Sheriff’s dog Arch tracks three lost children near Buena Vista, Colorado
Three children, a nine-year-old and two six-year-olds, wandered away from their family’s campsite near Buena Vista, Colorado, on the morning of Saturday 26 September. Their family looked for them for two hours before calling the sheriff. A canine deputy called Arch found their scent at the camp and showed the searchers which way they had gone, and the children were found that afternoon, unhurt.
7 October 2026
Photo: Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
The family had come from the Denver area, a large group camping together near the Midland Bike Trail, east of Buena Vista in Chaffee County. At about nine that morning they noticed that three of the children were no longer at the camp, and they spent the next two hours searching on their own before they called the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office at about 11.
Drones, a helicopter and a dog
Deputies met the family at the trail and called in Chaffee County Search and Rescue, whose volunteers went out on foot to search the ground in a grid while several drones and a helicopter worked from above. The sheriff’s office also sent its canine deputy, Archie, who goes by Arch.
According to the sheriff’s office, Arch picked up a scent from the camp almost immediately and began leading the searchers into the wilderness, “clearly on a mission,” in the office’s words. Because he had shown them the direction the children had taken, the foot teams worked up and around the same way, and from higher ground they could see the three children.
Found at 2pm, unhurt
They were found at about two o’clock, some five hours after the family first noticed they were gone, about a mile and a half from the camp. The sheriff’s office said all three were uninjured and in good health, and they were back with their family soon afterwards.
The teams worked amazingly quick and effective to bring these kids back to their worried families. I can only imagine the panic they must have felt.Sheriff Andy Rohrich, in a press release
Rohrich also credited the search and rescue volunteers and Arch.
Now adding our buddy Arch to the team, as a tool, I would match this team against any other in the state. I am very proud of them all.Sheriff Andy Rohrich
The sheriff’s office did not name the children or their family.
Carry a story in five words
We run a game called Long Story Short: one real news sentence a day, and you keep the five words that carry it. Today’s is below. Do play.
How to play
One real news sentence. The job is to keep the five words that carry the story and let the rest go, then guess. Blue means the right word in the right place, orange the right word in the wrong place.
Yesterday: A fly-tip of bedding and bottles in an alley was cleared soon after becoming a work of art, arranged by a woman whose complaints had been ignored. The five were fly-tip cleared after becoming art.