Authorities are searching for an 8-year-old boy who went missing on a camping trip with his family in Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park over the weekend.
Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, also called “the Porkies,” has 60,000 acres of old-growth forest, waterfalls, rivers, trails and ridges, officials said on the state park’s website.
The boy, Nante Niemi, is an 8-year-old second-grader in the Hurley School District in Wisconsin, a school administrator confirmed in an email.
Michigan State Police are leading the investigation, the agency said in a news release.
The boy was camping with his family at 1 p.m. Saturday at Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, in the western upper peninsula. Niemi was walking and gathering firewood for their campsite when he wentmissing, police said in the news release.
He is 4-foot-2 and weighs between 70 and 80 pounds. He was wearing a white sweatshirt, graysweatpants and black boots, police said about the blonde hair, brown-eyed boy.
His mother, Jessica Buerger, told TV station WDIO that the family goes on the same trip each year. She said there have been fake posts about search parties and asked that people let officers search and do their jobs.
Park officials also posted Sunday and said there are dozens of agencies helping with the search.
According to Michigan State Police, more than 150 search and rescue personnel, including nine K9s, aresearching the 40-square mile area on foot. Some agencies are searching in the air and on water as well.
“The terrain is very remote and hilly with a lot of standing water due to the time of the year,” Michigan State Police wrote in a news release. “Several seasonal roads are still impassable because of snow depth.”
On Sunday, the boy’s school district posted about him on Facebook and said numerous people had asked how they could help.
“The Hurley School administration is in frequent communication with local authorities,” the post read. “The local police are also aware that we stand by ready with 2 buses of volunteers waiting to go help search. Many professional agencies from Wisconsin and Michigan have been deployed throughout the area, and we are being told to please stay away from the area so they can best do their job.”
The Iron County Sheriff’s Office in Hurley, Wisconsin, where the boy is from, posted about the search as well and said deputies are on standby.
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