Steve Stockton - National Park Mysteries & Disappearances: The Pacific Northwest (Oregon, Washington and Idaho)

Cover design: Disgruntled Dystopian Publications

Beyond The Fray Publishing, a division of Beyond The Fray, LLC, San Diego, CA

www.beyondthefraypublishing.com

Welcome back.

In this volume, well cover the Pacific Northwest, which has many strange disappearances, unsolved mysteries and murders, and possibly as a result of the former two, a few haunted locations.

In Oregon, well examine a few of the more than staggering 189 men and 51 women who officially remain listed as missing since 1997 by the Oregon Office of Emergency Management after trekking into Oregons wildest places. Oregon also has more than its share of unsolved murders and haunted locations (Heceta Head Lighthouse, the Shanghai Tunnels, Lithia Park, Cathedral Park, the Elsinore Theater, and the Geiser Grand Hotel to name but a few).

Washington State has several clusters of missing persons, particularly on and around the majestic and iconic Mount Rainier. Some have even speculated that the mountain is hungry, as it is such a hotspot for strange and unsolved disappearances of people who came here to never leave. The same is true of non-alpine accidents on the mountain. For example, a cargo transport plane crashed into Mount Rainier in 1946and the bodies of thirty-two Marines remain entombed.

Washington is also home to serial killers and unsolved murders. Many UFO encounters have occurred here as well, most notably Kenneth Arnolds 1947 sighting, which kicked off the modern UFO phenomena. Washington State also has many reported sasquatch encounters, such as the Ape Canyon incident. It was here on Mount St. Helens in 1924 that a small cabin housing a group of miners came under attack by a gang of wild ape-men.

Idaho has a fascinating (and growing) list of mysterious disappearances and cold cases from across the state. Strange unsolved murders, murder-suicides, and crimes of passion abound. From a paranormal standpoint, Idaho has been named the top spot in the United States for sightings of unidentified flying objects and lays claim to more than sixty reported bigfoot encounters. Reportedly haunted spots include the Twin Falls Courthouse, Morris Hill Cemetery, the State Hospital South Cemetery, Spirit Lake, the Jameson Hotel, and the Snake River Heritage Center, among others.

MICHAEL BRYSON UMPQUA NATIONAL FOREST

During the early hours of Wednesday, August 5, 2020, Michael Bryson, twenty-seven, a resident of Eugene, Oregon, was last seen with friends at Hobo Campground near Dorena, Oregon, while partying with them.

It had been reported that he left the rave party at the campground around 4:30 in the morning and had not made his way back since.

Several months later, some of his clothes appeared in an area that could be seen from the road and was searched numerous times. Unfortunately, Michael remains missing to this day.

It is likely that Michael was the victim of foul play in the case, as his friends and family are baffled by it all. What happened out there in the Oregon Wilderness? Misadventure, abduction or something else?

On August 4, he dropped by his parents house in Harrisburg and told them he was riding up with a friend to Hobo Camp Campground for a weeklong birthday party.

Located in the Umpqua National Forest, Hobo Camp is a small, roadside campground located at the side of the road. It is described as primitive, which is okay for a few nights stay, but not somewhere you would want to camp for an extended period of time. It is located near a creek, accessible by a footpath.

As per Detective Richard Smith with the Lane County Sheriffs Office, Michael left his camping gear behind, his phone was turned off, and he hasnt accessed his bank account since he wandered off in an unknown direction.

Michael stood six feet tall, weighed about 180 pounds, and had short brown hair and hazel eyes. The last time he was seen, he was wearing a white T-shirt, tan shorts, and white Crocs with rainbows on them along with a corduroy baseball cap in a brown color. There were several tattoos on both of his legs, both of his arms, and his ribs.

Michaels last photographs were taken in the woods at a party that included music, drugs, and forty to sixty people. According to witnesses, Michael walked away from the campsite after he was last seen in a bus.

According to Michaels mother, He got upset and walked off the bus and nobody has seen him.

A search and rescue team from the Lane County Sheriffs Office Search and Rescue was already on the scene, searching on land and on the water for any signs of the missing person.

There was no call to Michaels parents until 5 p.m. on the evening of August 6 about their sons disappearance.

By the time we found out it was almost twelve hours since he had been missing. The moment I put my foot out of the car, I knew Michael was gone. People werent looking for Michael. They were sitting around, drinking, eating, laughingnobody was out searching for him, so I felt in my gut something had happened, said Michaels mother, Tina.

Michaels father, Parrish, weighed in: Theres been a lot of conflicting stories from the beginning. One story is that he walked away from camp. The other story is that a group of individuals picked him up on the road.

Over one hundred volunteers showed up to search miles of wilderness in the area. There were SAR teams searching the area on foot and on horseback, and drones were also used to scan the area from the air. A search was conducted in steep terrain with overgrowth and dense woods for nineteen whole days in a row. Despite that, there was no sign of Michael. According to Detective Smith, the case is a continuing and active investigation.

In total, the Lane County Sheriffs Office coordinated more than fifteen separate searches spanning two counties, and over seven hundred hours of paid and volunteer manpower had been logged.

According to Parrish Bryson, it seems the family never received any straight answers about Michaels disappearance from any of the attending partygoers. Rather, he believes they knew more than they had publicly admitted.

The stories given by some of the people at the party are inconsistent. And most of those people left the day Michael went missing, and continued to hold raves and parties, he stated.

He also said that while many people had left the campgrounds, several friends, as well as a few strangers, had stayed to assist in the search. He adds We stayed at the campgrounds for nineteen days looking for our son, and were truly grateful for those who stayed and helped.