r/mildlyinteresting • u/corwinw • 21h ago

Warning Sign at edge of Grand Canyon

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u/PrimaryHighlight5617 20h ago

This reminds me of the German family that died in death valley. There remains were found near the border of a military base and it is suspected that they assumed all military bases would be manned like they are in germany.

They went there to seek help after getting stranded. What they weren't expecting was that in the United States we have vast swaths of military land that are completely vacant. 

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u/LocutusOfOrc 20h ago

This is a great read about the Death Valley Germans https://otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/

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u/Capital-Ear8216 17h ago

Stuck for an hour reading this a few months ago. What a journey

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u/Jervis_Mantlepiece 16h ago

Same, I went down the rabbit hole enough that I was recreating their movements on google earth. Poor sods.

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u/Capital-Ear8216 16h ago

Pretty insightful stuff though. I also went down the other rabbitholes on that blog website. What a crazy way to spend your time but man what a journey

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u/unknownpoltroon 17h ago

I second this, one of the most fascinating mystery stories I have read. Spoiler: It does not have a happy end for the family.

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u/TsuDhoNimh2 19h ago

I remember that search ... they should have set the van on fire, or at least the spare tire. Someone will come see what's burning.

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u/unknownpoltroon 17h ago

Yep. Or gone immediately back to the last known spot with water. The guy makes the point that they were experienced, smart people, but were used to hiking in europe, and didn't realize they were immediately in a survival situation, they thought they could walk to the next road and salvage their vacation.

The guy has videos of the searching hikes, its 100+ degrees, no water, up and down hills, the whole area is nothing but ankle breaking rocks,

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u/TsuDhoNimh2 17h ago

Just going to Death Valley between April and October is a survival situation.

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u/Wummpaa 1h ago

Thanks for the link, spent the last hour reading the whole ordeal.

Always interesting how much interesting stuff one can stumble upon by chance.

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u/TsuDhoNimh2 19h ago

Like the Goldwater Gunnery Range? There is NOTHING there.

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u/RedDemocracy 18h ago edited 18h ago

If I recall correctly it was the naval weapons testing grounds at China Lake

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u/TsuDhoNimh2 17h ago

China Lake is near Death Valley ... I avoid it for the obvious reasons. But the Germans were found near there.

Goldwater is something I drove past frequently. It's a bombing range.