National Park After Dark - The Spark Ranger: Shenandoah National Park

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

The story of NPS Ranger Roy Sullivan and his repeated run-ins with one of nature’s deadliest forces will have you thinking of lightning every time you hear the phrase – what are the odds?For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Close your eyes. Listen to Monday.com. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Now open your eyes, go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally, breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now Springs got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night And you've had enough of shopping from your couch Done hoping it looks anything like the picture When you tear open that envelope It's time for a little in-person spring treat It's time for a trip to Ross

Work your magic What are the odds? A rhetorical question many of us pose When contemplating the likelihood of something occurring Rather than not We throw the phrase around in casual conversations And unless you're armed with some freakishly accurate statistical knowledge, chances are you probably don't know the exact answer.

When stories of people beating the odds make the headlines, we pay attention. Julianne Kopke, who fell nearly two miles out of a plane and lived. Hugh Glass, who survived a horrific grizzly mauling and was left for dead, or Steve Callahan, who, after his boat was damaged by a whale, survived for 76 days adrift at sea on a leaking inflatable raft. In circumstances like these, beating the odds is often due to calculated moves made by the survivor, knowledge that in one way or another aided in their ultimate success. Mixed in, though, are little shimmers of luck, strokes of good fortune that are seemingly brought on by pure chance rather than measures purposefully acted upon. We play the odds all the time,

in our day-to-day lives, in big and small ways, whether we are aware of it or not. We've all felt lucky for one reason or another and maybe went out on a limb in some way as a result of it, such as buying a lottery ticket with our favorite numbers, asking a crush out on a date, or taking a leap off a cliffside, relying on a bungee cord to keep us alive. Taking a gamble from time to time is tantalizing, but tempting the gods is not advised long-term, because it's only a matter of time until that luck runs out. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I'm very excited for this episode because I already kind of briefly know this story that you're telling today.

But I want to know all the details. It was very highly requested, like a long time, I feel. Like for a long time, but a long time ago. It kind of came in a wave. There was like a ton of people who asked for it. And then I haven't heard a peep since. Because everyone gave up. didn't think you were going to do it.

I know. Sorry. It took me a while, but I'm here. So, yeah, we're talking about something just like, it's such a bizarre story. And, like, it's not funny. It isn't funny. It's just. It's like ironic funny.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to be, if you haven't read the title, the Spark Ranger, we're going to be talking about lightning a lot in this episode. And we're going to Yosemite, right? No. Oh. No, no.

Where is this one? We're going to Shenandoah. Oh, right, right, right, right. I knew that and I forgot. Yeah, so we're going to a place we haven't covered since literally day one of this podcast. The first episode, yeah. Yeah, so it's been quite a while. We are headed to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to visit Shenandoah National Park.

And I know, like, obviously we haven't been there in an episode in a really long time. So I'll give a bit of a refresher, seeing as hell. It's not like Yellowstone or Yosemite that's like, oh, my gosh. God. You've told us about this so many times. Yeah. Shannon Doa is a little gem, though. I visit, I guess it was two summers ago now, but I visit and I thought it was really lovely there. Yeah, I've never been. And hopefully I get to go sometime soon. It's located just 75 miles west of D.C. So it provides a pretty welcome escape from the hustle and bustle of the city for a lot of people. A lot of people are in close proximity to this park. It was established in December of 1935.

and boasts 500 miles of trails, 101 of which are part of the AT, and roughly 197,000 acres of protected lands. Visitors enjoy whitewater rafting, hiking, and camping year-round. As one of the most easily accessible U.S. national parks, it receives roughly 1.4 million guests a year. The park is notorious for wooden hollows,

mountain streams, an assorted mixture of wooden and pastoral landscapes. And along with the famous AT, the park has another famous byway, Skyline Drive. Constructed in the 1930s, this roadway traverses 105 miles from the north to the south and winds through scenic overlooks, picnic areas, and campgrounds. Three main districts of the park have three kind of different things to offer, from remains of homesteads and gravesites, tall waterfalls,

renovated lodges, and strenuous to easy hikes, you can't go wrong no matter what portion of the park you choose to explore. And you'll be sharing it with animals like, black bears, coyotes, white-tailed deer, and spotted skunks, migratory and resident birds, and 26 species of reptiles, including the timber rattlesnake. So watch your step. Which, okay, it's funny that I'm talking about rattlesnakes right now because I wrote these notes a few weeks ago, but as far as rattlesnakes go, I've been like so paranoid. I just feel like I'm going to run into one soon, and I don't know why. Like, I've been looking into, there are rattlesnake

aversion courses. that you can take with your dog out here. Oh, interesting. Yeah, that train them to avoid rattlesnakes. Instead of chase them. Yeah, instead of chasing them and trying to bite at them, which my dogs would totally do. So I don't know, I just have a feeling that it's just a matter of time

until I run into one. And I know you have. Yeah, the first time I ever actually ran into a rattlesnake was out in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Roosevelt, Roosevelt. How is? Which one is it again? Roosevelt, Roosevelt. I have had always... There's two O's.

