An eight-year-old boy went missing in the woods.
He was missing for 2 days.
Nante Niemi was camping with his family at Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park.
They were gathering firewood for their campsite around midday on Saturday when he went missing.
That was around 1:00 pm.
The authorities were contacted and more than 150 people joined, including the local police and K9s, to search roughly 40 square miles of the park for the young boy.
The rescuers searched via foot, air, and water to cover all tracks.
A lot of the trails were impassable because of the deep snow that’s why the air search was needed.
Nante was finally found.
It was 48 hours later at around 1:30 pm on Monday.
They found Nante about two miles from their campsite. Nante had been walking down the path on Saturday and it had run out.
Instead of looking for his way back and getting even more lost, he decided to stay there and wait until his family found him.
Nante survived for two days.
“A number of you have asked how Nante survived in the woods,” MSP Eight District explained via Twitter. “Lieutenant Wickstrom says the boy told them he covered up with branches and leaves for warmth and also blanketed the log he was under.”
He didn’t have any food on him.
Nante survived by eating clean snow that kept him hydrated.
There was a stream of water nearby but he didn’t drink it because he was afraid of getting sick so he stuck to eating snow.
When they found him, they were happy to find him in good condition.
“If you didn’t know he was in the woods for two days, you wouldn’t know,” Eli Talsma, one of the rescuers who found him, said. “I mean, he was just normal. Nante was just walking around. He was talking. He was asking questions. He said he wasn’t hungry. He was perfectly fine, but we did give him a Cliff Bar and a banana and some water.”
The rescuers offered to carry him out of the woods but Nante declined.
He wanted to walk out with them.
What a wonderful kid! Even though they were camping in Michigan, Nante and his family are actually from Hurley, Wisconsin.
In fact, the spot where they camped was actually an hour’s drive from their town and the Wisconsin border. That’s why so many Wisconsin residents joined the search.
Nante is also a student at the Hurley School District in Wisconsin.
When his principal heard of his rescue, he was elated and shared the news with the community.
“We announced it to the entire school, and as my colleague said, it was like being at a big football game with our winning touchdown being scored,” Steve Lombardo, the principal, told ABC News. “The entire school lit up in cheers, and everybody was just relieved and thankful.”
Learn more about Nante’s amazing rescue in the video below.
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