MORNING REPORT EXCERPTS - 1993

Morning Report Excerpts - 1993

The Morning Report includes accidents and incidents in the National Park System. Here are some reports you might find interesting.

92-673 - Big Bend (Texas) - Rescue

On December 29th, Mark Wolfe, a 34-year-old professional rodeo clown, experienced extreme back pain and numbness in his leg while hiking in the Chisos Mountains. A team of eight protection, resource management and maintenance employees responded on December 30th and carried Wolfe a mile and a quarter to a clearing large enough for a Border Patrol helicopter to land. Wolfe was flown to park headquarters, where Terlingua medics administered morphine for the pain. Due to the severity of the injury, which turned out to be a broken coccyx and a spinal compression fracture, the morphine had little effect. Rangers then took Wolfe to the hospital in Alpine for further treatment. Wolfe's comment regarding the pain: "When I was gored by a bull through the cheek and flung around the stadium, that was a ten; by comparison, this was an eight." Ranger Connie Cox served as incident commander for the rescue operation. [RAD/SWRO, 1/6]

93-118 - Zion (Utah) - Dam Break

A dam formed by a landslide on Taylor Creek in the Kolob section of the park broke at 9:30 pm last night, sending a ten-foot wall of water down the canyon and over Interstate 15. Because the highway is elevated, only two feet of water passed over the roadway. The force of the water was sufficient, however, to knock over a tractor trailer and several vehicles. Four injuries are known to have occurred. At the time of the report late last night, water was still flowing over the road but was subsiding. Water has also backed up on Ash Creek behind another naturally-formed dam, and it may fail in the near future. No park facilities are threatened and no evacuations are planned. County and FEMA authorities have been advised and are on alert. The park will make a damage assessment at 7 a.m. MST this morning. [Larry Weiss, Assistant Superintendent, ZION, 3/18]

93-118 - Zion (Utah) - Follow-up on Dam Break

Investigators have determined that the earthen dam that failed on March 17th gave way at the base due to soil saturation. There was about one surface acre of water behind it, and water rose between eight and ten feet in the downstream channel after the breech. An eight-foot by thirty-foot culvert under Interstate 15 was not large enough to accommodate the wall of water which came down the channel; water therefore flowed over the road to a depth of about a foot and a half. The water covered about 100 yards of roadway and dissipated within about 20 minutes. It was the probable cause of four personal injury accidents involving two trailer trucks and two cars. Complete reports on the accidents are not yet available, but it appears that the water forced the vehicles off the roadway. One of the trucks turned over and remained under eight feet of water until it was removed by a wrecker on March 18th. It may have suffered significant damage. Injuries to passengers at this point are described as minor. A minor spill occurred when one of the truck's fuel tanks ruptured; a hazmat team was called in to handle it. The highway appears to have survived intact. [Jim Reilly, RAD/RMRO, 3/18]

93-134 - Capitol Reef (Utah) - Search

On the morning of March 21st, members of a group from Colorado College advised rangers that three of their companions - Hohn Garner, Greg Kay and Adrian Montgomery - might be stranded on Meek's Mesa. The three students had scrambled up a rough route from Chimney Rock Canyon to the top of the steep-walled mesa 600 feet above on the previous day and had not returned. The three were dressed in shorts and had a bag of gorp, a quart of water, and no overnight gear. Three hasty teams were dispatched. Rangers Bob and Whitney Kreiling located the three students in Chimney Rock Canyon three hours after the search began. All were in good health. The three had spent the 40-degree night on the Mesa huddling around a fire, then climbed down their initial route in the morning. [Tom Cox, ACR, CARE, 3/22]

93-142 - Dinosaur (Colorado/Utah) - ARPA Arrest

In June of 1992, BLM, NPS and local law enforcement officers following up on some information provided by an informant discovered an excavated archeological site on federal land near Vernal, Utah. The persons suspected of looting the site - Wilma and Ricky Brooks of Vernal, Utah - had been under surveillance for similar depredations in the park and elsewhere on federal lands in the area. The informant also told officers that the couple had removed a cradleboard with the mummified remains of a Fremont Indian infant from the site, and that he had seen it at their residence. On March 17th, federal agents arrested the pair for the theft, and they were subsequently indicted in federal district court for various ARPA violations. The remains, which date from around 650 A.D., are the first such found in the Uintah Basin. [Dan Moses, DINO, 3/25]

