OUR STORY

Born From a Need. Built for the Search.

Badlands Search & Rescue was founded in September 2018 in Watford City, North Dakota, after our founder and director, Travis Bateman, recognized a significant gap in search and rescue capabilities while serving as a McKenzie County deputy sheriff.

Western North Dakota presents a unique search and rescue environment. The rugged Badlands, remote ranch country, expansive waterways, extreme weather and great distances between communities can turn a missing-person or backcountry emergency into a major operation very quickly.

At the same time, western North Dakota was experiencing significant population growth while many of its rural public-safety agencies were already working with limited personnel and resources.

There were capable firefighters, law enforcement officers, emergency medical personnel, dive teams, boat operators and other specialized responders throughout the region. What was missing was a dedicated organization focused specifically on developing the knowledge, personnel and resources required to systematically search for lost, missing, injured and distressed people.

That distinction became the foundation of Badlands SAR.

You Cannot Rescue Someone Until You Find Them

Search and rescue contains two words for a reason.

Rescue capabilities are critically important, but before rescuers can reach a missing hiker, hunter, child, vulnerable adult, boater or injured backcountry traveler, someone first has to determine where that person is.

That requires much more than simply putting people on the ground and looking.

Effective searching is a discipline.

It involves incident management, search planning, lost-person behavior, probability, clue awareness, tracking and sign cutting, terrain analysis, mapping, communications, K9 deployment, aerial resources, water-search techniques, properly managed field teams and the ability to continually evaluate what has—and has not—been searched.

Badlands SAR was created around the belief that the search component of search and rescue deserves the same commitment to training, standards and readiness as the rescue itself.

That belief has only grown stronger with experience.

Every missing-person case teaches something. Some demonstrate what worked. Others expose gaps in training, resources, coordination or readiness. Rather than criticizing the men and women already serving their communities, we believe those lessons should be used to make everyone better prepared for the next call.

Because there will always be another call.

A Regional Need

When Badlands SAR was being organized, the geographic challenge was significant.

Early reporting on the organization in 2019 noted that the nearest full-service search and rescue team was approximately 300 miles and more than four hours away in Rapid City, South Dakota. Specialized resources existed closer to Watford City, but even those resources could face considerable travel times before reaching an incident in McKenzie County.

In search and rescue, time matters.

Weather changes. Darkness arrives. Temperatures rise and fall. Water moves. Tracks disappear. Human scent deteriorates. Search areas grow. A lost person’s physical condition can decline by the hour.

The answer was not to replace existing law enforcement, fire, EMS or other emergency-response agencies.

It was to build another resource capable of working with them.

Badlands SAR therefore developed as a volunteer, nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that assists agencies having jurisdiction and works within established incident-management systems.

Our purpose is simple:

Bring trained people, specialized knowledge and additional resources to the search so the agency responsible for an incident has more tools available when someone needs to be found.

Building Something That Did Not Exist

What initially sounded straightforward quickly became anything but.

Creating a legitimate search and rescue organization required much more than assembling volunteers and purchasing equipment.

It required studying national SAR practices, building operating procedures, obtaining insurance, developing relationships with public-safety agencies, identifying appropriate equipment, learning incident management, establishing communications capabilities and finding recognized training and certification opportunities.

It also required money.

Badlands SAR receives no guaranteed government operating budget. Historically, our volunteers have paid many of their own expenses—including personal equipment, vehicles, fuel, meals and travel—to respond to missions and attend training.

In testimony before the North Dakota Legislature in 2023, Badlands SAR explained that its members were personally absorbing many of those costs while the organization relied upon donations and occasional grants to provide training, certification, insurance and equipment.

But the mission continued.

Training Became the Mission Behind the Mission

From the beginning, Badlands SAR recognized that equipment alone does not create capability.

People do. Training does. Experience does.

The organization began building around nationally recognized search and rescue principles and became involved with the National Association for Search and Rescue (NASAR), using nationally recognized education and certification as part of the team’s foundation.

Members have pursued training in areas including search technician skills, search incident management, lost-person behavior, K9 operations, unmanned aircraft, tracking, ground search, water operations, family liaison and other disciplines.

Eventually, Badlands SAR began bringing that training to western North Dakota instead of requiring everyone to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to find it.

In 2023, the organization hosted its first major K9 seminar in McKenzie County. Search-and-rescue personnel and law enforcement officers representing nine states attended.

The following year, SARCON expanded that concept, bringing ground search, tracking, K9 and water-search training together in western North Dakota.

The objective was bigger than building Badlands SAR.

It was about building SAR capability throughout the region.

When a deputy, firefighter, emergency manager, K9 handler or SAR volunteer from another organization leaves one of those courses better prepared than when they arrived, the entire region becomes stronger.

From an Idea to Real-World Missions

The need envisioned in 2018 has since been tested in real searches.

Badlands SAR volunteers have responded to missing-person and search operations across North Dakota and beyond, working alongside local, state and federal agencies and other volunteer SAR organizations.

In 2026, that included a nearly two-week search for a missing 37-year-old hiker in the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Badlands SAR volunteers logged more than 140 hours and 75 miles on foot through some of the park’s most difficult terrain while dealing with temperatures approaching or exceeding 100 degrees, rattlesnakes, bison and the physical challenges presented by the Badlands.

The operation brought together the National Park Service, Badlands SAR, North Dakota Highway Patrol and its tracking K9 resources, Civil Air Patrol, the North Dakota Army National Guard and other responders.

Later that year, Badlands SAR members traveled to Campbell County, Wyoming, to assist in the search for Derek Schaff, joining Wyoming organizations and specialized K9 resources in rugged terrain encompassing thousands of acres.

These missions are reminders of why the organization exists.

A missing person does not care about county lines.

Terrain does not care about jurisdictional boundaries.

And a family waiting for answers should not have to wonder whether trained search resources exist simply because of where their loved one disappeared.

More Than a Team

Eight years after its founding, Badlands SAR is no longer simply an idea born from recognizing a gap in western North Dakota.

It has become part of a much larger effort.

Our volunteers have been joined by community partners, businesses, donors, public-safety professionals, government representatives, missing-person advocates and—perhaps most importantly—families who understand firsthand what it means to wait for someone to come home.

Some of those families have remained involved long after their own searches ended.

Their experiences remind us that search and rescue is not ultimately about equipment, maps, certifications, vehicles or statistics.

It is about people.

It is about the person who is missing.

And it is about the people waiting for them.

The Work Ahead

We also recognize how much work remains.

Search and rescue capabilities vary greatly between communities and states. Rural agencies continue to face challenges involving staffing, volunteer recruitment, funding, training, equipment and enormous response areas.

Badlands SAR cannot solve those problems alone.

But we can help build something better.

Our volunteers are working to expand professional search capabilities for missing-person cases, waterways, wilderness areas and remote incidents throughout the region. That means continuing to improve training, certification, equipment, K9 capabilities, water-search resources, incident management, communications, vehicles and partnerships.

It is a large undertaking for a volunteer organization.

We accept that.

Because our goal has never been simply to own equipment or wear a SAR patch.

Our goal is readiness.

To continually learn.

To train before the emergency.

To recognize weaknesses before someone’s life depends upon them.

To work beside the agencies and organizations already serving our communities.

And when someone becomes lost, missing or injured—to bring every capability we can to help find them.

Because before there can be a rescue, there must first be a search.

And when someone is missing, the search matters.