Park Ranger Dies in Voyageurs National Park

Sad story breaking this morning. Prayers for family and friends.

A Voyageurs National Park law enforcement ranger died on Namakan Lake Sunday.

The ranger was responding to a distressed civilian vessel on the lake when the ranger’s boat capsized.
The ranger has not been identified. No other injuries were reported.

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. (FOX 9) – A law enforcement park ranger died after responding to a call for assistance on Namakan Lake in Voyaguers National Park Sunday.

What we know

According to a press release from Voyageurs National Park, the park ranger was responding to a call for assistance late Sunday morning from a distressed civilian vessel on Namakan Lake.

The boat being used by the ranger capsized as it was towing the distressed vessel, causing the ranger and three civilians being assisted to go into the water, officials said.

The three civilians were able to swim to safety, but the ranger was not accounted for. After a three-hour search, the body of the ranger was found in Namakan Lake, authorities say.

Rough waters and high winds were reported at the time of the incident.

What we don’t know

Authorities are investigating the incident. It is unknown why the civilians were distressed.

The identity of the ranger has not been released.

Authorities did not say whether the civilians were injured.

The Source
A press release from Voyaguers National Park.

Wow that is terrible! Prayers to that persons family and friends and those civilians are going to carry that burden for the rest of their lives as well.

What a sad deal.
With a west wind like that it can really ugly out there in a few spots.
Towing a boat in 5-6ft waves was a brave move. Prayers to all involved.

Very sad. Always tons of respect and appreciation for any line of work that has to put themselves in harm’s way or any amount of risk for others.

Grubson sent that to me yesterday. Very sad.

Could it be he gave his PFD to those he was assisting. I can’t believe a ranger would go into such a situation without a PFD.
Heart attack?

I was wondering about the potential of no life jacket too. That seems really odd. I would think the people in the other boat would have had their own.

I’m scratching my head on this one too. I understand you can still drown with an LJ on but I wonder if he/she gave his to someone else or what the deal is. The other thought in my head was those LEOs usually have the inflatable LJs. I wonder if something happened where it didn’t deploy fast enough or something. Just pure speculation at this point

RIP the Park Ranger. Dying in the line of duty is incredibly sad.

mojo wrote:

Heart attack?

Or some other medical issue. This is what I am assuming. Also makes sense he would be wearing a PFD as it did not take long to find his body.

-J.

It was revealed a few years ago that the warden responding to a capsized boat event drowned because he was not wearing his PFD. Let’s hope that is not the case in this situation also.

Hard to say what happened in this situation. I’ve have been gong up there my entire life, been checked by wardens and park rangers many times. I’ve never seen one not wearing a life jacket. In 5-6ft waves in cool water I’m not sure a life jacket would save you anyways. Being they found him within 3hrs tells me he was floating. Just speculation at this point obviously. Terrible tragedy regardless.

Towing a boat in 5-6ft waves was a brave move. Prayers to all involved. [/quote]

Why wouldn’t you just go to shore somewhere and wait out the weather????

Prayers for the family. Died a Hero.

mxskeeter wrote:

Towing a boat in 5-6ft waves was a brave move. Prayers to all involved.

Why wouldn’t you just go to shore somewhere and wait out the weather????

Prayers for the family. Died a Hero.
[/quote]

The saddest part of it is that he could have gotten into sheltered water and waited it out. Who knows what was going on to convince him to not do that. I’m not gonna judge as I wasn’t there and don’t know what was going on. Without a doubt shelter was available regardless of where on the lake it happened.

mxskeeter wrote:

Towing a boat in 5-6ft waves was a brave move. Prayers to all involved.

Why wouldn’t you just go to shore somewhere and wait out the weather????

Prayers for the family. Died a Hero.
[/quote]

Perhaps they were heading to shore or the closest campsite? There’s a lot of open water out there and if a boat becomes disabled in seas like that and it’s adrift, it may be a long tow – even to the closest shoreline.

Must of been close to shore as the article stated the 3 civilians made it to shore.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mxskeeter wrote:</div>
Towing a boat in 5-6ft waves was a brave move. Prayers to all involved.

Why wouldn’t you just go to shore somewhere and wait out the weather????

Prayers for the family. Died a Hero.