There's two O's. I've always said Roosevelt, but... Roosevelt. Maybe that's wrong. Maybe it is. I don't know. Theater Roosevelt National Park, I saw a rattlesnake, and I almost stepped on it, actually. I had set up my tripod to take photos, and I was sitting there just taking some pictures,

and I looked down and right next to my foot is a rattlesnake. It was a little baby, but still scary. Yeah. And then there was like a herd. There was a family who had... had a bunch of children. I say a herd of children coming up. And I was like, I'm not going to say a peep about the snake because you know as soon as you tell anyone that, like as soon as you tell a child that there's a snake around. Yeah. They're all going to be like, oh, let me see,

let me see and get close. So I just like kind of made my little area known and they walked. Right around. Like I just had all my stuff out right there. So they walked right around and no one noticed. Along with a rich indigenous history, Shenandoan National Park has a unique origin. story. We touch on this when you covered the park back in 2021. Way back in the day. But it has a bit of a refresher. The land that the park sits on today was a place where settlers lived for over a century. When the park was proposed, never before had such a large area of private land been converted into a national park. Virginia state officials acquired over 1,000 privately owned tracks of land and donated it to the federal government for the park's creation. And by acquired, of course,

we mean taking. Stoll. Yeah. 465-ish families were moved or were forcibly removed from their homes to be resettled outside of the park's newly found boundaries. There are some stories of a handful of diehard mountaineers who lived the rest of their lives within the park and are now buried in secluded graveyards tucked away inside of the park boundaries. Because most of the park was once farmland and heavily logged for lumber or livestock grazing purposes, starting in the 1700s and moving forward, the majority of the forests that is seen today have slowly made a comeback over the last eight decades or so.

There's clearly a reason so many people are drawn to this area and a reason others never wanted to leave. And one of those people was a man named Roy Sullivan. Roy Cleveland Sullivan was born in February of 1912 in Green County, Virginia, the fourth of 11 children. His parents were both from well-established mountain families, and they had made their living off of the land. The Blue Ridge Mountains were Roy's primary teachers,

and he spent countless days of his childhood and young adulthood amongst them, often harvesting rabbits for money. He never graduated high school, instead opting for learning from what the woods had to offer him. By his early 20s, he was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a government jobs program created during the Great Depression. Workers in the park were responsible for constructing rock walls, overlooks, planting trees, creating campgrounds, trails, and picnic grounds. In all, they built more than 340 structures within Shenandoah, many of which are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

And Roy was part of the team that constructed part of Skyline Drive. He also had what I can only imagine as the extremely difficult job of demolishing homes of neighbors who had been forced out of their homes so that the forest could be returned to its original condition. Roy, was a very well-loved man by his coworkers. He was hired on with the park's fire patrol in 1940 in the midst of the first of his four marriages. When he went on to work with Shenandoah's fire patrol, his supervisor William Nichols described him as a very intelligent man, despite his lack of a formal education, because remember he never even graduated high school. And he was easily able to identify the various species of flora and fauna throughout the park and held his own

amongst his college-educated peers. He had a bit of a rougher time with women, though. Roy embarked on the path of marriage when he was 20. He and his first wife, Martha, who was 18 at the time, were married for four years and had a child together who they named Roy Jr., who actually passed away in 1996. According to the Commonwealth of Virginia, divorce certificate, Roy was the plaintiff and Martha was the defendant, and the cause of the divorce was desertion. He then married a woman named Madeline, approximately 11 years later, in 1943, but that didn't last either.

By 1953, he was married again to a woman named Vinda, but again, according to the divorce records, Roy filed for divorce due to desertion. Roy got hitched a fourth time in 1962 at the age of 50 to a woman named Patricia Morris, who was 19 at the time. Wait, how old was he? 50. And she's 19? Mm-hmm. Ew. I mean, it's legal.

It's just a different choice. It's legal, but it's predatory. It's predatory to me. You're barely, you're barely not a child. Yes. Like 50 and 30. Sure. When you're a 30-year-old woman, like you know,

but I don't even consider like a 19-year-old a woman yet. Like, you're still your child. I'm not a girl. Not yet a woman as Britney Spears is. As the almighty Britney Spears. Yeah, as she has once preached us, that will never come out of my mind. Anyway, so they went on to have three children. His affinity for storytelling and his lovable character made him a fan favorite around Shenandoah.

But it is his fortune or misfortune that solidified his place in Shenandoah National Park history. Roy's journey began in April of 1942 on Millerhead Overlook. The fire tower he was manning, which had not yet been equipped with lightning rods, was getting slammed with bolts of lightning. Roy later reported at least seven or eight times with fire jumping all over the place, and he decided to bail, but only made it a few feet from the building

before he was struck. The lightning bolt blasted into his right leg, leaving a half-inch width burn mark down its length. His right big toenail was obliterated, and his foot gushed with blood and drained out through a hole that was made in the soul of his shoe from the bolt. The fire tower no longer stands,

but in its place is a stone platform overlooking Page Valley below and the mountains beyond that provide a pretty amazing view. The Millers Head Fire Tower was one of many built by the Civilian Conservation Corps throughout the park. They were built and manned around the clock by the CCC to scan the surrounding horizon for any sign of smoke that would indicate signs of wildfire. When seen, fire crews would be alerted as soon as the blaze was noted so it could be stopped as soon as possible. While annual prescribed burns were conducted for regenerative,

purposes and invasive plant control, naturally occurring wildfires were often caused by lightning. And I all know that we all know what lightning is. We've seen it every year, depending on where you live, more often than not. I mean, we've been having crazy lightning storms out here recently. I have one right now as we're recording. It's thundering and lightning and raining out right now. Yeah. But understanding. Oh, creepy. Am I going to? Oh, no, I can't even say it. Well, I might freak you out a little bit with this because I'm going to say, I'm in the middle of a lightning storm right now.

