Retracing the Final Steps of the Death Valley Germans

[Music] on July 22nd 1996 a group of four German tourists drove their rented minivan from the Treasure Island Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to Death Valley it was the end of a month-long trip exploring the southwestern United States and their plan was to spend a day or two sightseeing before heading Northwest to Yosemite and then on to San Francisco for their return flight to Germany in the van were four people 34 year-old Egbert his nine-year-old son Georg his 28 year old girlfriend Connie and her four-year-old son max after arriving in Death Valley they were never seen again [Music] wonder huh see here I'm out in Death Valley with my friend Larry and we're gonna retrace the last known steps of the doomed German tourists before they vanished into the desert on the morning of October 21st 1996 a death valley national park ranger was doing a routine helicopter flyover looking for hidden meth labs in the rugged Panamint mountain range as he flew over the lonely Butte valley area he spotted a vehicle way out in the middle of nowhere a few miles down an Ville can you knock several miles east of the nearest dirt road since anvil Canyon had been designated a wilderness area and closed to vehicle traffic the Ranger landed to take a closer look imagine the Rangers surprise when he found the vehicle turned out not to be a jeepers other 4x4 but a 1996 plymouth voyager minivan bogged down to its axles in sand with three flat tires from the markings in the wash behind it it looked like the van had been driven at least 200 feet on flat rear tires before the driver had given up locked the doors and abandoned it in the wash the van was covered in a layer of dust indicating that it had been there for some time the ranger reported the license plate number to Park headquarters who discovered that it had been reported stolen six weeks earlier by dollar rehna car in Los Angeles who had rented it to a party of German tourists back on July 8th the van had been due back on July 26th but was never returned a search of the renter's names revealed that an Interpol missing person's alert had been issued for all four Germans 34 year old Egbert Rimkus his eleven-year-old son Georg his 28 year old girlfriend cornelia meyer and her four-year-old son max they had all missed their scheduled flight back to Germany on July 27th and no one had ever heard from them again it seemed obvious that they'd gotten stuck in the sand way out in this lonely corner of Death Valley and in the heat of summer no less on a day on which the recorded high temperature at Park headquarters reached 124 degrees and since nearly three months had passed with no trace of the missing Germans it seemed likely that they had died way out here in the middle of nowhere but when the Death Valley National Park investigator and members of the County Sheriff's Office searched the area they could find no traces of human remains all they found were a few food wrappers and some toilet paper indicating that the family had stayed there for at least a night or two but there were no further clues anywhere in the area not even footprints it's an extremely rugged area and very difficult to search but over the next four days something like 250 search-and-rescue trackers and park rangers with horses and helicopters combed the area around Butte Valley and all they were able to turn up was an empty but iced beer bottle under a creosote bush about a mile and a half down the wash from the minivan the bottle matched others found inside the minivan so it seemed that one of the Germans had hiked down and left it there probably while sitting down in the meager shade provided by the bush remember this was July even though Butte Valley is up around 4,000 feet in elevation and a bit cooler than Death Valley headquarters down at sea level it was still well over a hundred degrees that during the day other than the beer bottle no other physical trace of the missing Germans was found but traces of their visit to Death Valley did show up in other places a German language guide to death valley was also found in the minivan and records showed it had been purchased at the furnace creek gift shop on July 22nd and on the following day an entry dated July 23rd 96 was made in the trail register below beautifully at the Warm Springs mine camp reading injury we are going over the pass Connie Eggbert Georg max it seemed that the Germans had intended to continue up Warm Springs Canyon Road past the mine camp and up into Butte vely where they planned across the notoriously gnarly Mangal Pass descending the western slope of the Panamint past Barker ranch former home of the Manson family down to Ballarat on the valley floor and then on to the paved highway eventually heading Northwest to Yosemite if you've ever driven mangal pass you know that it's insane to even consider trying to drive a minivan over it it's one of the most challenging and legendary off-road routes in Death Valley for that matter even taking a minivan up to Butte Valley was pretty nuts warm spring canyon road gets pretty burly after leaving the mine camp and only capable drivers and high clearance 4x4 should even attempt it I speak from personal experience a couple of years ago a group of friends and I convoyed up to Butte Valley to spend the night in one of the volunteer cabins up there these are old miners shacks that have been fixed up by volunteers and they're available to stay