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| Chris Hallaxs. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
Welcome to Christopher Charles Hallaxs' missing-person Web site.
• Gone-missing
incident
• Christopher Charles Hallaxs
• Personal information
• Scars, marks, piercing, &
tattoos
• Deformities, fractures,
& medical devices
• Clothing & accessories
at disappearance
• Missing-person poster
• $1,000 Crime Stoppers reward
& toll-free tipline
Super with my uncles...
Later, supper [at his uncles' camp] is lasagna.
Well, it's better than rodents (squirrels), but it lacks....I dunno...spirit, or authenticity, or character, or something.
There are even...um....napkin rings, though these accompany paper plates, and such, so it's tolerable.
Upper Tahquamenon Falls in the winter. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) I get asked once, apparently sincerely, something along the lines of if the food is good enough, the chair is OK, etc.
Usual trivial, borderline-annoying niceties.
I'm amused, though. After all, I am usually pretty happy to be sitting on the ground next to a fire, gnawing a carcass and throwing the bones back in the fire, listening to the wind in the trees around me. :-)
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, November 11, 2002
The
design, maintenance, and hosting of this Web site are provided as a
free, public service of Michigan Backcountry
Search and Rescue (MiBSAR) of Marquette, Michigan.
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| Great Lakes-area atlas map of where Chris Hallaxs was last seen on March 17, 2004. Click here or on map for high-resolution imagery. |
Christopher Charles Hallaxs has not been seen or heard from since March 17, 2004, when he went missing near Paradise, in the eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
He was last seen by a clerk at the BP Gas Station in the village of Paradise.
After purchasing some pop and snack foods, he reportedly told the clerk, an acquaintance of his, he was going out to his camp.
A subsequent search-and-rescue operation was conducted by troopers from the Newberry State Police Post and deputies from the Chippewa County Sheriff's Office.
While they did locate and follow what were believed to be Chris' snowshoes tracks, after miles of tracking, a thick, tangled swamp forced them to call off the search in wee hours of the morning due to hazardous conditions.
Sleeping on the ground under a red pine...
Tahquamenon River rapids in the winter. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) It was fairly warm and yet cool enough to be bug free last night, so after doing a bit of wandering around looking at the glowing clear sky, courtesy of the full moon, I laid my head on the roots of a big red pine somewhere in the state forest west of town and got my day's sleep there.
I'm back to take a shower and then go off and do those goofy Real World things now.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, August 13, 2003
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| Eastern Upper Peninsula of Michigan road map of general search area. Click here or on map for high-resolution imagery | |
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| Digital USGS 1:100,000 quadrangle topographic map of general search area. Click here or on map for high-resolution imagery. | |
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Digital orthophoto (satellite/aerial) quadrangle of general search area. Click here or on image for high-resolution imagery. |
Chris loved to spend his free time exploring the bush, usually alone, often on foot, occasionally with a mountain bike.
Social interaction
When I come back from a couple days out by myself, I almost even feel sociable for a short time.
The effect wears off faster than it accumulates, and is fleeting, but I assume that's due to my personal orneriness.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, July 27, 2003
While he often traveled via woods roads and trails—particularly the North Country Trail, snowmobile trails, and ski trails—he really preferred rugged, cross-country travel and bushwhacking.
In the months leading up to his disappearance, Chris was known to travel very light, and often at night. While most of his trips lasted two to three days, a few were multi-week sojourns
27 days without seeing a soul
The longest I've ever been out and not seen a single other person has been something like 27 days, I think.
It was great; one of the best times of my life. I really maintain that I like people, but 99 percent give one percent of them a bad name is all. :-D
To put it somewhat more seriously, I do kinda feel like I'm missing something, but even when I'm around most people, I'm still missing it anyway, so it's not really a loss.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, March 29, 2003
When short on provisions, Chris was known to supplement his diet by living off the land, hunting and gathering when the opportunity arose.
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| A lean-to structure thought to be one of Chris Hallaxs'. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Ozminski, MiBSAR) | |
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| Animal-pillaged, pickle-bucket cache thought to be one of Chris Hallaxs'. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Ozminski, MiBSAR) | |
At times, Chris was also known to hole up at well-camouflaged encampments secreted away in very remote, seldom-visited bush.
These rustic encampments are believed to have consisted of simple, tarp-covered lean-tos, some of which may have included caches of equipment and provisions secured in large pickle buckets stashed on terra firma, hung from trees, or buried underground.
Alone
About the only time
I don't feel the least bit alone
is when I *AM* totally alone.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, July 27, 2003
Most of Chris' travels were in the remote, tangled bush of the 1,000,000-plus-acre Lake Superior State Forest.
