An employee at Yellowstone National Park found a partial foot inside a shoe floating in a hot spring Tuesday.
The remains were uncovered at Abyss Pool, one of a number of geothermal hot springs in the enormous national park, CBS reported. The discovery led to the temporary closure of the West Thumb Geyser Basin and accompanying parking lot.
The park has not shared any other information about the ongoing investigation, CBS noted.
The pool is roughly 53 feet deep and rises to temperatures of around 140 degrees Fahrenheit, according to CBS. Hot springs are one of Yellowstone’s core attractions, but can even be deadly, the Guardian noted.
“Hot springs have injured or killed more people in Yellowstone than any other natural feature. Keep your children close and don’t let them run,” according to the official National Park Service site for Yellowstone.
Student Killed In Alabama After Run-In With Individuals ‘Living Off The Grid’ In National Foresthttps://t.co/zRNMduM1Zu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 19, 2022
Most deaths in national parks go unsolved, according to a report by the New York Post. A majority of those deaths are accidents related to drowning, falls, and car accidents, along with more violent deaths such as accidental decapitations and scalding deaths in hot springs and thermal pools.
The number of missing persons in national parks is something of a mystery as neither the Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture’s US Forest Service keep track of those who disappear in the wild, according to another NY Post report. Most disappearances are put down to hypothermia, falls, avalanches, and animal attacks, the report noted. (RELATED: Camera Catches Mysterious Beast Roaming In Texas, Officials Ask For Public’s Help)
“I don’t think there’s a grand conspiracy to keep the numbers hidden,” journalist Jon Billman said, according to the outlet. “But the National Park Service certainly doesn’t advertise that there are dozens of still-missing visitors in Grand Canyon or Yosemite, and a county sheriff isn’t gonna put a missing person on his reelection poster.”