Identification papers believed to be those of missing adventurer Steve Fossett were found Wednesday by a hiker in the Sierra wilderness, according to the Mammoth Lakes Police Department. Officials say the papers were found on the western side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by a hiker from Mammoth Lakes. The papers reportedly carried the name of James Steven Fossett and the same date of birth as the adventurer. Erica Stuart, a spokeswoman for the Madera County Sheriff's Department, told the Associated Press that officials were examining the materials that may be linked to Fossett.

The Madera County sheriff's office is the lead agency on a multi-agency search effort that is to be launched Wednesday. Stuart said the rugged, heavily wooded terrain around Mammoth Mountain will be searched. Whether or not this area was searched in September 2007, when the adventurer vanished after taking off from a remote Nevada ranch in a Bellanca Citabria Super Decathlon is still an open question. Stuart said Madera County had not been involved in any previous searches. Fossett was declared legally dead by an Illinois court February 15. Search teams never found his body or any plane wreckage. Fossett was reported missing after taking off on what he had said would be a short morning flight from hotel magnate and aviation enthusiast William Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, some 60 miles southeast of Carson City toward Bishop, California. Before taking off, Fossett reportedly told friends that he wanted to search for a dry lake bed suitable for his next goal: breaking the land speed record in a vehicle powered by a turbojet engine that could reach 800 mph.

In a first-person appreciation of his missing friend for Time magazine in October 2007, British billionaire-adventurer Richard Branson, who partnered with Fossett and Per Lindstrand in a failed 1998 attempt to make the first nonstop round-the-world flight in a three-man balloon, described Fossett as "one of the most generous, good-natured and kind people I have ever met, but also one of the bravest and most determined adventurers and explorers of all time." Fossett was up for any type of vehicle, setting 116 records in gliders, sailboats, balloons, powered aircraft and airships. But he also swam the English Channel, drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race, competed in Hawaii's Ironman Triathlon, sailed solo across both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, climbed Argentina's 23,000-foot Aconcagua peak and competed in Alaska's 1,150-mile Iditarod Trail sled dog race, among many other accomplishments.