Went for a walk in the woods Saturday

Perhaps a walk in the woods is a poor description.  Here's the set up:

Authorities are looking for a missing hunter in northwestern Crawford County. Sheriff Todd Liston says 55-year-old Steven Moyes went hunting Friday morning and never came back. They found his vehicle, but no signs of Moyes.

Saturday the search went full scale. They called for manpower from area fire departments, search teams, etc.   The are we were searching was one of the largest wooded areas I know of in a couple counties that is not a park or reserve of some kind.  Here is the initial search area

Where the truck was found is probably a mile and half of the main road east of there, which is not even on this map! That is a lot of woods, hills, underbrush, creeks, etc. It included old home sites, an abandoned open well or two, oil wells, hills and hollers, a couple almost swamp areas.  It was an adventure.

We knew it could be difficult because of the terrain.  It would be compounded by the fact he was a turkey hunter.  Most likely he was in full camo and if setting might be in a very hard to see spot.

The group I was in was 12 people.  We swept an area, then went to another.  We met up with two other similar sized groups in a fairly clear spot out in the middle of the woods.  Here we are waiting for further instructions on where to go

That was one of the clear areas.  Especially on the southeast side there were spots so rank and overgrown they nearly impassable.   Areas were searched, then later searched again.

Turnout was amazing.  When they recalled us I took a couple photos on the way in

These photos don't nearly do justice to the people handling logistics.  Command center, food tent, porta-potties, trash,fuel, cooling tent, fans, communications, transportation, air search, tracking dogs..

 Just amazing.

Yes, there were some glitches.  Some things could be improved, there always are.  You learn every time you do something like this.  The out pouring from the community was amazing as well.  I had the blue mule there to assist in transporting.  Most vehicles were parked a the road and people were transported a mile or so to the staging area, then another half mile or more to the search areas. I took someone to the parking area and as I was turning around a Deputy asked if I could haul some supplies back/  Turns out someone has bought 3 cases of bottled water and a cooler.  She said her name and number were on the cooler (a very nice one, too) and if she got it back fine, and if not no problem.  It was only a cooler.   I am confident in saying there were 20-30 cases of water setting in the food tent that were donated.

Crawford Rescue has said there were 150 searchers at one point, but that doesn't include support people or others who had helped but left.


If anyone wants to have a reason to choose to live in southeast Illinois, times like this are one of them.


WTHI News story
Crawford County Rescue
Rescue 300
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