PORT ANGELES — A 66-year-old man who went prospecting for gold Friday morning was found dead at about 2 p.m. Sunday on the West End of the Olympic Peninsula.
The body of Harold Abbott, who lived in Port Angeles, was found at about 2 p.m. at a site off Hoko-Ozette Road, said Clallam County Sheriff’s Department Chief Criminal Deputy Ron Cameron.
Abbott, who was diabetic, was traveling alone. His family believed him to be heading to the Umbrella Creek area off Hoko-Ozette Road.
“Foul play is definitely not suspected,” Cameron said.
“It doesn’t appear to be accidental either. At this point it appears to be natural.”
Cameron said he wasn’t sure of the exact site where Abbott’s body was found.
“This site is somewhere we didn’t know about,” he said.
“We didn’t activate the search and rescue team because we didn’t have a starting point.”
He said the area was off 27 E Road, which branches off Hoko-Ozette Road.
“It appears he was parked along the road and had packed his stuff down to a small creek and had collapsed there between the creek and his vehicle,” Cameron said.
Abbott was found by a team of Clallam County sheriff’s deputies and some of his family members.
“On Sunday, his family came out to help, and unfortunately that is when we found him, and unfortunately he was deceased,” Cameron said.
“They knew those areas more specifically than we did.”
Abbot left at about 6:30 a.m. Friday and was expected back later that evening.
He often went gold prospecting, his family told the Clallam County deputies.
Deputies began systematically searching the area on Saturday, Cameron said.
“They were out there quite late at night,” he said.
“I was in touch with all of the West End deputies, Forks Police and Neah Bay even, because there was a small possibility that he could have been going down a trail on the reservation.”
Abbott’s vehicle, a 2008 Chevrolet Trailblazer was also not spotted until Sunday.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
