When a rancher and early settler of Minnesota’s Itasca State Park is shot and killed during a hunting trip, suspicion falls on his partner in the woods who claims a peculiar sequence of events resulted in his buddy’s death.
An ominously named ridge in Great Smoky Mountains National Park has a backstory so unsettling, it takes diving through a trove of historical documents to settle on what is truth and what is fiction.
William McMullen (Photo Source) Find A Grave
Lake Itasca circa 1889. William Mc Mullen’s cabin is on the far right. (Photo Source) The Itasca Story by John Dobie.
William McMullen Grave Site (Photo Source) University of Minnesota Libraries, UMedia
Jasper Mellinger Grave (Photo Source) Find A Grave
Episode Source Material
- The Itasca Story: By John Dobie. Published January 1, 1959. Accessed February 26, 2025. (13 page PDF page scan) Hard copy only, no direct link.
- The Minneapolis Journal: Killed for a Deer. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Duluth News Tribune: One More Fool Hunter. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- Minneapolis Daily Times: Killed His Companion. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Sauk Centre Herald: Made Very Good Time. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- New Richland Star: Minnesota News. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Duluth News Tribune: Serious for Nelson Rust. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Saint Paul Globe: Criminal Carelessness Charged. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Duluth News Tribune: Rust Trial at Bemidji. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Minneapolis Journal: Bemidji Via newspapers.com.
- The Saint Paul Globe: Rust Not Guilty. By staff. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Duluth News Tribune: Rust Is Acquitted. By staff. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Knoxville News-Sentinel: Mountain Man, Caught in Bear Trap, Dies of Starvation; Dying Boy’s Tale Leads to Finding of Skeleton Years Later. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- United States Department of Interior: Memorandum for the Nomenclature Committee. By John Morrell. Published September 5, 1941. Received on November 21, 2023. Hard copy PDF provided by Great Smoky Mountains National Park Collections Preservation Center Librarian-Archivist, Michael Aday.
- The Knoxville News Sentinel: Great Tragedy Story Printed. By Bert Vincent. Published February 22, 1956. Accessed November 21, 2023. Hard copy PDF provided by Great Smoky Mountains National Park Collections Preservation Center Librarian-Archivist, Michael Aday.
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park Collections Preservation Center: Jasper Mellinger Documents. Provided by Michael Aday, Librarian-Archivist. (Pages 1-8) Received on November 21, 2023. Hard copy PDF’s only, no direct link.
- The Knoxville News-Sentinel: June 15 to be a special day in Smokies. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Knoxville News-Sentinel: Some of the Richest History Lives in Legends. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- Backpacker Magazine: Mellinger Death Ridge. By Jeff Rennicke. Published October 1993. Accessed November 21, 2023. Hard copy PDF provided by Great Smoky Mountains National Park Collections Preservation Center Librarian-Archivist, Michael Aday.
- Knox News: Names of Smokies sites tell stories. By Jenny Woodberry.
- University of Minnesota: Itasca State Park Week: McMullen, Murdered? By Rebecca Toov.
- Death in the Great Smoky Mountains: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in the Most Popular Park. By Michael Bradley. Published 2016. Accessed November 15, 2023. (pages 1-12)
- Historic Archaeology: Jasper Mellinger’s Death Ridge.
- Find A Grave: William McMullen
- Find A Grave: Nelson Rust
- Find A Grave: Nellie Rust Heinzelman
- Find A Grave: Martin Heinzelman
- Find A Grave: Jasper Mellinger
- The Monitor: One dead, 15 hurt in valley traffic Via newspapers.com.
- The Monitor: Martin Heinzelman Via newspapers.com.
- The Monitor: Mrs. Nellie Heinzelman. By staff Via newspapers.com.
- The Monitor: Checking looted home, officer arrests trio. By staff Via newspapers.com.