Lost Children

Summary of Children Lost in the Mountains

Children Lost in the Mountains is a book written by me, Tim Hupp.  It is a collection of stories of searches for children that were, well, lost in the mountains, mostly in Virginia.  It was inspired by my noticing some similarities of three events:  In 1891, an almost 5-year-old boy was lost from a schoolhouse and his body was found 5 months later on top of Bluff Mountain, near Buena Vista.  In 1943, a 4-year-old girl was lost from her home near Island Ford, to be found on top of Rocky Mount five days later.  In 1988, an almost 3-year-old boy disappeared from his home near Mountain Valley, and he was found the next day on top of Massanutten Mountain.  All three events, widely separated in time, had a common element--the child lost was discovered on top of a mountain.  It reminded me of a time I was lost when I was about 7.  I kept thinking the path I needed to get on was further up the hill, and I climbed up higher as I went, not realizing I was already higher than that path.  I had gone up, too. 

I decided to find out what details I could to fill out the stories, and put it in a book.  As I did, I found out much more to the stories than I knew, and found many others.  Although the stories mentioned above make up the first three chapters of Children Lost in the Mountains, more than a dozen other searches for lost children (and a couple of adults) are included in the book.  Also there is a chapter analyzing the stories, one on how modern Search and Rescue is conducted, and a final chapter about avoiding getting lost and surviving if you do. 

iUniverse.com, a subsidary of Barnes&Noble has published this book. 

Go to a book review of this book, by Ted Hayes in the Elkton Valley Banner

Go to books written by Tim Hupp

News of lost children (since the book was published)

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