Authorities have found two hikers dead on a remote island in Lake Superior and admit a mystery around their deaths.
The investigation began on Sunday, when National Park Service rangers received multiple reports of dead bodies at a remote campground within Isle Royale National Park near Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Two rangers hiked 11 miles overnight to reach the area and discovered two people dead. Park authorities are now conducting an investigation.
“The causes of death are unknown at this time,” the National Park Service said in a statement. “Additional ground and aviation resources responded starting Monday.”
The names of the victims have not been released.
Isle Royale National Park spans 132,000 acres across the northwestern portion of Lake Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world. The park consists of one main island that is surrounded by 450 smaller islands. Visitors can only access the isolated park six months a year via a ferry, boat or seaplane.
Popular tourist destinations within the park include Rock Harbor to the northeast and Windigo to the southwest, where many hiking trails start.
The weather was mostly mild on Sunday and early Monday, with some thunderstorms reported in the afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
Park rangers were also faced with a similar mystery in November after an unidentified body washed up on the lake’s shore near Michigan’s Miners Beach, about 150 miles from the Isle Royale park. Authorities used DNA analysis to identify him as 65-year-old John Kueber. Foul play was not suspected in that case, the National Park Service said in a statement.
Four months earlier, a woman died hiking in the isolated national park in August. The 37-year-old had a sudden medical emergency in a remote location while walking with her husband, according to The Detroit News.
In July, 70-year-old John Nousaine also died in the park while scuba diving toward the Emperor, a 525-foot steel ship that sank in Lake Superior nearly 80 years ago. His death marked the first diving-related fatality at Lake Superior in at least ten years, The Detroit News reports.
