Dad's Tyler story was picked up by a local newspaper columnist. Here is the write-up.
Published August 20, 2004
Schnieder: Hunter's skills help Charlotte man find lost child
A half-mile down the hiking trail, the others gave up. No way, they said, could a toddler go that far that fast. But small footprints in the sand propelled Ron Wilson forward.
"I'm a deer hunter," said Wilson, who lives in Charlotte and runs the forest fire program for the state Department of Natural Resources. "When you're trailing an animal that might be wounded, you keep going as long as you're finding any little bit of sign. I had to keep going."
One mile farther down the trail, as night was starting to fall, Wilson heard the mournful sound of a child's fearful crying.
Missing childWilson and his wife were camped at a rustic site at the Rifle River Recreation Area, east of Rose City in the northern Lower Peninsula. The Wilsons were sitting down to supper when a family arrived at a nearby campsite. Apparently in the rush of setting up camp, the parents didn't notice that their 2-year-old, Tyler, had wandered off.
"They started calling for him," Wilson said. "They were becoming more and more agitated as time passed."
Others at the campground, including a park ranger, joined the search. Noticing that searchers had the immediate area covered, Wilson struck out in a different direction, following various trails to the Rifle River.
Coming up empty, Wilson chose another direction and spotted a small footprint in the dust of a gravel road. Of course, it was a campground, and there were lots of footprints, large and small.
Following a hunch, he crossed the road and came to a hiking trial, where he noticed another small footprint.
About that time, Wilson encountered other searchers who had started down the same trail, then turned back. They believed they had reached the outer limit of a 2-year-old's range.
Wilson wasn't so sure. "Something told me to keep following that trail," he said.
Sweet sound The hunch paid off. After another 20 minutes on the trail, which cut through dense cover, Wilson heard Tyler's sobs. "I called out to him, 'Stay where you are; I'll come and get you.' "
For some reason, the boy had wandered off the trail and was 50 yards into a fir swamp.
"One of his shoes had come off," Wilson said, "and he was holding it in his hand. I put him on my lap and helped him put his shoe on."
The boy, who had wandered nearly two miles, had no interest in walking back. And he wanted to be carried only one way - cradled in Wilson's arms. He refused to ride Wilson's shoulders or even on his hip. "He was scared," Wilson said.
Contacted Thursday, park supervisor Steve Krantz called the incident an "amazing story."
"We were all happy, indeed, with how it turned out," Krantz said.
A friend of Wilson's, Barbara VanderMolen of Charlotte, tipped me off about this story. She noted that Wilson has a heart condition.
"I was pretty beat when I got back to camp," Wilson conceded. "He was a chunky little guy."
Beat, but joyful - as were all the campers. Especially Tyler and his parents.
"Finding that little tyke - that was the highlight of the trip," Wilson said.
What do you think? Call John Schneider at 377-1175, send a fax to 377-1298 or e-mail jschneid@lsj.com. Include your name, phone number, city, town or township.
