By Jim Stanford on September 13, 2007
Last week’s trip to Idaho brought me to Twin Falls, a farming town best known for its nearby waterfalls and a botched jump by Evel Knievel.
Photographer David Stubbs and I gazed across the Snake River Canyon nearly 33 years to the day — Sept. 8, 1974 — that Knievel attempted to fly across the gorge in a custom-made rocket cycle.
Aesthetically, Knievel made a fine choice. The canyon is beautiful, 400 feet deep, with the green Snake slithering through cliffs of black volcanic basalt.
Too bad his chute opened shortly after takeoff, and the rocket did not come close to clearing the canyon.
No matter. There wasn’t a boy who grew up in the 1970s that did not idolize Knievel. I remember playing with an Evel Knievel toy figure and motorcycle that you could wind up and send across jumps.
On returning from Idaho, weary from our epic canoe journey, I spent an hour or two researching Knievel on the Web and watching clips of him on YouTube.
His bio on Wikipedia makes for marvelous reading. “Occupation: Retired Motorcycle Daredevil.” If his story is to be believed — and Wikipedia calls for additional sources to verify some of the anecdotes — Knievel is a true American legend.
Born in Butte, Mont., he was fired from a job in the coal mines when he made his earth mover pop a wheelie and accidentally knocked over the main power line into town. Later, he started a semi-pro hockey team and swindled the 1960 Czechoslovakian Olympic hockey team into playing an exhibition match.
He brilliantly duped the owner of Caesars Palace into granting him permission for his first TV-worthy motorcycle stunt, a leap of the fountains on New Year’s Eve 1967 that landed him in the national consciousness — and a coma for 29 days.
He came up with the idea of jumping the Snake River, launching on private land, after the U.S. government denied his requests to jump the Grand Canyon. Pesky government.
Knievel broke about 35 bones during his career. He was extreme a quarter-century before his time. What he did on fixed-suspension Harley Davidsons makes the X Games look tame.
He went to jail and suffered from addiction, not surprising given the tremendous amount of painkillers he must have consumed. His life is a portrait of a Western outlaw and gambler whose desperation for fortune and fame propelled him to ridiculous heights.
Click here to watch Knievel’s feats on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” Note the jump where he points his bike down the upper deck of the L.A. Coliseum to gain speed.
The commentary is hilarious. A friend at a party (yes, we were all gathered around the computer screen) pointed out the lack of irony as the broadcasters talk about the jumps in dead seriousness. There’s even some vintage footage of Don Meredith and Howard Cosell calling the action.
For the clincher, click here to watch Knievel’s failed attempt over the Snake River Canyon and here to watch the aftermath, including an interview following his rescue.
Posted under extreme sports, idaho, snake river
I was climbing in the Tetons that summer, my first out of college. I went to Shervin’s with a friend to try to get some truck innertubes to make a raft to float the Snake from here to the jump site.
Abandoned that plan and hitched instead. Got my last ride with a Honda mechanic who had a break-down kayak in his car. We hatched a plot, slipped through the frenzied camp of Harley riders, down to the river on the jump side of the Canyon. Put together the boat and, in two trips, ferried our climbing gear across.
Climbed the wall on the opposite side from the take off and, 50 feet below the top, tied a Honda flag into the wall (he jumped on Harleys). This was the morning of the jump and you weren’t supposed to be in the impact zone.
Back down at the river, we went to the heli landing spot and watched the takeoff, the chute deployment, the scary crash down the side of the canyon - the rocket almost ended up on top of him at the edge of the river, and the rescue.
I helped Evel out of the rescue boat. Blood was coming from under his helmet. “Way to go, Evel” I said as he grabbed my hand and stepped up out of the boat.
That’s when I vowed to get a Leica and always have it with me.
He was helicoptered up to the crowd. Me, I hitched on to Yosemite.
I thought it was all great until Rolling Stone called him “king of the Goons.”
I found new heros in the valley.
AWESOME!
Evel used to ride Hondas, at a time when Japanese imports were not so popular, according to his Wiki bio.
My favorite part of the Snake jump commentary is when the broadcaster is flabbergasted that rescuers are trying to reach Evel in ROWBOATS. The guy asks why there aren’t any people in motorboats down there.
Good thing there were some crafty climbers to save him, as Evel said, “If I had gone into the water, there’s no way I would have ever come out!”
Nice work, AT.
Evel Knievel finally died Nov. 30. The AP biography of the seemingly indestructible stuntman tells a different story than much of the information above gleaned from Wikipedia. The Wiki entry may have been embellished.
Particularly because, as the AP reported, “At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.”
He was a true American hero.
Here is the link to the AP biography:
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/7509664?MSNHPHCP>1=10637