Deputies search southern Wisconsin mine for 3 missing boys

He said the boys went into the mine, got turned around and couldn’t find their way out.

The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office says searchers are looking in woods and around old mine tunnels for three missing teen boys.

“At this time this is an ongoing search operation and there is no information that anyone is injured”, Sheriff Dale Schmidt said in a release.

The Dodge County Sheriff’s office said this morning that it is working with the Iron Ridge Fire Department to search an area near Neda Road and Ore Road in the Town of Hubbard.

Searchers’ efforts were hampered by water that was as deep as 8 feet in some tunnels as well as a number of cave-ins.

Rescuers led by a state Department of Natural Resources specialist who was familiar with the mine finally discovered a footprint early Monday afternoon and heard the boys yelling for help. Schmidt said, adding that the three made a good choice in staying together and staying put once they bacame lost and their cellphones went dead. The boys weren’t hurt aside from scratches, Schmidt said.

The mine is now owned by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which conducts bat research at the site. UWM says an estimated 100,000 bats live in the mine, which is among the Midwest’s largest winter shelters for hibernating bats.