Looking back: Tragedy in Snake River, teens arrested for sniffing paint and boy missing

The general public is invited to an open house Wednesday evening, April 12, to inspect the new Soda Springs High School. The open house is sponsored by the Soda Springs PTA, and will be held in conjunction with their regular meeting. The meeting, which will install officers for the coming year and feature some musical numbers, will be short — and the open house will follow immediately. Guided tours of the new school will be under direction of the faculty. Caption dated April 6, 1961. | Courtesy Caribou County Sun IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of April 28 to May 4 in east Idaho history. 1900-1925 SWAN VALLEY — Three people drowned together in the Snake River about six miles south of Swan Valley, The Rigby Star reported on May 3, 1923. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Kruse, Jr., “prominent residents” of Swan Valley, (Mr. Kruse was 27 years old) and Miss Blanche Peterson, the 17-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hy Peterson, of Swan Valley, drowned in the river at 7 p.m. Thursday evening. Garret Gustafson, the 18-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Gustafson, of Idaho Falls, was also traveling with the three who drowned but he was able to swim safely to shore. The Kruse’s were returning from Idaho Falls to their home at the Diamond X Ranch. Peterson, who had been visiting friends in Idaho Falls and in Ririe, was with the Kruse’s en route to her home in Swan Valley. Gustafson was an employee at the Diamond X Ranch. Gustafson said the party of four attempted to cross the river rather than make the detour to the bridge, which spanned the Snake River about five miles beyond the Diamond X Ranch. The shallow area in the water they were trying to cross did not go straight across the river. It went diagonally down the stream, following a gravel bar. While trying to cross, one of the horses carrying the passengers began to struggle, fell and drowned. At this time, the other horse also began to struggle and dragged the passengers down the center of the stream. Gustafson said he told the driver, Mr. Kruse, twice, to jump out with the women. “To his warnings, he states, he received no response — the Peterson girl clinging to Mrs. Kruse and Mrs. Kruse to her husband, all seeming to be dazed,” the article reads. Gustafson jumped into the river and swam to the shore when Kruse yelled for him to get help. Gustafson ran to a nearby farm house but when help arrived, there was no sign of horses, a buggy or the three people onboard. Gustafson said several times the buggy was within 15 to 40 feet from the bank in water barely above waist deep but the passengers “were seemingly without power to move.” At the time of publication, the horses and wagon had been recovered but no human bodies had been found. 1926-1950 OAKLEY — An Oakley man was learning to walk for a second time after accidentally shooting himself in the right leg, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on May 1, 1936. Ray Campbell was alone at a sheep camp when the incident occurred. While the details regarding how the accidental shooting happened aren’t clear, the paper said Campbell ended up crawling three miles for help and then developed a bone infection. “I had resigned myself to amputation,” Campbell said. “But now, the doctor says I will have a good leg.” Campbell, who had been confined to his bed for five months while recovering, was now moving through hallways on a scooter, designed to exercise the leg that had been shot. 1951-1975 POCATELLO — Four teenage girls were arrested after being caught sniffing paint, the Idaho State Journal reported on May 3, 1970. The teenagers — one was 14 years old and the other three were 15 years old — were students at Hawthorne Junior High School. They were arrested by police after vice principal Don Brennan found them sniffing paint. They were charged with violation of the Youth Act and taken to the Bannock County Jail until their parents could be notified. Several of the girls had previous records for paint and glue sniffing, according to police. 1976-2000 POCATELLO — Pocatello police were asking the community for help in finding a 13-year-old boy who was missing, the Idaho State Journal reported on April 28, 1977. Jay Jennings had been missing from his home since April 5, 1977. The boy’s last contact with his parents, Doran and Mary Desirey, was by phone on April 7, 1977, from Helena, Montana. It’s not clear how Jennings got to Montana or why he was in Montana, but Pocatello authorities believed the youth may have returned to the Pocatello area and asked the public to be on the lookout for him. The post Looking back: Tragedy in Snake River, teens arrested for sniffing paint and boy missing appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com