrades to its fire detection and Suppression system. the fire detection system will be replaced and a new suppression system will be installed throughout the complex, Consisting of two adjoining townhomes on North 7th Street in the Spring Garden neighborhood. The site is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.

Construction will be completed by this fall. famed poet Edgar Allen Poe, along with his wife and aunt, moved to Philadelphia in 1838 looking for Opportunity in the city's thriving literary scene. his time here is often viewed as his most productive, as many of his best-known tales of terror Were published here, but literary success did not translate into financial success. Poe and his family lived in five different homes over the six years They were there. this home is the only one still standing.

National Park Service archaeologists working at Minuteman National Historical Park recently discovered five musket balls that were fired during the world-changing event known as the shot heard round the world on April 19th 1775. early analysis of the 18th century musket balls indicates They were fired by colonial militia members at British forces during the North Bridge fight. the North Bridge battle site in Concord, Massachusetts is a key location within Minuteman and marks the moment when provincial militia leaders ordered members to fire Upon their own government soldiers for the first time. the event was later termed the shot heard round the world by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1837 Concord him because it immediately escalated an already boiling conflict between colonial rebels and British forces. the musket balls were discovered by Archaeologists conducting compliance activities in preparation for the parks Great American Outdoors Act project.

They were found in an area where, according to contemporary accounts, British soldiers formed up to resist the river crossing. Further analysis of the musket balls indicates that each one was fired from the opposite side of the river and not dropped during the process of reloading and, Finally, a historic silver pocket watch that traveled the world with Theodore Roosevelt during his presidency, Including his charge up San Juan Hill and travels to Africa and down the Amazon River, has returned to his family home at Sagamore Hill National Historic Site when a Florida auctioneer was asked to auction off a pocket watch from the late 1800s. his research led him to believe that he may be holding a piece of US Presidential history. the auctioneer realized that the watch may have belonged to the 26 president of the United States. He contacted two historic sites closely associated with Roosevelt Sagamore Hill National Historic Site and Theodore Roosevelt inaugural National Historic Site, who confirmed the authenticity of the watch.

Roosevelt's watch had been in possession of Sagamore Hill National Historic Site since he died in 1919. they loaned the watch to the Theodore Roosevelt inaugural National Historic Site in 1971 for a six-year term to be shown in an exhibition. the loan was extended, But unfortunately, the watch was reported stolen from the site in Buffalo, New York. on July 21st 1987, the National Park Service Contacted the FBI art crime team for assistance in recovering the Waltham 17 jewel watch, Which is a fairly pedestrian watch with an inexpensive coin silver case. Roosevelt had many watches during his life, but this one is unique due to its sentimental value.

Roosevelt received this watch from his youngest sister and brother-in-law prior to his departure to Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Roosevelt's watch was returned to Sagamore Hill National Historic Site during a repatriation ceremony in New York on June 27th. the pocket watch is one of the thousands of items originally gifted to the NPS by the Roosevelt family through the Theodore Roosevelt Association in 1963. it will remain in the permanent museum collection of Sagamore Hill. That's it for this month's National Park News Roundup.

Thanks so much for being here, and we'll see you next time.