State and national campgrounds seem unlikely settings for violence, but headlines last week from Virginia gave a chilling reminder that backwoods brutality occurs. A former Grosse Pointer, 26-year-old Lollie Winans, and a female hiking partner were found slain at their campsite near the Appalachian Trail in Shenandoah National Park.
Crimes or serious misbehavior have emerged as concerns in some federal parks and forests around the country.
Satanic cults practice rituals at Joshua Tree National Monument in California. At Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, murderers regularly dump victims' bodies in remote areas. At Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, almost 250,000 marijuana plants were confiscated in 1993.
But Michigan's state and federal campgrounds have remained relatively violence-free. Rangers and government agencies list pet control as the regulatory priority during camping season, and serious incident reports are rare.
John Winters supervises 350 safety officers for the Department of Natural Resources -- the uniformed rangers who oversee 96 state parks and recreation areas and 600 boating access sites.
"Nothing is ever guaranteed," said Winters. "Isolated incidents can happen, but the parks are very, very secure."
How secure? Of about 1,000 incident reports that visitors filed with rangers last year, just 16 were technically classified as assaults:
Two peeping toms in toilet buildings, five domestic assaults, six assaults against employees (including an apparent attempted rape), two fights between visitors, "and then there was our big case," Winters said.
"At Island Lake Recreation area, out near Brighton, two cyclists entered the grounds as a car driven by a 59-year-old lady tried to go around them. They got into an argument over who had the right to the road," he continued.
"And the lady got out of her car, raised her cane and walloped one of the bikers on the butt. It raised a big welt. Want to see the pictures?"
Statistics from several U.S. forests and national parks in Michigan provide a similar picture.
At Hiawatha National Forest in the Upper Peninsula, forester Joe Hart said snowmobile accidents involving drunk operators are far more likely to land a camper in the hospital than any kind of assault.
Stolen camping gear "is about as serious as it gets," he said of his 150,000 acres of wilderness. "We don't even lock our car doors."
Erica Szlosek, a staffer at the Huron-Manistee National Forest near Cadillac, said she "would not place being killed by a crazy as a high concern" -- despite almost 2 million visits annually to the vast preserve's 636 campsites.
Of almost 1,200 law enforcement violations there last year, none were violent. Many involved hunting or other infractions.
"There have been bodies found in the forest, yes," she said. "And people growing marijuana -- we find that." But violence against campers "really isn't likely," she said, except for fights between couples or friends.
Still, campground managers take security quite seriously. High visibility and lots of camper contact are the keys to deterring troublemakers.
"Our basic message to anyone here for any reason other than enjoying the facility is this: Go somewhere else," said Winters of the DNR.
Uniformed employees at entrances, occasionally asking for identification and campground patrols keep away most troublemakers, he added.
Veteran camper Debra Kulesza, a sixth-grade teacher at Carlson Elementary School in Warren, worries more about bears than people as she backpacks through the Upper Peninsula's Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore or other wilderness areas in America and Canada.
"Rangers always check your ID -- your camping certificate," she said. "And they have radios. They're right on top of things."
Kulesza has left her car unattended at trail heads without trouble. "Once we left a Jaguar at the Grand Canyon," she recalled, "and it was fine five days later."
She has never felt insecure in the woods, partly because of her camping companions. "There are usually 10 of us, and the majority is male," she said. "I'm with my brothers and sisters, and some of them are big guys.
"I don't know how I would feel if I were alone or with just one other woman," she said.
State camping by the numbers
* Annual visits: 25 million at state parks and boating areas.
* Trouble reports: 1,000 annually at state parks (any documented complaint).
* Odds of trouble, per state park visit: One in 25,000.
* Most common camper injury, federal parks: Snowmobile accidents.
* Most common assault, state and federal parks: Domestic dispute.
* Most common crime: equipment theft.
* Most common complaint, state parks: unleashed dogs.
Sources: Michigan Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service
Be on the alert
Park rangers suggest common-sense precautions by campers, hikers and other wilderness visitors.
* Leave word on where you're going and when you'll return, both with a friend or relative and at park headquarters.
* Camping and hiking alone increases risks. Don't go solo.
* Stay in a campground with nearby sites, or far enough from a trail to be unseen by other hikers.
* Engrave your driver's license number on your gear; many police posts offer free service.
* Don't leave gear unattended. Equipment theft is the most common park crime.
* Bring mace or pepper spray, if park rules allow, to deter any two-legged or four-legged assailants.
* Don't bring firearms and quietly report those who have them.
* Still worried? Ask for a nightly ranger check, available at most parks.