93-226 - Zion (Utah) - Evacuation

At 5:20 p.m. on April 30th, the Washington County sheriff's office notified the park that they'd received a report that water was flowing over the top of the 85-foot-high Kolob Reservoir dam. Water from the reservoir flows into the North Fork of the Virgin River, which runs through the park and the park's gateway communities of Springdale and Rockville. Both the park and sheriff's office began mobilizing personnel in event of a major flood. A model had been developed by Washington County which indicated that a catastrophic release of the reservoir would increase the river's flow to 75,000 to 80,000 cubic feet per second throughout all of Zion Canyon. A county helicopter which was dispatched to check the report arrived at the dam at 7:40 p.m. and reported that water was not flowing over the dam. By the time that report was received, all low-lying areas in the park had been secured and all park employees and visitors who might be affected had been notified and/or evacuated. Rangers then began the process of advising all those they'd contacted that the report had been false. Although the report was erroneous, it provided the opportunity for a very good and valuable exercise. [Larry Van Slyke, CR, ZION, 5/3]

93-274 - Zion (Utah) - Falling Fatality

On the evening of May 14th, two hikers advised the park that they had seen what they suspected were human remains in the rugged eastern end of the South Fork of Taylor Creek in the Kolob section of the park. A search party attempted to hike into the location that night, but the effort was suspended after midnight because of darkness and icy conditions. On May 15th, a Zion SAR team composed of climbing rangers and members of the local climbing community searched for and finally located the body after seven hours of travel over extremely hazardous terrain, including ice bridges, precipitous snow-covered cliffs, and unstable ground. The rugged, narrow canyon and high cliffs made helicopter evacuation impossible. The SAR team removed the body to a lower location, where they were assisted with hand-carry transport back to the trailhead by the Washington County sheriff's SAR team. A total of ten people from three agencies were involved. 

There was no identification on the victim and no climbing gear was present. It appears that the victim fell well over 1,000 feet. Because of the massive trauma sustained in the fall, immediate identification was impossible. The body was taken to the state medical examiner's office in Salt Lake City. Evidence taken from a lone car at the trailhead, together with dental records obtained from the family of the man to whom the car was registered, led the medical examiner to a positive identification of the victim as 21-year-old Affin William Phillips of Salt Lake City. The coroner ruled that Williams had died within 36 hours of the discovery of his body. His auto was impounded by county officials. Suicide has not been ruled out. [Dave Buccello, ACR, and Denny Davies, PIO, ZION, 5/20]

93-290 - Zion (Utah) - Arrest of Concession Employee

On the morning of May 25th, rangers and FBI agents arrested 19-year-old David Madrid, a Zion Lodge concession employee, on a felony warrant for trafficking in stolen property. Madrid was one of 51 people arrested that morning in a statewide sweep involving 275 officers. The arrests culminated a year-long undercover sting operation based in Holladay, Utah. Twenty-nine of those charged are gang members. Officers recovered $1 million in stolen property, including televisions, cellular phones, stereos, jewelry, 37 cars and two tractor-trailers loaded with interstate shipments. Homemade bombs, machine guns, and stolen military weapons were among the items exchanged at the Holladay gun shop which fronted the sting operation. [Larry Van Slyke, CR, ZION, 5/26]

93-260 - Canyonlands (Utah) - Drownings

On May 29th, three men - Paul Shields, 77, David Burt, 70, and William Call, 40 - put in on the Green River for a flatwater "friendship cruise" down the Green to its confluence with the Colorado, then up the Colorado to Moab. The trio missed the turn at the confluence, however, and descended the Colorado through Cataract Canyon. Shield and Burt drowned when the boat overturned on Little Niagara falls, but Call survived. A search is currently underway for the bodies. [Dick Powell, RMRO, 5/31]

93-500 - Zion (Utah) - Search in Progress

A group of eight people on a two-day hike in the Kolob Creek area of the park failed to return on schedule on Saturday, July 17th. A search effort was begun the following morning. A body was soon spotted from the air at the base of a waterfall in that area, but it was uncertain whether the victim was a member of the group. No signs of other members of the group were found. The search was expanded later in the day to include ground teams, and a winch lowering system was brought in to lower a ranger to the body. At the time of the report late yesterday afternoon, the body had not yet been recovered and no trace had yet been found of group members. [Jim Reilly, RAD, RMRO, 7/19]

