Stone columns in Chiricahua National Monument. Photo by Urban via Wikimedia Commons.
It’s been nearly 30 years since ranger Paul Fugate disappeared while patrolling the wilds of Chiricahua National Monument. What happened to him remains a mystery to this day.
When a ranger on solo patrol in a remote area of a national park fails to return, the event rarely becomes what you’d call a true disappearance. Search and rescue procedures being as good as they are, a ranger who’s lost, stranded, or injured can reasonably expect to be rescued in pretty short order. Even if the missing person is no longer alive, remains are typically found within a few days, weeks, or months.
But sometimes the best efforts of the searchers are not good enough. Years can go by before remains are discovered, often quite by chance and in unexpected places. And sometimes remains are not found at all. Rangers can, and do, disappear.
The most publicized case of this sort was the disappearance of Randy Morgenson, a seasonal law enforcement ranger at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. In 1996 Randy set out on a foot patrol in the Kings Canyon backcountry and never returned. After an exhaustive search failed to locate him, investigators were left to ponder a lot of intriguing questions. Could Randy have walked away from an unhappy marriage? Had his discontent with the NPS treatment of seasonal backcountry rangers marred his judgment? Why would Randy, a commissioned law enforcement ranger, leave his weapon behind in his backcountry tent when he left to go on patrol? Why had there been no radio communications from him? You can read more of the fascinating details in The Last Season, a carefully research book written by Eric Blehm.
Five years after Randy disappeared his remains were finally recovered near a stream bed in the Kings Canyon backcountry. Investigators concluded that he had probably tried to cross the stream on a snow bridge, broke through, slid down under the snow, and was unable to extricate himself from the place where he stopped sliding. Since Randy’s death appeared to be accidental, most of the questions that had nagged investigators were laid to rest.
Unfortunately, there has been no such closure in the case of a ranger who went missing in Chiricahua National Monument almost three decades ago. Early in 1980, law enforcement ranger Paul Fugate left his residence for a foot patrol in the Chiricahua backcountry and didn’t come back.
When Paul did not return from this patrol, the park and then the NPS and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Department mounted extensive SAR efforts to find him, but these efforts turned up nothing. Searching in Chiricahua is certainly no picnic. The park sprawls over 12,000 acres and has complex terrain with numerous canyons, arroyos, and barrancas.
The same kinds of questions that dogged searchers in the Randy Morgenson case troubled the people trying to figure out what happened to Paul Fugate. Did rumors of marriage problems have anything to do with this disappearance? Had Paul been killed after stumbling onto a drug smuggling or illegal immigration operation? Had he decided that the NPS was too conservative for him and just walked away?
The latter notion was born of the fact that Paul had been known as a bit of a non-conformist. He was, for example, one of the first rangers who pushed the boundaries on the Park Service's conservative grooming standards.
Howard Chapman, then-Western Regional Director, was driven to distraction by this disappearance. These kinds of mysteries were not supposed to occur on his watch! In 1986, Chapman commissioned Pete Nigh, one of the NPS's top criminal investigators, and an Arizona Department of Public Safety investigator to review the files and determine if there was anything else that needed to be done.
Meanwhile, the NPS refused to certify that Fugate was dead. Among other things, this meant that Paul’s widow Dotty could not collect survivor’s benefits.
Nigh and the DPS investigator spent a week reviewing the files of both the NPS and the Cochise County Sheriff's office. After combing every piece of paper connected with the case, reviewing the witness statements, and examining the SAR records, they concluded that there was no evidence to indicate that Paul had walked away from his job and was elsewhere.
If Nigh's report didn’t put the question of Paul Fugate’s whereabouts to rest, it did contribute a measure of closure. Based on the findings of this exhaustive review, Dotty's application for survivor's benefits was subsequently reviewed and approved.
To the best of my knowledge, other than a couple instances in Alaska where NPS personnel were involved in an aircraft accident that went down over water, Paul Fugate is the only modern NPS employee whose death is still a mystery and whose remains have not been recovered.
This doesn’t mean that Paul’s remains will never be found. Someday, perhaps, a backcountry hiker will find them and solve a huge mystery.
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Comments
Wow, fascinating, if sad, story. Thanks for it. :)
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My travels through the National Park System: americaincontext.com
According to David Paulides, Robert Horton saw Paul in a truck sitting between two men looking worried and not wearing his glasses. The case strongly points to an abduction and foul play. I was surprised that Paulides included this case. The motive for his abduction is unknown.
Her name is Dody, not Dotty. Is that an example of how carefully the investigation was done?
Sorry, Anon. We were working from memory since neither of us has access to the NPS or police files. I am sure you are right and I apologize for the mistake. Please be assured that it was our error, not an error on the part of either the NPS or the Sheriffs Department.