in for free on a first-come first-served basis we had a pretty big group and we were split up into a Jeep Grand Cherokee a Toyota 4runner and a camper eyes Mercedes Sprinter van which was not high clearance and did not have off-road tires our friend with the van insisted he could get it up there and consequently we had to crawl along at a snail's pace to accommodate him but when you know it he finally had enough a few miles shy of Butte Valley and left the van parked there overnight while we continued to the cabins in the other vehicles I don't think there was much damage to his van other than dented running boards but still it goes to show that the road up into Butte Valley is no joke and it's something of a minor miracle that the Germans were able to get a minivan up this far meanwhile speaking of the volunteer cabins in Butte Valley also found in the missing Germans minivan was an American flag labeled Butte Bally stone cabin this had apparently been stolen from the nicest of the volunteer cabins up there a really solid little stone hut commonly referred to as the geologists cabin after a couple of geologists who built it back in the 1930s when staying at one of these public volunteer cabins the custom is to raise the American flag on the flagpole out front to indicate that the cabin is occupied well apparently the Germans didn't know that and took the flag with them where it ended up being abandoned in their minivan anyway like I was saying a thorough 4-day search by 250 trained personnel turned up no further traces of the missing German tourists other than that single bud ice bottle and eventually the search was called off I mean this is really rugged and really remote terrain searching up here was no easy feat various search-and-rescue teams made additional trips to the area throughout the following years but they too found nothing It was as if the Germans had vanished into thin air of course this mysterious disappearance led to all kinds of kooky conspiracy theories as to what really happened some felt the Germans had accidentally stumbled on a secret meth lab and had been killed by drug manufacturers some theorize the Germans had been waylaid by stray members of the Manson family remember their old hideout Barker ranch is just over mangal pass a few miles away and others hypothesized that Eggbert had purposely trespassed onto the top-secret China Lake naval air weapon station in search of an even more top-secret facility he had heard of and the whole group had either been killed or enslaved by the government's black ops new world order seriously but the most commonly held theory was that the Germans had disappeared on purpose in order to start new lives thanks to a custody battle in which Egbert was embroiled with his ex-wife some believed they had all fled to Costa Rica somehow teleporting out of Bute Valley in the middle of summer this makes zero sense as all of Egberts Swiss bank account cards were found in the minivan I mean wouldn't he have needed to take that money with him to start a new life in Costa Rica in any event years passed with no trace of the missing Germans and eventually they were forgotten about by everyone except for their loved ones and a group of dedicated search-and-rescue enthusiasts almost all the information I got for this video came from an awesomely detailed fascinating blog called other hand org written by one such search-and-rescue volunteer named Tom mahute this guy spent countless hours and many dollars of his own money looking for these lost travelers starting around 2009 and it was thanks to his persistence dedication and many boots on the ground searches that the remains of the Germans were finally found in November of that year over 13 years after they went missing I'm telling you if you're interested in stuff like this that blog makes a great read and I'll put a link to it in the description of this video I first read the blog myself a few years ago before I really started exploring Death Valley and knew much about the area but I just reread it now that I know more about Butte Valley and I found it so fascinating and so haunting that I just had to come back up here and retrace their final steps myself [Music] I camped here last night in Hana pas Canyon this is the same place the Germans camped the night before their van got stuck and we know this because a roll of undeveloped film remember this was 1996 was discovered in the abandoned minivan and when it was developed by law enforcement one of them recognized photos that were taken on July 22nd as being taken from here in Hana pequeña n-- which is just north of Warm Springs Canyon that leads up to Butte Valley the Germans would have camped away up here because they were on a budget and they couldn't afford a motel room and since it was July in Death Valley it was too hot to camp anywhere on the valley floor so they would have had to head up one of these side canyons where would have been a little bit cooler I mean right now it's friggin freezing I'm here on Tuesday February 12th because I'm not that insane as to attempt this in the heat of July and while it's usually pretty nice here in Death Valley this time of year this freak cold front moved in from the Sierras and it is cold I mean you can see there's snow on the Panamint mountains here behind me I'm telling you death the valley is a land of extremes it is no joke don't come out here especially not on these backcountry roads unless you are seriously prepared to