BOUNDARY WATERS – The situation involving a Minnesota man who vanished this month near a popular area for recreation here reminds us that when people go missing in the canoe-country wilderness it is not typically easy to find them.

When the ground search was called off this week for Gene Doherty – a 40-year-old man who has been missing since July 1, when he was last seen leaving his mother’s house in Silver Bay, Minn. – local law enforcement specifically referenced the “challenging terrain” as a reason for suspending the official search. Suspending the search came less than a week after Doherty’s vehicle was found July 11 near the intersection of Brule Lake Road and a Forest Service Road known commonly as “The Grade.” Traveled frequently by visitors and locals recreating on Superior National Forest and in the nearby Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, The Grade offers access to Brule Lake, a popular lake in the BWCA, and Eagle Mountain, the highest point of elevation in Minnesota. The road is surrounded by dense forest, swamps, and unforgiving terrain.

Family members and friends of Doherty told Paddle and Portage this week they remain hopeful that he will be found. In reviewing the history of search and rescue in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and other similar cases across Superior National Forest, we find these stories unfolding both ways. Sometimes the people are found. In other cases, they are not. There are several instances where people have never been found after they go missing in the Boundary Waters region.