Am I going to get struck by lightning during this episode? I really hope not because I wrote this episode or I wrote the notes for this episode a few weeks ago. And ever since then, like, I've just been so scared of like, it was right before our Yosemite trip. Remember how crazy I was about lightning? And I was so scared. I'm like, I am not getting out of this car during this fucking lightning storm. Well, granted, it's a conductor too. Oh, my God.

Now I'm in a lightning storm and I'm alone. Well, I'll see you. You'll let someone struck by lightning. I guess that makes me feel better. Like 911, yeah, she's been struck by lightning and she's toast. So just take your time. Okay, well, you might not be toast because good old Roy survived quite a few strikes. So there's hope.

Thank you. That makes me feel better. So obviously, we know what it is. We've seen it. We get it. But understanding it is a completely different thing. And I have just been, I'm like one of those people. And this is also, sorry again for diversion, but we're recording this kind of like right after the Titan tragedy occurred and how everyone is like now a submersible expert and like all they can talk about is submersibles.

Like that's how I was with following this lightning thing. I was like, did you know and just kept talking about lightning? Like you are a lightning expert now. Yes, completely. I should switch careers. So in case you want to know. Please don't. I kind of need you over here.

Okay. Okay. Maybe as a side hustle. Yeah. Most lightning actually occurs within the clouds, and bolts are formed through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions, either both in the atmosphere, like up in within the clouds, or with one in the atmosphere and one on the ground, temporarily neutralizing them in an almost instantaneous release in the form of a lightning bolt. Rare occurrences of lightning can be sparked by extreme forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and even snowstorms. Like, who would have thought? Not me. You're going to get struck by lightning and a snowstorm.

New fear unlocked. Yeah. Watch out. Like, I thought powder days were fun. Nope. Stay inside. Well, you're not even safe there, and we'll get to that. I'm near a window.

So hot take, lightning is extremely hot. A single flash can heat the air around it to a temperature five times hotter than the sun. This heat causes the surrounding air to quickly expand and vibrate, which creates. Thunder. Okay, I'm going to out myself as like the stupidest person alive, but I had no idea that is how thunder was created. Did you know that? It was created by lightning. It's created by lightning. I always thought that if there's lightning, there's thunder. But I guess it's the opposite. If there's thunder, there's lightning. No, you're right the first time. Okay, so what happens is the lightning bolt goes off. It heats the surrounding area really quickly and the expansion and vibration of that

creates the thunder. So that's why like, you know, when you see a lightning flash and you count like the one Mississippi, two Mississippi, and then you hear the thunder. And that's how you can kind of judge how many miles away the storm is. Yeah. It's because the traveling of sound and stuff. You know what I mean? It's just like, I guess I never, I don't know when I would have been taught that. It's interesting because you're saying this because I did the bolt from the blue with the Jenny Lake Rangers, that book that Jennifer Woodleaf wrote. And I read all about lightning and lightning strikes and stuff, but it's been so long ago and we've researched so many things since then that you're telling me this. And maybe I've read that, maybe I've even talked about it

before in the podcast. And I'm like, this is the first time I've ever heard this. So this is new information. And they're like, I just heard you talk about this on the podcast. It has been, it's been wiped. Yeah. And this is my first time learning it. Same. Same. So when lightning hits trees, the extreme heat of the bolt will vaporize the water within the tree, creating steam that blows the trees apart at times, sometimes. That's why trees explode when they're hit by lightning. Lovely. Most lightning bolts are only about an inch in diameter, but they pack a powerful punch. A single bolt can contain up to one billion volts of energy. And I don't know like how much that is, but it seems like an extreme amount. It sounds like a lot to me. A billion of anything is a lot.

They average about a two to three mile stretch, but the world record was observed in the year 2020 at a whopping 477.2 miles long across the states of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. You know, this actually reminds you of that I forgot to tell you about, but I was going to tell you about when we were just leaving from our Yosemite trip when I was flying home. I was flying home and I was somewhere over, I think we were flying over like Ohio. Ohio area and I looked out my window and there was a massive lightning storm that was happening, not near me, but I could see it in the distance and I could see it. And it was every like three seconds. I was watching lightning bolts in the sky. And I was thinking about, because I knew you were covering this episode soon. And then I was thinking of other stories. I've heard of it. Specifically, Julian Koppi, which you mentioned in the thing because she was in a plane during her

lightning storm. And I was just watching it like, oh no, oh no. This is how it ends. Yeah. I know. I'm like, and this is just at the perfect time, of course, also because the summer storms are rolling in and pretty much every single afternoon here we've gotten a pretty significant storm. And I remember as a kid, like, loving looking at it's like a thunderstorm, yay. And like go out and like watch the lightnings. Never again. Never again. I will not be watching outside ever, especially after researching this. According to the National Weather Service, lightning is a major cause of storm-related deaths in the U.S. As a strike can result in cardiac arrest at the time of the injury. However, if a person is resuscitated after cardiac arrest, some victims experience a delayed death due to irreversible brain damage sustained at the time of the strike. According to the National Weather Service storm data, between 1989 and 2018, the U.S. has averaged 43 reported lightning fatalities. every year. But interestingly, only about 10% of people who are struck by lightning are killed, leaving 90% with various degrees of disability. These include a regular heartbeat, superficial burns,

stroke, shock, blunt, and psychological trauma, stroke-like symptoms, including numbness, weakness, confusion, and some facial droop. You can also experience ruptured eardrums, loss of consciousness or coma, vision problems, difficulty with short and or long-term memory paralysis. And I don't mean to laugh, or laugh at this, but the end of this list, it was like,

and breathing issues, including not breathing. Like, okay. Thank you for clarifying. That would be a breathing issue. Yes, clearly. You can categorize that as an issue. So that's obviously pretty scary stuff,

not little side effects. So how worried should we be about this? You know, what are the odds? Very worried. Okay. I know, especially you're like glancing out your window. The odds of being struck in a given year is roughly 1 in 1,22,000.