The 450-square-mile area of bush that Chris traversed most frequently can be roughly defined by the following boundaries:
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• by Paradise and the western shoreline of Whitefish Bay on the east;• by Luce County Road H-37 on the west;• by the Tahquamenon River on the south;• and by the southern shoreline of Lake Superior on the north.
One of Chris' favorite areas within Lake Superior State Forest was Tahquamenon Falls State Park. A largely unspoiled, 52,000-acre swath of near wilderness, he was particularly fond of the Park's solitude in its less-traveled areas.
"I think I scare the tourists"
*GRIN* I think I scare the tourists. I'm not sure. Maybe people aren't that talkative.
Personally, if I see someone that looks interesting, as shy as I am in some ways, I tend to want to bombard them with questions, cursed as I am with curiosity.
This is doubly true if I cannot quite figure out the reasons for what they seem to be doing. This isn't all bad, I guess. I'm not here for social purposes.
It's kind of nice that I can wander all over amidst the light crowds and basically be ignored. I feel like part of the scenery somehow.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, July 25, 2003
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Chris' family founded Village Fabrics and Crafts in 1986 in Bellevue, Michigan. In 1992, they moved their family business to its current location on M-123 in Paradise, Michigan. To learn what's happening at Village Fabrics and Crafts, read Lisa Hallaxs' WordPress.com blog. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
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The Hallaxs family are longtime members of the 3,800-acre East
Branch Sportsman's Club, a sixty member club located along
the upper reaches of the East Branch of the Two-Hearted River
in Luce County's McMillan Township. |
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| East Branch of the Two Hearted River. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) | |
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| Located along the bank of the East Branch of the Two Hearted River, the Hallaxs family camp was one of Chris' many wilderness destinations. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) | |
After graduating from the Bellevue Community Schools in Bellevue, Michigan, Chris attended Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
Life below the bridge
I did for a short time try living and working down near Dundee, Michigan, but I don't know what to do when confined to civilization anymore. I about went out of my mind from boredom, and had to give up on it.
I've always seen cities as being big places with nothing to at all to do, unless you just have an endless supply of money, and then the best you can really do is just pointlessly kill time finding ways to spend it.
It's diverting, but in about the same way as watching TV, or surfing the stupider websites is.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, March 29, 2003
Never married, Chris worked in a wide variety of fields over the years, many on the night shift, a time he seemed to prefer: surveying, farming, Mackinac Island freight-hauling company, Paradise Public Library, Howard Johnson Lodge, General Electric National Techteam, Tahquamenon Falls Brewery and Pub, Tahquamenon Falls State Park, Glen's Country Market, Village Fabrics and Crafts, etc.
Work as a computer tech
For a short time, I had a job in the computer tech support field where I sat on my butt and talked on the phone for 10 hours a day, four days a week.
Three days a week, I was usually out doing something in the woods. This was perfect, because often I was so sore about all I could do after my three days off was sit in a chair anyway, at least for the first day.
Also, a lot of my coworkers were for some reason those few rare really weird (in a good way) people that are just downright fascinating to talk to.
The company, or the branch of it in this part of the country anyway, went to hell and the site closed though.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, March 29, 2003
In addition to spending his free time in the bush, Chris enjoyed computers and computer programming—often building his own computers, sometimes networking them together. He also maitained a Web site hosted by FortuneCity.Com.
Snowshoeing vs. computer programming
I am pretty much equally disposed, at various times, to do things like walk or snowshoe 12 hours or more straight, and at other times sit in front of the computer for days at a time totally absorbed in some fascinating difficulty until I finally collapse on the keyboard.
The longest I've spent continuously walking, minus short minute-stops for rest or snacks or water, is 19 1/2 hours.
The longest I've ever spent reading or working on something purely mental is...um...well, I'm not sure. I think 3 days once, but I'm not sure at what precise point I fell asleep. It got kinda fuzzy, especially since my mind went on working after I passed out. I remember that.
The point is though, that after too much of either end of the spectrum, I miss the other, and too much of the middle makes me miss both ends.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, March 29, 2003
Chris was an avid and skilled outdoorsman, survivalist, minimalist, and backpacker. To learn more about Chris the bushman—his bush treks, his wilderness skills, and his bivouacking gear—review his Forensic Behavioral Profile pages:
• Part 1: Wilderness trekking
• Part 2: Wilderness skills
• Part 3: Wilderness gear
Chris in shadow, with his snowshoes and walking staff. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) "Pushing myself a bit more than might have been prudent"
I can think of times when I have been stumbling back home or to the car after pushing myself a bit more than might have been prudent.
If I had a cell phone, I might have been tempted to call family or something and come drive me the last 20 miles home.
In the context of the situation as it happens, I'm in a way rather glad I do not have that option.