that end I'm not out here by myself I'm with my friend Larry in my four-wheel drive toyota 4runner with a full-size spare tire an air compressor two shovels rope a few days worth of water food emergency supplies and just in case an emergency satellite phone to call for help if we need it because there is no cell signal in most of Death Valley zero you really have to be prepared this isn't Disneyland in any event back in 96 the Germans wouldn't had a cell phone anyway but there were obviously things they could have done differently on their trip that would have given their story a much different ending if you read Tom moods blog you'll find they probably just made a series of decisions that seemed reasonable to them but turned out to be fatal errors I actually really liked Tom's blog because he doesn't berate them for being dumb he tries to get inside their heads and understand why they made the decisions they did and to be honest they made mistakes that I can see myself making I mean we all like to think we're too smart to get in over our heads but the reality is it's very easy to misjudge things and what seems like an inconsequential mistake can snowball leading to a dire situation on the morning of July 23rd 1996 the Germans would have broken camp here in Hana Pok an Yin and driven there rented minivan back down the dirt road toward West Side Road the main unpaved road that runs north-south along the west side of the famous badwater basin lowest point in the Western Hemisphere the road so far wouldn't been too bad so they probably felt pretty confident in their route plus the German guidebook they'd purchased in the gift shop the previous day showed a clear route up warm springs canyon road over the top of the Panama mountains via Mangal Pass and down to Ballarat on the other side and from there wasn't far to a paved highway that would eventually take them to Yosemite arriving at Westside Road that would have turned right to head south towards Warm Springs Canyon Road it would have been a beautiful sunny day and their minivan would have had air-conditioning so they were all probably in good spirits at this point about 20 miles later upon arriving at Warm Springs Canyon Road it would have turned right to begin the journey up and over the Panamint mountains to the west we know they stopped here at the old Warm Springs mine camp because this is where they signed the trail register stating their intention to cross Mangal Pass here's the guestbook they would have signed you can see that travelers still sign it to this day and it's not just for fun it could actually help the Rangers track you down if you run into trouble like the Germans they probably wouldn't have stayed at the mine camp too long because they had a lot of ground to cover if they were gonna make it to Yosemite by evening so after stopping to sign the guestbook and look around a bit they were back on the road which by now was getting kind of rough especially for a minivan the farther up Warm Springs Canyon Road they traveled the worse the road would have gotten but at this point it still wasn't bad enough that they had to turn back as long as they drove slowly and carefully they would have been able to avoid major obstacles and pick their way along westward this is one of those roads that really fakes you out it gets real rough and just when you think oh gee we should probably turn back it mellows out again and lulls you into a false sense of security until you're so far along it that it seems stupid to turn back arriving in Butte Valley they must have marveled at how beautiful the surroundings were although by this time their nerves were probably getting frayed from the long and arduous journey they just undertaken the adults may have had some misgivings by this point and maybe Connie was urging Egbert to turn back around but despite the worsening conditions of the road they continued up the eastern slope of the Panamint toward mangle pass you know how it is the road starts to get better after a while and you think oh maybe the rough parts over and maybe it'll be easier from now on and besides you really don't want to have to turn around and go all the way back down that horrible road you just traveled moreover they were kind of short on time if they wanted to see Yosemite and still make it to San Francisco in time for their flight on the 27th so they really couldn't afford to backtrack and go miles out of their way even worse later investigation revealed that they were also apparently low on funds Eggbert had faxed his ex-wife back in Germany from the Treasure Island in Vegas asking her to wire him more money but she never did so they probably didn't want to drive the long way around because all of the gas it would have taken to the root over Mangal Pass still seemed like the shortest and most direct path to Yosemite we know they stopped off here at the geologists cabin also known as the Butte Valley stone cabin because the American flag was found in their minivan I'm guessing they probably stopped here thinking it was someone's house so they could ask for directions or road conditions but finding it empty and abandoned and not being familiar with the concept of volunteer cabins for whatever reason they just took the American flag and continued on their way the irony or tragedy here is if they would have just stayed put at the geologists cabin it's almost always stocked with provisions and there's a spring right here that they could have drunk from until