And if you were to live until you're about 80, the odds of being struck in your lifetime are about 1 in 15,300. That's very small. Likely. One in 15,000. That means one in every 15,000 people, right, are going to be struck by lightning. If you were to live to an old age and you get some years to this equation. That makes me wildly uncomfortable.

Well, Roy defied all of these odds. He would go on to get struck. Not one more time, not two more times, but six more times. Oh my. Who gets struck six times? Seven total. Seven. Wow.

Yeah. But before we get into those incidents, let's have a little breakdown of the five ways that people can get struck by lightning, courtesy of the National Weather Service. And this is probably very relevant to you. I know you better know. I would love to learn. I would love to hear this, yes. There is a direct strike, which are not as common as other types, but they are often the deadliest.

These occur when a person is struck and becomes part of the main lightning discharge channel and occur most often when the victim is out in an open area. In the majority of direct strike cases, a portion of the current moves along and just over the skin surface called flashover, which often causes visible burns. And this did happen to Roy at one point, and I'll post a picture of that injury. And a portion of the current moves through the body, usually through the cardiovascular and or the nervous system of the victim, the person, animal, what have you. That's the type of strike that I covered in the Grand Teton episode, one of the early episodes we did. Next is a side flash or a side splash. This occurs when lightning

strikes a taller object, such as a tree, near the victim, and a portion of the current jumps from the taller object to the victim. These strikes generally occur when the victim is within a foot or two of the object that is struck. And most often, side flash victims have taken shelter under a tree to avoid rain or hail, and then the lightning, this type of lightning strikes occurs because they're in such close proximity to a taller object. Okay. Conduction strikes are responsible for most indoor casualties. It's a common misconception that metal attracts lightning. Rather, metal provides a path for it to follow,

and therefore the lightning can travel long distances and wires or other metal surfaces. Whether inside or outside, anyone in contact with anything connected to metal, such as wires, plumbing, or metal surfaces that extend from the indoors to the outdoors, is at risk. This includes anything that plugs into an electrical outlet, water faucets and showers, corded bones, and windows and doors. So just FYI for you right now. I'm near windows and doors and wires.

I was going to say a lot of wires. My headphones are connected to wires right now. Ground current is when lightning strikes an object, such as a tree, for example, and the energy travels out from the initial strike point and out along the ground surface. Because the ground current affects a much larger area than any other causes of lightning casualties, this type causes the most lightning deaths and injuries. Typically, the lightning enters the body at the contact point closest to the lightning strike, travels through the cardiovascular or nervous systems, and exits the body at the contact point

farthest from the initial point of contact for the strike. The greater the distance between these contact points, the greater the potential is for death or serious injury because it's traveling throughout the entirety of this body. And you have to be like making contact. Like if it hits the ground, you have to be touching the ground nearby. Yes, you have to have that to happen. You have to be in contact with that. Yeah.

And then lastly, our strikes called streamers. I quoted this directly from the Weather Channel site because honestly, I don't really understand it, but I want to include it to be thorough. And they're not very common, but when they do happen, they develop as the downward moving leader approaches the ground. So I'm assuming that's the bolt of lightning. Typically, only one of the streamers makes contact with the leader, and as it approaches, is the ground and provides the path for the bright return stroke. However, when the main channel

discharges, so do all the other streamers in the area. So if a person is part of one of these streamers, they could be killed or injured during the streamer discharge, even though the lightning channel was not completed between the cloud and the upward streamer. So basically all of this to say, apparently no one is safe at any time, anywhere. No matter what you're doing. New fear unlocked. And I've just been living life completely unaware. Well, it's funny because I and I think I was telling you this already, but I think I wasn't struck by lightning, but I came very close at one point. And it was in New Hampshire. I was driving over Temple Mountain. It's in, like, Western New Hampshire during a lightning storm. And the way that this mountain is, for the pass over this

mountain is there's two lanes, or I guess there's three lanes. There's two lanes on one side of the road and there's one lane on the other side of the road. And I was in the one lane road and I'm driving over the mountain and there's lightning, there's thunder and everything. And suddenly there is just this massive flash, a huge boom. Everything like goes bright and I shut my eyes. I was scared. I thought I was exploding, honestly. I didn't know what the fuck was going on. Everything vibrated. My car shut off. Everything just went silent after that. And I just looked up and then my car restarted. Like I turned the key and it restarted and then I just kept driving. But I am looking, reflecting back on that, I think that lightning struck the road I was driving on. Did you think that initially, like, was that your first thought?