Perhaps they were heading to shore or the closest campsite? There’s a lot of open water out there and if a boat becomes disabled in seas like that and it’s adrift, it may be a long tow – even to the closest shoreline.
[/quote]

this update from Lakeland News:

Update: Voyageurs National Park has identified the ranger who died on Sunday as 55-year-old Kevin Grossheim of Kabetogama, MN.

“Kevin was much loved by all and always known to go above and beyond,” said Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Bob DeGross in a statement. “He will be greatly missed. Our hearts go out to his wife and their loved ones.”

I also saw a Kare11 TV news report that said he was a very experienced boater who may have been trapped under the boat when it capsized. His body was transported to the ME with many police/fire escorts.

-J.

Terrible news to hear

Not all that long ago a local game warden died in the line of duty. In the rush of the call he neglected to put on a PFD.

It’s definitely possible to still die wearing one, but they up your odds of survival exponentially.

The Strib article said he was wearing a PFD but didn’t surface after his boat capsized? My assumption is that it’s possible he was trapped underneath it.

[Edit: I just saw Jon posted that he could have been trapped under the boat while I was typing my reply]

I’m not sure about the water temps on Namakan right now, but I can’t imagine it was much of a factor in such a short time.

Also wondering if physics even allow 6-foot waves on a lake with just 10 miles of fetch?? (the Strib article even said they were 8-foot waves, which seems impossible)

How windy was it up there? It was blowing at my house Sunday but not 100mph.

We were discussing this at work today. Figured he could’ve hit his head, got tangled in an anchor rope or any number of things when a boat capsizes and you’re trying to save the folks you were rescuing.
Like others have said, can’t judge when you weren’t there, but was there anyway to wait it out longer? Or just go back for the boat later?
So sad. Brave man and prayers for his family.

B-man, according to my uncle, who lives up there during the summer it was scary windy. 40+ with higher gusts. Trees down in the woods.
That being said, I’ve never personally seen 5-6ft waves up there.
3ft +/- waves are pretty common in the east end of kab and east end of namakan (where the accident happened). Add in current, and it can be pretty sporty out there. I read that the rescue crew said that they had never seen it that bad before.
Regardless it was obviously bad enough to be dangerous.
I think it is very possible he got trapped/ tangled up in the canopy of his boat when it capsized. That would make a life jacket useless. Hitting his head is a definite possibility too. With water temps in the low 60’s/ upper 50’s, I can’t imagine hypothermia was much of a factor. That’s colder water than I want to be in. It definitely would kill you if given enough time.
RIP Kevin. He certainly died a hero. Risking it all to help others is a noble as it gets.

grubson wrote:

He certainly died a hero.

Flags are ordered to be at half staff today in his honor.

-J.

grubson wrote:

RIP Kevin. He certainly died a hero. Risking it all to help others is a noble as it gets.

Amen

Such a sad deal. That is a big dang boat he had it would be interesting to hear how that thing capsized. Was it because of towing the other boat? That may have been a mistake to tow it, but man I am sure no one saw this coming. He has probably done something like this dozens of times over the years.

More info this morning in this article here, inflatable was on and he was not towing the othre boat:

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/10/07/voyageurs-national-park-ranger-dies-helping-stranded-boaters-rough-waters

Just a terrible, sad tragedy. After seeing his picture I remember meeting him and another Ranger a number of years ago at our campsite on Williams Island. They were checking out the condition of docks at campsites and we had a nice chat with them both. So sad.
I’ve camped on the East end of Nam over the years and with a W/NW wind that end can get very rough. We came back from Kettle Falls one trip not realizing how much the wind had risen while we were gone, and the ride back to our site on Rainbow island was sketchy in our 1850 Tyee as we got down to Mitchell island.

Prayers for him and his family.

VNP can be a nasty place to be in rough weather. I have been in some hairy situations out there. There are some spots on nam or kab with miles of fetch. Its impossible to know why certain decisions were made.

He was a veteran ranger. He had helped hundreds of boaters in trouble during his tenure. He was impeccable about safety. He taught the MOCC when I was certified in the park. He gave me a warning once, when 15 minutes after sunset I didn’t have have my running lights on. He was serious but fair – and his lifetime of service to others is honorable. His passing is just plain sad.

Many types of life jackets used by boaters do not keep your face out of the water if you are knocked unconscious. Some types are designed to turn a person face up if unconscious…

https://www.boatus.org/life-jackets/types