93-510 - Zion (Utah) - Two Drownings; Rescue 

On July 14th, a group of five Explorer scouts and three leaders from the Mormon Church's Riviera Ward in Salt Lake City headed out from Lava Point for a four-day hike into the park through Zion Narrows. The group had hiked two miles into the Kolob Creek area, where heavy spring runoff had filled the creek to nearly double its normal level, when Dave Fleisher, 24, got caught in a whirlpool. Kim Ellis, another of the group's leaders, pulled him out, but was in turn sucked into the pool. Ellis' body was recovered by Mark Brewer, 35, the third leader, who tried but failed to resuscitate him. The hikers left Ellis' body on the bank and hiked another 150 years, where Fleisher was swept over a waterfall and sucked into another whirlpool. He did not resurface. Brewer decided that the group shouldn't risk further forays into the creek and should instead await rescue. Their wet suits, ropes and dehydrated food were lost in the creek, so the hikers huddled in an alcove and shared food from the one remaining backpack. The group was reported missing on Sunday, July 18th, and was spotted the following evening, largely because the party alerted searchers by lighting a fire with glue and burning plastic, thereby sending black smoke into the air. Rescuers flown in by helicopter rappelled down the canyon wall and used a hand winch to hoist the six survivors to a ledge. After spending the night there, they were flown out by helicopter. Surviving were Brewer; Shane Ellis, 14, the son of Kim Ellis; Chris Stevens, 15; Mike Perkins, 17; Josh Nay, 18; and Rick Larson, 16. [Denver Post, 7/21]

More info: High Country News Article.

92-70 - Glen Canyon (Arizona/Utah) - Follow-up on ARPA Incident

On February 29, 1992, ranger Jim Bowman discovered that 21 petroglyphs in Willow Gulch on the Escalante River had been damaged by scraping, apparently to enhance them so that they would show up better in photographs. Investigation led to the issuance and execution of a search warrant at a residence in Escalante, Utah, where pertinent evidence was gathered. This was presented to the U.S. attorney in July. Bowman and law enforcement specialist Bob Maguire subsequently testified before a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City. The grand jury indicted McKay Bailey, 63, for destruction of government property and violations of the Archeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA). Bailey's 1990 Ford four-wheel-drive pickup has been seized under ARPA's forfeiture statutes. No trial date has yet been set. [Larry Clark, CR, GLCA, 7/28]

93-637 - Arches (Utah) - Flash Flood

On August 8th, a large thunderstorm passed over the park and dropped three-quarters of an inch of rain in about 40 minutes at the headquarters weather station. The weather was even more severe in the heart of the park further north, where hail caused whiteout conditions. Park visitors driving the main road pulled over to wait out the rain, including Dean Jakubczak, who was riding a motorcycle. A flash flood came down one of the dry washes that went beneath the road; the volume of water was many times the capacity of the 30-inch culvert and therefore spread down the road for about a half mile. Jakubczak's cycle was picked up and carried 770 feet down the road, then into another wash, where it was buried. The cycle and all of Jakubczak's personal gear were lost. Jakubczak, who had sought refuge in another visitor's van, attempted to save his cycle as the flood waters rose. His shoelaces became caught in the kickstand as the bike fell over, and he was dragged some 20 feet before becoming disentangled. He was not injured. [Jim Webster, CR, ARCH, 8/24] 

92-342 - Death Valley (California) - Follow-up on Butterfly Poaching

On December 14th, three people were indicted in federal court in northern California for poaching federally protected butterflies between 1983 and 1992 in Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Death Valley, Point Reyes and Golden Gate. More than 2,200 butterflies, including 210 protected under the Endangered Species Act, were taken for commercial gain over the past nine years. The case was developed after U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents and Grand Canyon rangers and investigators began an investigation last year into poaching of a rare species of butterfly from the park. If convicted, each defendant faces five years federal imprisonment, a $250,000 fine, and a term of supervised release. [Carl Christensen, RAD/WRO, 12/21]