Or were you just thinking, I have no idea what just happened? I mean, I guess maybe a couple seconds later I did. But when it first happened, I thought I, I thought I hit someone. I thought I crashed. I literally thought the car was like exploding because I crashed into someone or someone crashed into me. That is so frightening. I shut my eyes. which was great. Like, I'm in the middle of driving and the speed limits there is like 50. But I shut my eyes because it was just so bright and such a loud boom, I thought that someone had hit me. And then when I reopened my eyes, my car was shut off. And that's so nuts. And was anyone around you? Yeah. Yeah. There was someone in the car with me. Oh, okay. I thought I was talking about like other cars. It was a child, though. I was with a child in the car. So. Wow. Well, you live to tell the tale. It did. And it definitely sounds like a lightning strike for sure. Yeah. And both of us were fine. There was nothing. But so I think I almost got struck by lightning and they say a car is the safest place to be. Yeah. So there you go. So totally unaffected mostly. Well, back to Roy. He had a break a little bit of a break. A pretty significant break between these lightning strikes because remember he just had one at this point. He had a 27 year long break. Long enough for him to think he was in the, he's like, what are the chances? I am never going to get. struck by lightning again. It's like I already got struck. There's no chance it's ever going to happen to me again.

Exactly. He's like, Chuck did it, survived, like moving on. Or good. But that street came to an end on a rainy but hot day in July of 1969. Roy was driving southbound near milepost 97 on Skyline Drive when lightning ripped through two trees on his side of the road. It deflected to the other side of the road and took out a third tree. On its trajectory from the south to the northbound lanes, it passed through the open windows of Roy's truck, burning off his eyebrows, singeing off all his hair, not protected by his hat, and frying his wristwatch. Ah, and here I was saying the car was the safest place to be. Well, he had his windows down and it kind of like traveled through. Through the car. Yeah, it wasn't a direct hit onto the car. That's scary. It singed all his hair

in his watch. He lost consciousness. He blacked out, and his truck rolled off the side of the the road and into a ditch. Oh, wow. But he lived. He woke up, not again. He's like, God damn it. The next strike came about one year later, almost to the day. It was July of 1970. Roy and his wife Patricia Morris, the last of the four wives, the one that was 19 when they got married, were living just outside the west side of the park, and Roy was outside of their home gardening, just minding his own business, when out of a relatively clear sky, a bolt of light, struck a power transformer near their trailer. It then jumped to Roy, who was struck in his left shoulder.

The blast forceful enough to send him flying into the air. And also just another side note, his wife also got struck a month after this incident as she was outside in their yard picking up their kids' toys. I'm just saying someone up there does not like them. I'm saying I don't make the rules, but someone up there is not, doesn't like them. I don't know what they did. another life, but they had to pay for it. Lightning bolts this time around. Yeah. Two years later, Roy experienced strike number four. On April 16th, Roy was working a guardhouse

registering cars coming into the campground atop loft mountain. There was no indication of a storm yet. Once again, a flash streaked through the sky and lightning struck the fuse box inside of the small guardhouse he was in. Roy recalls the incident saying, quote, the fire was bouncing around the inside of the station and when my ears stopped ringing, I heard something sizzling. It was my hair on fire. This was the strike that caught the attention of the Guinness Book of World Records co-editors Ross and Norris McWhither. The 1972 version of the record book dubs Roy Sullivan as the only living man to be struck by lightning four times. Did he have anything to say about it at that point? Did he give any interviews being like, yeah, just happen sometimes? And not that I am aware of and I don't have a

copy of the book. But I'm sure maybe in that record book, there's probably, I would guess, maybe a statement from him. I'd just be so curious to know what his thoughts were on all of these lightning strikes. It's just so interesting because, again, once again, like when we were going into Yosemite shortly after I finished researching this, at what, and I forget what entrance of the park we were, because we went to, did we go to three entrances? I think we went, because we went to Wawona, the Wohona, Hetch, Hetch, and the middle one by the campground. Because Hetch Hatchi is the northern one. Wawona is the southern one, and the one we went into by Ruby Creek or whatever, the one we usually went into, that was like the one in the middle.

Oh, yeah. So I forget what entrance that's called. But whatever that entrance station was, I remember one of the women that was working the guardhouse and she was giving us like, you know, welcome to Yosemite. She would give us the paperwork and stuff. I remember seeing her twice and she had lightning bolt earrings on. Like, it's a bad omen. I was like, girl, take those off. Anyways. You don't want those.

They were cute, so I get it. But anyways. The record was soon broken again when strike five came the following August. Once again, Roy was driving along Skyline Drive attempting to outrace a storm. He thought he had driven out of it and reached a point of safety, but he was sorely mistaken. He pulled over and exited his vehicle to take a look at the approaching storm when he said, for the first time, he saw the strike coming. He said, quote, I actually saw the lightning shoot out of the storm. the cloud this time and it was coming straight for me and it was coming straight for his head actually

it struck him and set his hair on fire again and knocked him into a summer soul knocking off his untied shoe like it was so powerful it flung off his shoe wow what is he doing out in a storm after a history of how many like five other four other like instruments at this fight honestly he should have never gone out of the car well he thought he had made it like you know he thought he made it when asked about his near-death experiences, Roy said, quote, God spared me for some good purpose, unwilling to reveal more about that purpose, saying, it's between God and me and nobody but us will ever know. He did say he dreamt of getting struck before strike four and five, but apparently didn't see the sixth one coming. Five months before his retirement from the National Park Service,