Rick Smith
Thanks, Rick for this update on the Fugate case. I remember reading a quite lengthy article in the L.A. Times in 1983 about the case and some of the background information that you mentioned. The speculation was that he was abducted by criminals when he stumbled into an illiegal activity. I seem to recall mention in the article of witnesses who thought they saw Mr Fugate in the company of possible criminal types several days after he vanished. This was never confirmed. The Chiricahua National Monument is so rugged that a plane that vanished there in 1956 was not found until a back country hiker stumbled into the wreckage in 1965.
My father was in the western region at the time of Mr. Fugate's dissappearance. We were at the Tumacacori National Monument and as a child I well remember him as well as his disappearance. The Fugates were a wonderful couple and although we did not visit them often, it was always fun to visit. I do remember that the famous "fugate ponytail" was quite a controversy in the Park Service at that time. He was viewed (at least by my very conservative dad) as somewhat of a renagade but a very competant and knowledgable ranger also. My hope is that Mrs. Fugate has been able to move on and have a fulfilling life. Great Story
There are a number of mines, caves in the park. Has the NPS ever carried out a thorough search of these places for human remains?
Yes, most of the accessable mines were searched. The work by SARA (Southern Arizona Search and Rescue) was exhaustive.
There will be a Memorial for Paul at Chiricahua on January 13th 2010.
I have moved forward but not 'on' unfortunately, without closure there is no end.
Dody Fugate
Mrs. Fugate,
I am sorry for you not being able to find closure to your husbands disappearance. I hope that it will come. May I please ask if you know what became of the basket that was found? Was it ever returned to its original placement?
I was involved in the search for Paul Fugate rather heavily, as both an NPS employee and an active member of SARA. Just a few comments:
Paul was hardly "patrolling the wilds of Chiricahua National Monument". About 3 PM on a Sunday afternoon, he had left the Visitor Center to "check the nature trail" - a very common activity on a slow afternoon when you are caught up on your work and you need to stretch your legs a bit.
This, of course, makes his disappearance all the more perplexing...
If Howard Chapman was "driven to distraction by Paul's disappearance," he managed to conceal it rather well. I would characterize the Regional Office support during the first two weeks of the search effort as lukewarm, at best. I vividly recall talking to an official at Scott Air Force Base, after a long day in the field searching, about getting some high tech assistance from the military. Putting the phone down, I wondered why these avenues were not actively being pushed by the Regional Office and why we in the field had to take the initiative. Some weeks after Paul's disappearance, a detective in the Regional Office commented publicly that "Paul was probably sitting on a beach somewhere in Mexico with a girlfriend," a comment that infuriated those of us who were working on the case, but that statement seemed to typify the attitude in San Francisco. I imagine that the Fugate case did indeed become distracting as the years rolled by.
We did indeed search caves and mines in and around the Monument. This involved special training by the Arizona Bureau of Mines in self contained breathing apparatus and some touchy moments in the Hilltop Mine, a very extensive working near the Monument. At that point, we were thinking that Paul had run into a drug deal, and his body had been dumped somewhere outside the Monument. Quien sabe?
Working out of Tucson at the Arizona Archeological Center, I had visited Chiricahua about two weeks before Paul's disappearance. Paul had just been reinstated and I expected to walk into a snake pit. To my surprise and gratitude, the office was very mellow. I was alone with Paul for about two hours while he showed me a spectacular prehistoric basket that had just been discovered a a rock shelter near headquarters . I am sure that if he were truly disgruntled, there would have been some sign.
That rock shelter was the last place I visited on the final day of the initial search operations. Coming down the hill to the visitor center, I was nearly in tears, because it was becoming clearer and clearer that we weren't going to find Paul.
I am sorry I missed his memorial service. I would have attended, had it been possible.
Same for this person, would like to talk to you about your comment if you have a moment. Thanks
I too, would have attended the Memorial had I known about it. Although I did not know Paul or Dody Fugate, as a Tucson resident at that time I followed this perplexing case closely. I vividly remember the "Where Is Paul Fugate?" bumper stickers and my heart ached for his family. I am heartened to hear Dody has moved on and hopefully some day, some how she will gain some type of closure to also move past. After all this time he has not been forgotten - even by total strangers who still have that question cross their minds occasionally, "Where Is Paul Fugate?"
I worked w/ Paul at Navajo NM---1967---and Chir. NM.---1971. As a matter of fact, he was responsible for hiring me as a seasonal ranger at Chir. after a stint in the Army and Vietnam. I don't know if I ever thanked him. At the time it was an important milestone in my life. He was a good friend and I'm sorry that this case has not been solved.
