Delia D'Ambra

Alma knew that her husband missing the funeral he'd planned to attend was out of character for him, but she remained mostly unbothered throughout the early part of the day Tuesday because she figured something had just probably held him up at work.

Normally, Ellsworth was good about letting his wife know if an investigative trip was going to keep him away overnight.

But in this instance, he hadn't done that.

He'd also left his coat and lunch behind, which was another indication that he likely intended to return to his vehicle and be home before the end of the day.

By nightfall on Tuesday, Alma had worried long enough, and so she reported her husband missing to the local authorities.

The following morning, Wednesday, August 29th, a formal search party consisting of 15 to 20 men led by a deputy sheriff, Mullins police chief, and a state highway patrolman set out toward Boulder Gulch to look for Ellsworth.

That group searched for hours but didn't find the missing game warden.

Meanwhile, back in Mullen, Alma was growing more and more concerned for her husband's wellbeing.

Initially, she and her friends thought he was probably just hurt somewhere and couldn't make it back to town to get help.

It was either that or something more nefarious because they were never on board with any kind of suggestion that maybe Ellsworth had become lost or gotten disoriented in the landscape.

They knew he was intimately familiar with the outskirts of Mullen and the Boulder Gulch region specifically.

So getting lost or disoriented were just not viable scenarios they thought made sense considering his experience as an outdoorsman.

In the years prior to his disappearance, Ellsworth had moved his wife and sons north to Mullen from where he was originally from in Clearwater County, Idaho.

At that time, he'd been working as a silver miner.

At some point though, he decided to switch career paths and took a job as a deputy game warden.

That position was somewhat of a new gig in areas of the American West like Shoshone County.

Idaho's Department of Fish and Game had been around since 1899, but the agency had a difficult time filling enforcement roles over the years.

So, unwilling to let such an important law enforcement figure for the area be gone without a trace, the search party for Ellsworth continued their efforts Wednesday evening and again Thursday morning.

The group fanned out from where his car had been found and scoured the rugged terrain looking for clues.

During that time, additional volunteers joined in, including a local Boy Scouts troop, an airplane, and even officers from the state game department armed with bloodhounds from the state penitentiary.