after a 36-year-long career on June 5th of 1976, he was walking alone about a mile from the location of his first encounter with lightning on the sawmill shelter trail when he was hit again, a strike that set his hair ablaze and injured his ankle. His hair just is just going off, left and right. Does he have hair still at this point? I think it has enough time to like grow back in between. He's like, it's finally back. He just gets struck by lightning again. Like I really hate, I really hate laughing so much. I'm only funny. It's not funny. It's ironic, funny, and it's kind of funny. I mean, he had to have laughed about this at this point. You know, I would just like to think that at this point, he was, he had to joke about it if he was upset about it every single time. I mean, I feel like, I kind of feel bad for him. It's like you're living fear. I feel very bad for him. He got struck by lightning seven times now. I feel very bad for him. But not only like for the actual strikes, but just. like the anticipation and fear, especially after strike like two or three. Because you know you're just

like a fucking lightning rod. You know? I mean, he didn't leave the park service, so he wasn't that scared, I guess. He kept working outside. Yeah. Pat and Roy moved soon after his retirement to a slice of land north of Waynesboro. They parked their house trailer on their new property and Roy set to work making sure their new home was affixed with lightning rods. He's like, not today. Not today. Like, not here. He placed them on all four corners of their trailer to the electric meter, six of the tall trees around their property, and even on their TV antenna. Each rod was made of a heavy gauge copper wire and ran seven feet into the ground.

Unfortunately for Roy, it's pretty inconvenient to walk around with a permanent lightning rod affixed his head, which is what he needed because he got struck for a seventh time. In June of 19, all these preventative measures. I have never once taken a preventative measure against being struck by lightning besides not being out in a storm. And he is doing all the things. He is giving it his all for. He's like, I just can't fucking do this again. And he's still getting struck by lightning like consistently.

Yeah. This again. Yeah. So we're now in June of 1977 and he was fishing. And he caught the scent of sulfur and felt the hair on his arms race. And he was like, shit. I'm about to get struck. He has been struck by lightning so many times that he can sense.

It's like a spiky sense. It's about to be struck by lightning. Yeah. Within seconds of feeling that, he was struck in the head, catapulting him into the water. Did his hair catch on fire? Yeah. The next sentence is his hair was burnt. The bolt ripped through his shirt and left burns on his chest down to his abdomen.

He also lost hearing in one ear, thanks to this strike. And once he came to and gathered him, as if getting struck by lightning for the seventh time wasn't enough, he ran into a black bear on his way back to his vehicle. And apparently the bear was hungry and took three of the trout on his line along with his lunch. Talk about a bad day. If you think you've had a bad day, just like now you've been struck by lightning, you're hungry. A bear robs you. What's next? What's next? Probably another lightning bolt if I had to guess. I was a betting woman. So his wife drove him to the hospital and word had spread fast about Roy's run in with Mother Nature. He was interviewed for a local paper while he was in recovery, joking that while some people are allergic to flowers, he was allergic to lightning. So he had a sense of humor about this then. Yeah, eventually. He also went on to say that he smacked the black bear on the snout with a tree branch in order to get it to leave, claiming it was the 22nd bear he had fought off.

When asked in a separate interview, why him, why he was so prone to lightning strikes, Roy speculated that there was some sort of mineral or chemical in his body that made him more susceptible to it. In fact, he claims to have been struck a total of eight times, the first being when he was just a child. According to Roy, he was working in a field alongside his father, cutting wheat with a seeth when lightning struck the tool in his hand. Because he couldn't prove the incident later on, he never claimed it as part of his toy.

total number of lightning strikes. He finished that interview stating, I have a feeling I'm going to be struck again one day. All of his reported lightning strikes occurred within the park or right outside of it, which got me wondering if this park is particularly known for lightning, or if it's just this guy. You know, like, what is it one or the other? Yeah, like what is happening here. Yeah. And I found a really interesting scientific paper called lightning occurrences and casualties in U.S. national parks. That was really interesting. Oh. It gathered. data from 1999 to 2018 and showed that while there is currently no unified database of lightning casualty within the parks, most casualties occurred to people visiting from outside the park's

states. So like if you're visiting, I don't know, you're from Vermont and you're visiting glacier and you get struck by lightning, most people who get struck are out of staters. Like they're not people who live within that park's home state. And the most common activities and locations are mountain climbing, hiking, and viewing canyons from overlooks. There was a big emphasis placed on cloud to ground flashes of lightning, and they ranked the parks on the number and density of flashes per year, and also accounted for numbers of visitors. Do you want to guess what the first number one park in this list is? For lightning? Mm-hmm. Uh, Grand Teton's. No. I was very surprised by this answer, actually, so I don't know if you'll get it, but Everglades. Yeah. Ha-ha.

Finally. You did it. I got an answer right. I'm done with the podcast. Turn it off. I have succeeded. I have answered a question correctly. I'm proud of you. Thank you. Do you want to push your luck even further and guess what the last place park is? The last place park? Am I going to be surprised about it again? I was actually a little surprised. I wasn't like super shocked, but I was pretty. I guess I don't know. Big bent. No. It's a California park. It's a California one. Joshua. tree. Pinnacles. Oh, I wouldn't have have, I should have, we should have turned the podcast off when we had the chance. I know, quit while you're ahead. Yeah, I picked Everglades because of their hurricane seasons and their big storms. It's a good thought. It's a good thought.

