Michigan: Missing 8-year-old boy survives two days in state park by eating snow | US News
An 8-year-old boy has been rescued after being lost in the Michigan wilderness for two days.
Nante Niemi, a second grader from Wisconsin, was found safe Monday after getting lost in Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
Niemi disappeared from his family’s campsite near the town of Wakefield in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on Saturday afternoon. His family believed he had wandered off collecting firewood and got lost.
His disappearance sparked a massive manhunt that expanded to include 150 search and rescue personnel and nine K9 teams to search the area on the ground, in the air and around Lake Superior.
Rescuers searched for two days in an area about 40 square miles — just a small portion of the state park’s 60,000-acre wilderness. Large parts of the park were still inaccessible to cars due to the snow that had not yet melted.
Eventually, Niemi was found about two miles from his family’s campsite.
Michigan State Police said Niemi survived a full two days in the wild by building a shelter out of leaves, twigs and a log and eating snow to stay hydrated.
“He braved the elements by taking shelter under a log, where he was eventually found,” rescuers said. “He had nothing to eat but ate clean snow for hydration.”
On Sunday, Niemi started walking down a hiking trail looking for his campsite. “When he ran out of track, he figured it was best to just stop and wait,” Michigan State Police said. “They offered to carry him out today, but he told the people who found him he wanted to go!”
He was eventually spotted by Eli Talsma, a family friend who was assisting the search team.
“The first thing he did was he walked up to me and gave me a fist bump and we fist bumped him and we hugged tightly,” Talsma recounted CBS Detroit. “And I said, ‘Are you alright, is there something wrong?’ He says, ‘No, I’m fine. I’m just ready to go home.
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