I accepted a transfer to Chir. in Sept. of 1980 a few months after his disappearance on a foot patrol to the Faraway Ranch, it was the topic on eveyone's mind. It's amazing that the mystery continues. I still think about it from time to time as I did today when I googl-ed the name "Paul Fugate." Also, I'm glad things are going well for Dody...considering, and that she is finally collecting survivor's benefits. Paul definitley danced to his own beat. The NPS is a very conservative, closed orginization, thus the "drinking a cold beer on a beach in Mexico" scenario promoted at the time, and the glacial progress of the benefits to Dody.
I'm sure someone knows...somewhere.
Hello, what is the name of the ranger that wrote this section of the comments? Would like to chat if you have contacts. Thanks
I left Arizona in 1979 but Paul had helped me with my thesis work. We were classmates at the University of Arizona and although not a close friend, he was always willing to help with botanical questions. I didn't know him well but I worked in the Chiricahuas and had several contacts who knew him. I was told by a source that Paul had caught 2 trappers from a town just west of Safford (either Pima or Thatcher) running a trapline in the NE corner of the national monument a few days before he disappeared and he kicked them out of the monument and may have confiscated their equipment. I don't remember the details but but did hear rumors that these were well known "bad ass dudes" that had been caught for poaching before in other areas of the state. The fact that he disappeared just a few days after this occurrence makes me wonder if the reference to him in a pickup truck headed north towards Wilcox could have been these 2 guys from the Safford area. Driving north to Wilcox on the west side of the mountains would be the logical way to return to Safford. The story was told to me by Rich "Cachor" Taylor who currently or at least recently led birding tours and once (still?) lives in Whitetail Canyon on the east slopes of the Chiricahuas. I don't know if Mr. Taylor ever told this story to the authorities or if NPS squelched this information as they were not too fond of Mr. Fugate at the time.
Most of the paragraph submitted by Rob seems correct, although I have no knowledge that Paul had had any contact with trappers in the Monument, nor that they might have been from the Safford area. If so, they certainly should have been investigated. I'm positive that I did not provide those nuggets of information to Rob or anyone else. Nonetheless, trappers (how many there were, their prior history with law enforcement, or from whence they came, I have no idea) were working in the northern Chiricahuas at the time of Paul's disappearance. Conceivably Paul's work would have led to an interaction with them. It would be interesting to know if any trappers were ever interviewed. I have often wondered how thoroughly Paul's disappearance was investigated.
It's not a drug transaction they are talking about, but drug trafficking. Big difference. Cartels and smugglers would kill a ranger in a New York minute if it was one man against several and they were looking at life in prison if they allowed him to arrest them.
Additional comments on the Missing Paul Fugate:
http://officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?t=10168
Everytime I hear the name "Chiricahuas" I can think only of paying a visit to the monument with a cousin one late summer afternoon preceeding Paul Fugate's disappearance. I was about 16 or 17 years old at the time and, as I remember it, my cousin's then-wife and her family were close friends of Mr. Fugate; having grown up in the same area. We listened at the campground/picnic clearing (Visitors Center?) as Mr. Fugate gave a presentation to the visitors. We then drove with him in my cousin's car up a winding area to a lookout point where New Mexico can be seen, I remember it being pointed out. Forgive my ignorance, as I had never been to the Chiricahuas before nor since that day. Not knowing the area, but appreciating it's rugged remoteness, I find it -on the surface at least - almost implausible that anyone would go so far out of their way to do a drug transaction, for example, and that he may have stumbled upon it (as has been theorized). I do vividly remember news footage of the extensive foot, vehicular, K-9 and aerial searches that took place in the weeks following his dissappearence. Because I met this man once, I suppose I will alway remember this particular case. This is one of the most mysterious cases I have ever heard of; for a man to seemingly vanish off the face of the earth with out a trace -or apparent motive.
This was posted on the website "A Park Rangers Life". Don't know if you folks have seen it.
Link: http://aparkrangerslife.blogspot.com/2010/08/search-for-park-ranger-miss...
AnonymousMarch 8, 2017 at 1:18 AM
I just lost my nearly completed reply and it was very important. I would like anybody out there who can help me make contact to Doty Fugate, any living close family members if Paul Fugate and lastly the retired police officer and friend if Paul Fugate who witnessed the green truck speeding through Wilcox, he had police composite sketches made and I really am interested in seeing those sketches, its extremely important to me. I can be reached at this phone number 575-312-0108 at anytime, anyday, all ways!! Please whoever can get me these people to call me and or me in touch with them it would be very appreciative and the sooner this is handled and I can speak to someone, the better. Hopefully Mrs. Doty Fugate first and foremost and Paul Fugates retired Police officer friend would also be fantastic. I will need them to identify themselves to me for very personal and private reasons. Otherwise I will not talk to them. I am not interested in anything except the specific requests I have come here to get the correct and right answers, pleaae. Thank you if anyone has these contacts directly and they're exact, that will be wonderful.
Reply
If there has been no word or sightings of Paul, I think he is most likely still in the park somewhere, in an area that has not been searched. I really do hope and pray he is found...