And Shenandoah actually ranked at number 14. Regarding the casualty data they collected over the study period time frame, there are known to have been 12 fatalities and 39 injuries in Rocky Mountain National Park and five deaths and 26 injuries in Grand Canyon National Park, as well as less frequent events in other parks that

the paper mentions such as Zion and the Great Smoky Mountains. And it's really, it's a really interesting paper. It's very data-based, but it was cool to see the breakdown. And while there is no indication of a mineral or a chemical being responsible for Roy's susceptibility, like he stated in his interview, I did put together some info from the Lightning Strike victim data published on the CDC website regarding different factors that play a role in being hit. This data was collected and pertains to the years of 2006 to 2021 in the U.S. And it states that males are four times more likely than females to be struck by lightning. That's comforting.

Yeah, it's good to be a woman in this case. And the summer months claim the most lives with a spike in July, reaching up to 147 people. Two out of three lightning deaths occur between noon and 6 p.m. And people participating in outdoor activities such as boating, fishing, playing sports, or even relaxing at the beach, accounted for almost two-thirds of the deaths between that study period of 06 to 21, which makes sense because you're outside. You know, you're outdoors. Near water, it seems like, is a big one. Mm-hmm. And outdoor work-related activities such as ranching and farming accounted for 18% of the deaths.

And there are five states that had no reported lightning deaths in that time frame. and two states with over 30. And I won't quiz you because I don't know if you want to guess. No, I had my one and done. You had your time in the sun. So the states with no deaths in that time frame were Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Washington State. And then the states with over 30 deaths were Texas and Florida, which makes a lot of sense. Oh, those are my two.

I said Big Bend and Everglades. Yeah, see, you're, see? It's tracking. It's coming. Yep. Yeah. And Roy's premonition of another strike, what would have been his eighth on record, did not come true. Officially, Roy Sullivan died by suicide on September 28, 1983 at the age of 71 as he lay next to his wife in bed, as he put a 22 caliber pistol to his right temple.

However, Ruth, Roy's younger sister, believed to her dying day, and she lived to the age of 92, that Pat murdered her husband, Roy. Oh, this took a wild turn. Okay. It sure did. And I was not expecting it either. Why does she believe that that's not the real story that he completed suicide and his wife was the one to do it? Yeah. So according to the first responders that arrived at the Sullivan home at 9 a.m. and transported him to the hospital, he was dead on arrival. His two sons, then only 13 and 10, quoted their mother as saying the shooting took place at 3 a.m. but went unnoticed for hours. Randy Fisher, who went on to become the county sheriff,

remembers the scene very well. He recalls entering the bedroom to find Roy bleeding from a single 22-caliber bullet wound to the head, a contact wound through a pillow. Apparently, Pat was a, quote, very sound sleeper and hadn't heard the shot and allegedly only discovered her husband was dead when she woke up the next morning.

So he either, there's two scenarios here, Either he decided to end his life directly next to his wife and tried to muffle it using a pillow, or as Ruth believes, Roy's younger sister, that Pat murdered him by using the pillow as a silencing technique to not disturb the children. And then reported it called in and reported it the following morning. I guess I just don't know about guns and pillows to know like how much a pillow would silence a gun. but I am just going to go out on a limb and say that it doesn't silence it that much to the fact that if it was going off right next to your head. Exactly. Presumably, like, unless you have some massive bed, like, if it's going off right next to you, that you wouldn't hear it and wake up.

Right. And I think that's what raised a lot of suspicions. But, I mean, she was never suspected more than that brought to trial. Like, nothing. There was no, like, the official report. Investigation at all. The official report is that he died by suicide. And Pat passed away in 2002 and is buried in the Edgewood Cemetery alongside Roy and their grandson,

who passed away in December of 1995 after living for only one day. That's sad. I know. Roy Sullivan's headstone is carved with images of scenes from nature and a deer jumping amongst the trees, likely an image reflecting his love of the Virginia Mountains he called home. It reads, Roy C. Sullivan, February 7, 1912, September 28, 1983. We loved you, but God loved you more. Two of his ranger hats can be found on display at the Guinness World exhibit halls in New York City in South Carolina.

Roy went down in history, National Park and otherwise, for his run-ins with one of nature's scariest forces. It is important to note that there are some, especially locals who are skeptical of his claims, believing that perhaps he did get struck several times, but as his notoriety grew and his mental health declined, he may have had stretched the truth towards the end. No one ever bore witness to any of Roy's seven lightning strikes. However, the family doctor and Shenandoah's park superintendent at the time are Taylor Hoskins. Both verified his injuries. Like, they clearly happened.

Like, the guy's hair was on fire. He has burns. I am curious if you found anything in your research about why he survived these lightning strikes. Because we talk about how deadly they are and can be. not that they all are, but the fact that he got struck so many times and none of them either killed him or how you were describing at the beginning of this episode where it can alter your mind, it can be like a stroke, things like that. He was never, it sounds like, he never suffered any severe long-term damages from any of these.

Yeah, I mean, it's interesting you say that because one of the theories for, you know, people were saying towards the end his mental health was declining and things like that, which lends itself to maybe he. did die by suicide instead of being murdered. Like, he was just suffering mentally. And a lot of people speculate that if that had anything to do with just like a deteriorating mental state due to these repeated strikes throughout his life. Like if it did something cognitively to him.

