Hello Everyone,

I just posted a picture from a Facebook site that I follow this week and the caption stated that the Black Forest was responsible for 15,000 missing people cases last year. I posted it, not taking into account the large number of people is and was even called out on it a little for factual information. Although I would like to do some more research into the subject my time is limited and this is what I have found out so far.

Numbers:

Some sources say that the actual number is 1,500. That would make a little more sense considering it is still an awfully lot of people to go missing. Still it doesn’t mean in any sense that they these people were ever discovered, simply missing. So that could make the number easily higher again. Think about lost kids at a store or mall. My question is, “what are they really considering a missing person to be?”

With the amount of tourism that focuses around the forest each year there is typically around 140,000 people staffed at businesses and services around the forest. And almost 35 million tourists in a 2009 report. That makes you take into consideration the massive flow of tourism and the possibility of the missing persons cases each year. If so 1,500 missing people, lost or whatever, seems possible. Also there is the fact that missing people cases can be someone who is in fact found the same day they disappeared or went missing. The picture said nothing about it being a permanent missing person case or disappearance.

Strange Occurrences and Possible Factors:

Although only about a 100 miles and 40 miles wide it is a very thick and dense forest. Because of temperature factors, the fog settles to the bottom of the forest and leaves the mountain tops exposed. Thus making visibility limited and therefore easy to lose your way.

There was a large influx of mining at one time which may still have some open pits left or caverns that a person can fall down or venture into finding themselves injured or lost within a mine in the forest. Kind of a double whammy.

Thoughts:

So by playing the number game alone I feel that 15,000 people last year is not impossible considering how many people go missing every day in the local city. If these people in the factoid are allegedly missing or disappeared forever than I would possibly retract my opinion on that. What I would really like to do is find a proven source with the actual numbers and compare it to a local National forest that I know of to compare the stats. Maybe I will get time in the future to look further into it.

Thanks for Reading,

Joshua Crane Dowidat