The Cold Vanish: Seeking the Missing in North America's Wildlands

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Sophocles’ story about a sister who buries her brother against a state decree has an enduring legacy, particularly in Latin America where the unburied body of a brother and a sister sent out of the world still living seems an apt metaphor for the disappeared in the wake of state violence. Antígona is a verse play written by the Peruvian poet Watanabe in collaboration with Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani and Teresa Ralli in the aftermath of two decades of civil conflict. Ralli interviewed families of the disappeared and was the first to perform the play. The narrator remains unnamed until the end when she symbolically tries to bury her brother: “And these late libations are from my little spirit full with remorse.” It is Ismene, sister of Antigone and Polynices, who has survived. Antígona powerfully resists the efforts of the state narrative to efface Peru’s disappeared and serves as a vehicle for those left behind to forgive themselves. Billman also covers the "abnormal" side of disappearances, including reported sightings of Bigfoot, strange lights in the sky, physical changes in atmospheric energy in certain remote mountain regions and hints at portals to other dimensions. People and young children seemingly vanish then reappear unhurt and thriving some time later literally metres from where they disappeared. Whilst some might scoff at these otherwordly suggestions, I suppose there are always things that science can't truly explain away. Jon Billman is a former wildland firefighter and high school teacher. He holds an MFA in Fiction from Eastern Washington University. He's the author of the story collection When We Were Wolves (Random House, 1999). Billman is a regular contributor to Outside and his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Esquire, The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All-Story. He t... There are many holes, but they aren't worm holes. Karst formations have plenty of small sinkholes. Step into one and you can disappear forever. There are many thousands of prospecting holes over most of our national forests and ither public lands. Most of those were either never capped or done poorly. Again, its easy to disappear if you step into the wrong prospecting hole or even old unmarked mine shaft.

The Guardian Top 10 books about missing persons | Fiction | The Guardian

I couldn't help but become Randy's friend. It's infectious when, sitting around the little galley table in the Arctic Fox, eating tacos, Randy would map plans to help the search for other missing persons, like Kris Fowler, who went missing on the Pacific Crest Trail in 2016. Or Randy would sketch designs for a new type of swiftwater rescue tool based on a type of lifeguard surfboard he'd seen in Hawaii; some days the current and boulders in the Sol Duc River nearly beat him to death, and he designed a rescue boogie board to help mitigate that. He bought and installed a new toilet in the Bigfoot Barn because the old one wasn't flushing quite right, and it was the least he could do in exchange for free rent. He spent hours on his phone helping friends and family with their problems. All this positive energy while shouldering what many psychologists believe is the heaviest burden a human can bear.We learn about this while we follow the author as he focuses on this one specific case of a young man that has seemingly abandoned his bike and the small trailer he was hauling and just vanished and has yet to be found. The author tags along with this missing young man’s father as he tirelessly searches for his son- all the while the park service won’t commit resources to help look for him. Loved this book! Billman presents facts in an interesting way, and brings the stories of the vanished to life. I read my review copy, and then immediately bought the audio book. Hope to read more by this author!

The Cold Vanish — Kelly Book Stuff Review: The Cold Vanish — Kelly Book Stuff

Billman looks at the possibility that some people don't want to be found, and disappear purposefully; maybe looking for something unattainable. I have to say, it seemed odd the amount of young white Christian men mentioned, who seemed to have a overt fascination with the bible, raptures, pilgrimage type scenarios. Indeed Billman describes the Jerusalem Syndrome. In with this he looks at the number of cults and sects, some of whom set themselves up along the Pacific Crest Trail and attempt to lure tired travellers in with the promise of energy giving chocolate or food. Yeah, the writing is a bit weird here. There are impressive moments of description and observation, but in between those are instances of amateur repetition and over-the-top levels of detail. As I mentioned above, it's very well-researched. It perhaps could've used some sharper edges, or some smarter editing. It's not bad, by any means. It gets the job done. I also could have gone without the long chapter about Duff and his bloodhounds. It smelled like a vehicle for the author to try out a sort of darkly funny attempt at gonzo journalism, or something. Sure, Duff sounds like a character and his hounds seem very talented. I was just bored. This "false" book claimed that Jacob had no friends and his mother was worried. He had friends. He had many friends in Washington. First off, he was close with his family in Washington. Every weekend we would go on a fun hiking adventure or he would take his youngest cousin camping. Nearly every night, we had movie nights or he would head over to his nonrelative best friend's place and play pool. Him and I would go out and grab frozen yogurt, watch sunsets, and talk about life. Whenever I was stressed about school, he immediately recognized my anxieties and would encourage me. I did the same for him. He was my best friend. In the wilderness, it's actually not that difficult to disappear. That's what's so fascinating about it - what's difficult is to pinpoint the how/why/where.An insider’s account of the rampant misconduct within the Trump administration, including the tumult surrounding the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

Summary and reviews of The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman

I feel this book does quite a disservice to all the missing persons mentioned in this book, the conspiracy theories really detract from these persons mysterious fates and how the system as a whole fails them. A compassionate, sympathetic, and haunting book sure to make you think twice before stepping out into the wilderness alone."―Kirkus (starred review) I'm obsessed with missing person stories.Television shows, podcasts, youtube videos....I'm not exactly sure what attracts me to tales of the disappeared, but I listen to many of them. I think it might be that I can't imagine never knowing....having someone close to me disappear and the idea of how shattering it would be to never know where they are and what happened. Even when remains are found, the whole story is rarely revealed. I can't imagine what it would be like to lose someone like that....a friend, a parent....a child. Jon Billman tells us real stories of people who have gone missing in areas of the USA like state forests and the like. Many of these missing people are never found and the sheer numbers that vanish is astounding. Jon describes a good number of cases and follows the case of Jacob Gray, a young man who went missing and the incredible search that ensued from it. The book weaves in the journey that the author took with Jacob's father who never gave up looking for him, searching far and wide. I had to know the outcome!Now for a straight up lie Billman pulled seemingly out of nowhere. Billman claims that Jacob’s uncle had walked in on Jacob in the garage with his hands on his head and claimed he “couldn’t figure it out” and was “seeing the color red” everywhere. This never happened. Where did Billman get this? I wouldn’t know. The only thing SLIGHTLY true to this is Jacob seeing the color red, but this is when everyone had already tried to help him and he was with his Grandma. The story of Randy’s search stretches through the book with Billman inserting stories of other vanishings between episodes of Randy’s efforts. He joins Randy to describe first-hand many of his searches. The narration is good overall, but it got boring at times, so much so that I was left wondering why I was even reading this work in the first place. There's other cases mentioned throughout the book, but Jacob's - arguably more his family's - is where the focus lies. It's harrowing. It's clear the author's closeness to the family wasn't manufactured for the purpose of securing the story, because he's managed to write into this book the exhaustion, despair, and, yes, the hope of those left behind.

THE COLD VANISH | Kirkus Reviews

My intrigue only grew. I tend toward insomnia and the analog, and each night in bed I listen with earbuds to Coast to Coast AM on a tiny radio. The program, which explores all sorts of mysteries of the paranormal, airs from one to five a.m. in my time zone. It's syndicated on more than six hundred stations and boasts nearly three million listeners each week. Most of the time, the white noise talk of space aliens and ghosts lulls me to sleep, but not when my favorite guest, David Paulides, is at the mic. I've had a couple years to live with the figure, and today I'll argue that 1,600 is wildly conservative. I'm surprised Paulides hadn't coined a number much larger long ago; he'd have gotten away with it. Consider Oregon's national parks and national forests alone. Just since 1997, 190 men and 51 women have vanished. Then there's all the non-public wildlands in Oregon. There's Portland, a city with a bad homeless urban-wildland interface camping problem. More Oregonians go missing every week, and by the time you read this, the math—cloudy to begin with—will be off. The subject of missing persons is one that bothers me immensely. I can’t imagine someone in my life vanishing, being left in some tortuous limbo, not knowing what happened to them- knowing in some part your brain the truth of the situation, yet unable to give up hope- getting up every single day unable to fully move on with one’s life until the truth is finally known-either way. It is clear that some of the missing, young men especially, have chosen, if not to disappear, then to find a form of spiritual development that requires that they absent themselves from the populated world for a time. Other people simply get turned around in the woods, or are ambushed by conditions they weren't prepared for, or are, possibly, the victims of foul play.That said, I would love to read the original magazine article that this book was based on. I think that in smaller doses, this type of reporting would be absolutely fascinating. I’m a life-long resident of the west where vast areas of public land are common. I’ve read many articles about people who go missing in forests, canyons, and on mountains and assisted in a search for one of those missing. Because of that I have some awareness of wilderness disappearances, but after reading “The Cold Vanish” I realize how little I actually know. The book focuses on the disappearance of Jacob Gray in Olympic National Park and covers all the aspects of the search for him through both rational and questionable means. Interwoven are accounts of others who have gone missing in wild places. Bellman writes with eloquence, empathy, and insight about the heartbreak endured by family and friends of the missing. They live a life composed of searching, waiting, questioning, and enduring until answers come, if they ever do. Informative, heartbreaking, engaging, alarming, propulsive, and extremely well written, this is a book not to be missed, particularly for those interested in true crime or wilderness explorations. Wray photographs the scene. It's time to more closely inspect the cyclist's belongings. Wray secures the bow and arrows in his duty SUV. At approximately 9:20 a.m. he calls the district ranger, Michael Siler, to get one of his bosses up to speed. The ranger looks through the other gear in the trailer. It's surprising he doesn't find a kitchen sink. In reality, hope is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs man’s torments.” - Friedrich Nietzsche, not used in the book but entirely applicable. You know the drill. You pay the entrance fee, grab a map, register for any special permits. Nobody hands you a missing persons flyer for the elderly man who vanished off a heavily traveled trail yesterday. The park rangers don't ask you to look out for the twenty-something redhead who went for a run two weeks ago and never returned. That would be bad for tourism, of course.