Interesting. But there's no like official documentation on that. So I'm not, I'm not too sure. But yeah, he didn't. And aside from his eardrum, his hearing loss, that last strike. Obviously that happened. But I didn't find anything about. like a particular reason that was his saving grace every single one of these times as far as like a reason that he lived all and survived all of these strikes.

Furthermore, Reid Engel, a retired National Park Service historian is a believer saying that of the incidents, quote, The lightning happened and it was well documented. And he isn't alone. NASA engineer Bruce Fisher chimed in by saying, I can believe it. He was out in the open. He's exposed and he has metal on him, probably carrying a gun and a bag. So as far as people saying, like, I don't believe he got struck so many times. There's people coming forward. I mean, it's like crazy. The odds are crazy high. But yeah, like, it's possible he got struck and it's not out of the norm. So I'm going to wrap this up by talking about some safety tips, because now that we're all scared shitless. How did not get struck by lightning? Like just some tips and

tricks for you. About half of the people who are struck by lightning wind up with some kind of injury. So if you're struck, you should seek medical care, like, immediately, no matter. Even if you seem fine. Like, even if you're like, all my hair's on fire and I got it out and I'm now fine, like, you should still cope to a doctor. I feel like that's silly to say. But, you know, you never know. Yeah.

You might not, I mean, you might not think of it if you come out of it and you feel like you're fine. Right. A misconception about lightning strike victims is that they carry a charge. Like, if you're struck by lightning, like, you're, like, super charged. Like, if you touch someone there. get shocked too. And as a result, people are really reluctant to touch lightning strike victims, and they don't carry a charge. So, like, please help them if you just witness someone gets

struck by lightning. Don't just stare from afar. Yeah, please help them. The first step in doing that would be obviously calling emergency personnel, followed by checking for a pulse on this person. As lightning often causes cardiac arrest, feeling for a pulse and starting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if you cannot feel one is very crucial. If they are, stable moving the person indoors if they were initially struck outdoors is best and placing them away from open windows or doors is ideal the caveat to this though is unless they have broken bones or they're bleeding in which case they should not be moved to avoid any further injury if the surface they are on is cold or wet placing a protective layer between them and the ground while awaiting for help to arrive will help lower the risk of hypothermia once at the hospital depending on your injuries if you're the one who was struck treatment may very very vary from a minimum of electrocardiograms, blood work, and a thorough physical exam, and just close observation over a period of time to burn and bone damage treatment, up to ruptured eardrum surgery and potential CT scans. It would be nice to avoid all of that,

of course. If we've learned anything from today, we can't fully prevent getting struck. I mean, it can happen anywhere at any time to anyone, but we can try our best to avoid that. And the best way to do that is to avoid being outside in open spaces during thunderstorms. If you hear thunder, you are in the range of a lightning strike and you should seek shelter immediately if you're outdoors. Lightning can travel 10 to

12 miles ahead of a storm. Hence, some lightning strike seemingly coming out of clear skies and probably why Jennifer Woodley named her book A Bolt from the Blue because they can come from clear blue skies. Take cover from storms, avoiding the highest elevation areas and tall

objects. Do not carry or hold tall metal objects during a thunderstorm. So drop those hiking poles or umbrellas or fishing rods, whatever you're holding onto, and remove any metal objects you may have on you. If lightning has struck the immediate area, keep in mind that lightning can strike the same place twice. If you cannot find shelter, crouch down in a catcher's stance, put your hands on your knees or place them over your ears to protect against hearing damage from thunder. And I have a video of you doing this in Yosemite. Oh my God, I totally forgot about that. You're like demonstrating how to do this. So I'm going to post that. People are like, that's not how you do it. It's only like three seconds long. Anyway, if other people are with you, stay 15 feet apart. A fully enclosed metal vehicle, such as a car or

school bus, can be a great shelter. Close all the windows and don't touch anything metal connected to the vehicle. If you're inside a building, close all the windows and stay away from them. Do not use electrical appliances as lightning may strike outside lines and travel inside. And lastly, it is safest to wait at least 30 minutes after the last observed lightning or thunder that you hear or see before you venture outside of your shelter. So I'm sorry everyone for ruining moody thunderstorms in the summer and summer viewing lightning strikes and all that. But better to be safe than sorry. Yeah, now you can just enjoy them and know that you might get struck by lightning. Right. I mean, everything's a risk. Being alive is a risk day to day. You never know. And that's the story of Roy Sullivan

and his incredible lightning strikes and his unfortunate end. And obviously there's some questions around that. But he lived a life, man. He really did. Yeah. He survived a lot. I would I would have loved to hear a conversation from him or like talk to him because I would love to know his point of view on why he was getting struck. So I mean, I know you said like maybe a mineral or something, but I would just love to know if he thought it was like kind of funny or if he was just like this sucks. I imagine it's a mixture of both because there's little indications of both like he was like some people are allergic to flowers and I'm allergic to lightning and you can imagine it's not fun. Like it sucks every time.

Yeah and I'm sure in the moment it's not funny at all but then like looking back and it's still not ha ha funny. It's just like ironic. Right. Yeah, exactly. It's just yeah, what are the odds? What are the odds? Clearly a lot.

Actually, one in 15,000, if you live over 80, I learned today. You did. You did. Yeah. Well, be safe out there, everyone, and enjoy the view. But watch your back, because you might get struck by lightning. Bye. Bye.

Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at npaddpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more.

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