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A person died in a fall from Devil's Doorway at Devil's Lake State Park Tuesday, July 21.
Mark Willer, assistant chief of the Baraboo Fire and EMS District, said authorities believe the person was hiking alone before falling off Devil's Doorway rock formation. The person was located more than 100 feet below, after a 75-foot initial drop, followed by another fall through a tree line.
The Sauk County coroner said it is not yet releasing the gender and age of the deceased person.
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Willer said the call came in around 2:15 p.m. Baraboo Fire and EMS located the person about a half hour later. They determined the person had died by the time they arrived.
Switching from a rescue to a recovery mission, Baraboo Fire and EMS slowed its efforts, Willer said. First responders carried the individual about 200 yards through steep, rocky terrain, to the park's Grottos Trail. The crews were on scene until around 5:30 p.m., Willer said. In addition to the hazardous terrain, first responders encountered rattlesnakes – but no rescue crews were injured, he said.
Baraboo Fire and EMS received additional help from the Portage and Prairie du Sac fire departments. The total response involved close to 20 rescue personnel, Willer said.
Tuesday's incident was the second falling death at Devil's Lake State Park of 2026. Thirty-year-old Baraboo climbing guide Audrie Pelosi died in a May 30 climbing incident. In October 2025, 84-year-old Peter Cleveland, a well-known figure in the Midwest climbing community, died in a rappelling accident at the park's west bluff.
However, Willer said the vast majority of calls Baraboo Fire and EMS gets for falling incidents at Devil's Lake State Park are not for rock climbers, but for hikers who strayed from the trails. He said there is not yet a definitive cause of the incident, but the person who died did not have any climbing gear.
"They were not a rock climber. They were a hiker, off the trail, in an area that is very dangerous," Willer said. "And unfortunately the tragedy did happen."
Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Hiker dies in fall from Devil's Doorway at Devil's Lake State Park
