Oct 1, 2008 10:28 am US/Pacific
Calif. Hiker May Have Found Steve Fossett's ID
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. (CBS News) ―
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Adventurer Steve Fossett poses next to his aircraft, the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer. (File)
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
A hiker in rugged eastern California found an ID and other items possibly belonging to Steve Fossett, the adventurer missing more than a year since going on a pleasure flight in a borrowed plane, authorities said Wednesday.
The items were found in the area of the town of Mammoth Lakes, Inyo National Forest spokeswoman Nancy Upham said.
"We have some ID that has the name Steve Fossett," Mammoth Lakes police Investigator Crystal Schafer said. "They were turned in to us and are in our possession."
A hiker who found the ID and some cash came to the police department office Tuesday, Police Chief Randy Schienle told CNN.
"The ID is well weathered," Schienle said. "We have heavy winters up here."
A sweatshirt was also found in the area, but no wreckage was located, he said.
Fossett disappeared Sept. 3, 2007, after taking off in a single-engine plane borrowed from a Nevada ranch owned by hotel magnate Barron Hilton. A judge declared Fossett legally dead in February.
This year's biggest search for Fossett focused on Nevada's Wassuk Range, more than 50 miles north of Mammoth Lakes. That search ended last month.
Mammoth Lakes is a community at an elevation of more than 7,800 feet on the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada, where peaks top 13,000 feet.
Fossett made a fortune trading futures and options on Chicago markets. He gained worldwide fame for more than 100 attempts and successes in setting records in high-tech balloons, gliders, jets and boats. In 2002, he became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in July 2007.
He also swam the English Channel, completed an Ironman Triathlon, competed in the Iditarod dog sled race and climbed some of the world's best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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