Houghton, MI – 15 members from various search teams and law enforcement agencies across the Western Upper Peninsula gathered in a classroom to take the Lost Person Behavior Workshop that was hosted this past weekend. Lost Person Behavior is data driven search theory based on a landmark study of over 50,000 missing person cases from around the world. Using this data search teams are able to identify by statistical methods on where to search for a subject based on their behavioral characteristics. This workshop was funded by the Portage Health Auxiliary and Gift Shop at U.P. Health System – Port ..read more

Congratulations to Darian Reed our president for receiving the Keweenaw Community Sparkplug Awards First Responder of the year award ..read more

Hancock, MI – Members of Superior Search & Rescue (SSAR), Baraga County Search & Rescue (BCSAR), and Marquette County Search & Rescue (MCSAR) participated on Saturday February 25th in a full-scale missing person search exercise between Hancock and Calumet. The search exercise started around 0830 and concluded at 1730 with an After Action Briefing after. All three teams utilized ground teams, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and K9 units to search for the participant acting as the subject. The exercise involved a trained survivalist who acted as a vulnerable adult walking away from Canal Vi ..read more

Thank you to all of our wonderful donors who supported our team this year during #GivingTuesday2022. This year we received $10,336.72 and we are thankful for every dollar. Thank you also the Portage Health Foundation for being such a great partner and putting this together for all of us. If you missed Giving Tuesday you can also still support the team by going to superiorsar.org/donate ..read more

A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to host Larry Roberts to the Copper Country to teach our team survival skills or as we called it Wilderness "Inconvenience" training. We worked on making temporary shelters and how to start a fire for if a team is in a location and are awaiting for evac. We worked with the tools that we had brought with us to set up camp and to create the needed resources that we didn't have on hand. Larry Roberts was also a two-time contestant on the History Channel TV Show Alone where he spent time on Vancouver Island and then Mongolia in Season 2 and Season 5 respectiv ..read more

We were thrilled to host Greenside Training LLC for an entire weekend of man tracking August 20 and 21! Weaponize the Senses was a great class for the team and helped us become better trackers. After the end of training on Day 2, the team was deployed by the Michigan State Police for a real world incident in Duncan Township where we able to put the skills immediately to use. We started Day 1 with talking about humanity's deep connection with tracking, and then proceeded to head out to the nail trail where we needed to locate 8 wood nails that corresponded to footsteps. Then we explored the Spo ..read more

President Darian Reed and Training Officer Patrick Diedrich receiving the 2021 Giving Tuesday check. Another successful year for Superior Search & Rescue as it receives a check for $14,607 from the Portage Health Foundation. This has been a wonderful opportunity and are very happy to thank each and every single person who donated during this event. Darian Reed, our president, had this to say “I am very thankful for everyone who helped make this possible and for the awesome team at Portage Health Foundation for letting us be a part of this event ..read more

On January 22, members of Superior Search & Rescue braved the cold winter day on training skills in land navigation, sign recognition, SAR operations, de-escalation/public interaction and first aid. This start will help members gain new skills needed for being in the field. Taking what was learned from the online training and classroom section of Phase I, members proceeded to use skills learned for the field. Superior Search & Rescue invited Trish and Callie from the Michigan Tech Theater Department for adding a much needed dose of reality to the training. We will be looking forward t ..read more

Superior Search & Rescue (SSAR) announces brand new drone purchased to assist with missing persons and other major incidents in the Copper Country. Thanks in part to the Portage Health Foundation and the Portage Health Auxiliary and Gift Shop for funding the program with two grants totaling $35,000 along with donations from Giving Tuesday 2021. SSAR has had a drone program since 2019, when the Portage Health Auxiliary funded the purchase of the original drone. It helped in many incidents and events in the region since then. The unit featured a thermal camera and various attachments like a ..read more

Monday, October 11 representatives from Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon County Sheriff’s Offices introduced Project Lifesaver. Project Lifesaver is a program specifically designed to reduce the time, funds, and manpower needed for search and rescue missions involving a wandering “at risk” individual. “We all witnessed the tragedy that took place in Ontonagon County with 17-year-old Cam Besonen,” Houghton County Sheriff’s Office Detective Lieutenant Charlie Klein said. “It took several days and hundreds of volunteers and workers to locate him. It was a heroic response with a deva ..read more