It keeps me from thinking for myself, which I have in the past demonstrated I can do if I have to.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, December 8, 2003
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First name:
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Christopher
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Middle name:
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Charles
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Last name:
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Hallaxs
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Nicknames:
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Chris, ShadowStrider, Randir_Duath, Rand
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Missing since:
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March 17, 2004
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Age in 2004:
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30
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Date of birth:
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06-05-73
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Place of birth:
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Battle Creek, Michigan
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Hometown:
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Paradise | ||
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State:
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Michigan
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Country:
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USA
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Race:
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White | ||
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Sex:
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Male | ||
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Height:
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6'1'
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Weight:
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185 lbs (205 to 210 in 2003)
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Build:
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Medium, muscular
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Fitness level:
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Very fit | ||
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Skin complexion:
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Light
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Left eye:
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Blue | ||
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Right eye:
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Blue
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Hair:
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Medium brown
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Hair length:
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Top balding; sides long
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Facial hair:
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Beard, mustache
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Facial hair color:
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Medium brown
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Facial hair length:
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Medium
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Origin of ShadowStrider trail name
Jack pines plastered with snow. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) I actually thought for a while before coming up with "shadowstrider".
A lot of people think it's tolkien-ish, but it wasn't intended to be. It also predates the movies by several years.
I just often like hiking at night, and it alliterates, and it's halfway distinctive, as opposed to <some_lame_ obvious_name> followed by a string of numbers to make it different.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, October 10, 2003
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Birthmarks:
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None |
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Moles:
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None | |
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Scars: |
None |
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Tattoos:
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None | |
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Piercings:
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None |
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Other:
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None | |
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Note:
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Right and left are as viewed from
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Eating raw meat
Whitefish Point in the winter. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) The intent was to eat the [ham] burger raw in two buns I also brought.
Yeah, yeah, it'll kill me, etc, I'll get worms, grow green tentacles, purple spots, etc.
Oh well. It hasn't yet, and I LOVE the stuff!
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, July 25, 2003
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Deformities:
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None |
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Amputations:
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None | |
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Fractures:
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None | |
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Missing bones:
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None | |
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Missing organs:
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None | |
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Medical devices:
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None | |
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Synthetic devices:
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None | |
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Other:
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None | |
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Note:
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Right and left are as viewed from |
Late for dinner
Snow-covered trees near Upper Tahquamenon Falls. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) The sun was starting to slide faster west now.
Uhoh. I was supposed to be at my grandparents' house for a dinner party for my Mom tonight.... It's that late already?
My watch said 3pm. Oops. Sadly, they are kinda used to me saying I'll be back, and I don't make it.
Me is a Bad Son. :-)
These kinds of explorations always take longer than one imagines, even after you take into account that it'll take longer than you imagine.
I'd only covered maybe five miles of distance, but by the time I wander slightly back and forth in favor of terrain, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up closer to 7 or 8.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, February 14, 2003
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Hat:
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Glasses: |
Wore contact lens for distance correction |
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Shirt:
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 Dark
(perhaps green), button-front, long-sleeve flannel shirt. Click
on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
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Jacket:
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Handwear:
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Underpants:
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Blue-and-white-striped, boxer-style underpants | |||||
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Pants:
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Belt:
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 Tan
or green 1-inch-wide nylon belt with plastic buckle. Click on photo
for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
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Socks:
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White, mid-calf, wool (Carhart-brand?) socks
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Footwear:
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It is also possible he may have been wearing brown leather hiking boots with tall, black, nylon gaiters. Click on photos for high-resolution imagery. (Photos courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs)
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Jewelry:
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Wallet:
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None carried
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Watch:
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Carried band-less watch module attached to belt
with a piece of cordage
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Cell phone:
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Not carried
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Snowshoes:
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 Wooden,
Iverson-brand, Alaskan-style, 56-inch-long, neoprene-laced. Click
on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Lisa
Hallaxs) |
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Backpack:
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Known to carry subdued-colored (olive), nylon,
book-bag-size backpack with shoulder straps; no waist belt
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Keys:
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Known to carry 2 or 3 keys attached to a leather
lanyard
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Memory stick:
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Know to carry a memory stick (thumb drive) on
a leather lanyard around neck
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Pocket knife:
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May or may not have had a pocket knife on his
person
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Multi-tool:
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Carried silver-colored, Gerber-brand multi-tool
in black nylon pouch on belt
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Bowie knife:
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One of his favorite big blades was almost certainly a black, 15-inch-long-overall (10-inch blade) Ontario-brand, Spec-Plus-8 Machete with a square tip, saw back, and rubber grip. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Knife Company)
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Compass:
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Known to carry a high-quality compass, most likely
a base-plate style one
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Matches:
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Known to carry strike-anywhere-type, wooden, kitchen-size
matches in a black film container
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Lighter:
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Known to carry a plastic, disposable, butane-fuel
lighter
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Flint
striker:
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Known to carry a flint striker for starting fires
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Fire
starters:
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Known to carry homemade fire starters fashioned
from wax-covered cardboard
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Whistle:
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Known to carry a homemade whistle improvised from
a section of copper tubing
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Candles:
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Known to carry a candle
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Flashlight
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Known to carry an aluminum, AAA-battery-size,
LED light on a leather lanyard around neck
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Walking
staff:
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 Know
to carry a very unusual and carefully-crafted, homemade, 7- to
8-foot-long, 1.5- to 2-inch-diameter, walking staff that he had
fashioned from a wooden pole, which had been debarked, hardened
with a flame, and highly polished with beeswax. Click on photo
for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
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Small plastic boxes:
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Known to carry small (4" x 6" x 2"),
waterproof, impact resistant, snap-closure, variously-colored
plastic boxes (Otterboxes) to protect small, valuable or fragile
items
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Carabiners:
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 Known
to carry one or two aluminum carabiners—perhaps a silver-colored
one and a black-colored one—on the belt loops on the front
of his pants. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo
courtesy of Lisa Hallaxs) |
Dream: Married with kids among hunter-gatherers
Fall colors. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) I had a really long detailed one [dream] a few months before that where I was trying to pick up the tail end of a trail I know of through a swamp by the cabin, and about midday realized I had apparently wandered off of the face of the earth somehow, because at some point I started finding impossible things that didn't match the terrain I knew.
I ended up running into a village of silver-gray skinned hunter-gatherer, agrarian type people, and since there was no way back, ended up eventually married and with kids there.
Kind of sucks to seem to have lived most of a lifetime right down to the minute-to-minute detail and then wake up and find out it's not real after all.
It's slightly confusing for a few minutes.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, January 11, 2003
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Click here or on image to download a social-media-friendly, missing-person graphic for the Chris Hallaxs investigation.
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"Living like an animal"
Whitefish Bay ice formation. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) It is interestingly challenging to work at obtaining food and water and shelter out in the woods, but when staying long term, it becomes all-consuming and ultimately leaves no room for anything mentally rigorous.
While to some extent I think that "living like an animal" is not as big a deal as most people would regard it--since humans ARE animals--they are also, supposedly, abstractly thinking animals, and no matter how many clever tricks you can accumulate regarding living primitively, it's still not really a life for a human being, as it leaves out the mind.
Anything that makes a living in the woods knows many clever tricks, after all.
In fact, I constantly learn things from watching or tracking everything from mice to birds to moose to coyotes.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, March 29, 2003
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Troopers from the Michigan State Police post in Newberry, Michigan continue to investigtate the disappearance of Chris Hallaxs.
If you have any information about what transpired during the March 17, 2004 period when Chris went missing, have any knowledge of his current whereabouts, or have any information relevant to this investigation, please contact the Michigan State Police in Newberry at 1-906-293-5152; the toll-free and anonymous Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 1-800-465-7867; or your nearest law enforcement agency at 9-1-1.
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Agency:
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Michigan State Police
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Post:
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Newberry Post
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Address:
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7942 M-123
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City, State, Zip:
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Newberry, Michigan 49868
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Complaint no.:
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82-353-04
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File class:
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9900-3
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Lead investigator:
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Tpr. David Moeggenborg
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Post phone no.:
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1-906-293-5152
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Crime Stoppers
anonymous tip line: |
1-800-465-7867 (toll-free) | |
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Crime Stoppers reward:
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$1,000 |
Fighting a forest fire
An experimental campfire. Click on photo for high-resolution imagery. (Photo courtesy of Chris Hallaxs' digital archives) A few years ago, I and another guy were first on the scene of a small fire just east of Upper Tahquamenon falls on M-123.
I remember almost wanting to stop and laugh (though I was too busy to do so), because I was standing in knee deep black sludge and water, trying to put out a frighteningly persistent fire.
At the time it hadn't rained in about a month. You could stamp a section out, turn your back and hear a "fwoomp" and it would have re-lit itself just from the ground heat, apparently.
The point is, the fire was doing just great with the grass hummocks and brush even though it was mostly burning on top of standing water.
By the same token, the ground wasn't much affected at all. It killed some trees, but now, a couple years later, you'd have to go out in the woods and look around close to tell that anything had happened.
—Chris Hallaxs, GreatLakesHikes YahooGroups.Com Message Board, April 28,, 2003
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Web site short URL: http://TinyURL.com/Hallaxs
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