someone showed up to help them but like I said they were in a hurry still thinking they could make their flight on time and I guess it seemed wiser to just keep pressing on we don't know if they actually attempted going up and over mingle pass but it seems likely that they probably pushed onward as far as they could go maybe the road finally got so rough that they finally decided to give up and turn around but rather than head back down the valley along that horrible road they just come up they looked at their map in the German guidebook and it showed an alternate road leading down and volcanic that guidebook must have been pretty out of date in reality anvil canyon hadn't been a road in a very long time back in the day it was used by miners and prospectors in the area but after anvil Canyon was designated as part of the Death Valley wilderness in the 90s it was closed to vehicle traffic and received zero maintenance a 4x4 might have been able to drive down it but certainly not a minivan and definitely not a minivan with three flat tires put yourself in Egberts shoes I mean as the man of the family he probably felt responsible for getting them all into this Jam and once the van got bogged down he had to think fast and figure out what to do with two small children and not a lot of food or water they didn't have much time to figure it out before the situation got dire their options were basically limited to a few possibilities they could stay with the van and hope they were spotted and rescued but that seemed pretty unlikely since they were in such a remote part of Death Valley alternately they could have just hiked back here to the geologist Kevin which was only four miles from where their van got stuck and has plenty of food running water and shelter and in retrospect that makes the most sense but I'm guessing they still felt like they could get out of here faster and still make their flights on time if they just headed for help on foot even going on foot they had a couple of options they could have hiked back down Warm Springs Canyon all the way to the Mayan camp which was visited more often than beautifully and they probably could have found help there eventually but maybe not soon enough to make their flight what they probably ended up doing and this was all formulated by the guy who wrote that awesome blog post and tried to get inside Eggbert said was to hike through the mountains to the southeast where China Lake naval air weapons station was marked on the map being from Europe the adults were probably used to military bases being fenced off and patrolled regularly so they must have figured if they could just get to the perimeter of the base they could get the attention of one of the guards and get help but what they didn't realize was military bases out here in the desert are totally different from military bases in Europe China Lake in particular is vast something like the size of Rhode Island and there's no perimeter fence and certainly no guard patrol so even if they could have managed to make it to the perimeter of the base they would have had many many many more miles to hike before they even reached a paved road by the time they realized their mistake it was too late they were probably already miles from the minivan and the relatively nearby geologists cabin they were out of water it was likely well over a hundred degrees and sadly they probably succumbed to heatstroke it would have been a horrible way to die utterly alone out in the middle of this vast empty roiling desolation of course we don't really know what happened because they left no written records but thanks to the author of that blog post and his search-and-rescue buddies making multiple search trips down here on their own dime Connie's wallet and remains were eventually located way way way out in a lonely Valley about five miles to the southeast of the van in the direction of the China Lake Base other bones were also found nearby and tested and are believed to be Egberts who succumbed first no one can really say but as far as we know no remains of the two little boys were ever found I'm guessing as a parent I would probably give the last water to my child before drinking it myself so the boys were probably the last to die after her Connie and eggbert succumbed they maybe tried to continue on to the base on their own or they might have turned around and tried to hike back up to the van it's hard to imagine a four year old and an eleven year old getting very far on their own in this unforgiving landscape so the horrible reality is they probably died somewhere along the way either of heat thirst or maybe they were attacked by a wild animals I mean there's some pretty big coyotes out here no matter what happened it was a horrible way to end what was supposed to have been a fun sightseeing tour of the Southwest United States and it's a stark reminder of what can happen in these rugged isolated areas if you're not adequately prepared the West can be beautiful but deadly be careful out here you [Music]

Channel: Wonderhussy Adventures

Views: 277,425

Rating: 4.8005028 out of 5

Keywords: wonderhussy, wonder hussy, death valley, weird desert, weird mojave, death valley germans, cornelia meyer, nevada weird, strange nevada, egbert rimkus, national park disappearance, vanished national park, german tourists death valley, butte valley, anvil canyon

Id: a-KUF-xiV5o

Length: 27min 9sec (1629 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2019