The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-03-06
ARE HIGH AND DRY ON ROCK IN
MIDDLE. OF THE SNAKE
RIVER.
Went to Island When Water Was
Turned From Stream and Re-
manned During Night.

BOISE CITY, Mich. I6.-High and dry
on rocky isle in the middle of the
feet deep, snarling and gnashing it's
teeth because it cannot reach them, al
though it effectually prevents their re-
turn to the mainland on either side, is
the peculiar predicament of an Oakley
man and mis- wife who went to Twin
Falls last week to witness the closing
of the big dam, and who will long re-
member the startling incident of their
visit
Hundreds upon hundreds of people
who could not find sleeping accommo-
dations in the houses at Miner visited
the Twin Falls dam on Wednesday and
camped out amidst the sagebrush that
night, their camp fires being observed
from the dam for miles around. Among
| from Oakley, whose name no one
seems to have known, and when the
shades of night fell ana no convenient
place for camp suggested itself, he
and his wife decided to go over to the
middle of the river and spend the
night on the little rocky island in the
middle of the stream. There was an
inviting cedar tree which had taken
root in some loose dirt, standing all
the place seemed a very cosy and
pleasant place to spend the night.
Pleasant and CHEEKY by Prospect.
The water had been turned from the
| river into the big reservoir on We'd
nesday morning, and the sightseers
had spent much of their time during
the afternoon walking about in the bed
of the stream, below the DAM eXplor-
ing many a hitherto unsupported nook
and finding many a peculiar stone.
There was no trouble, therefore, in
reaching the island whose rock foun-
ravages of the river for centuries past.
| There was no fear of being cut off be-
fore morning, it was thought, because
the engineers had estimated the filling
of the big reservoir, even with the
mighty volume of the Snake, would
require at least three days.
1t was a CHEEKY little campfire that
was noticed on top of the big rock
during the evening, but it finally died
seen or heard of the temporary inhab-
itants of what had been for centruies
desert isle in the river, inaccessible
to and unexplored by any human be-
| ing.
Cut Off During the Night.
But the volume of the Snake was
much greater than had been believed,
and at midnight the mammoth reser-
voir was full, and the water came
Again the channel of the river below
the dam, where the sightseers mad
walked and talked the preceding after
noon, was a roaring, seething mass of
water, in which it would be nearly if
not quite impossible for any boat to
live.
The couple on the rocky isle, under
the protecting branches of the cedar,
slept peacefully during the night, but
when they awoke at daybreak and
saw their little island surrounded on
every side by the rushing waters,
their position lost all it's charm. No
longer was the cedar inviting, it's very
loneliness appealing to them and in
tensifying their desolation. They could
see their fellow men and women on
either side of the river-could almost
call to them, but they seemed as far
from home as though they had sud
ert isle in the middle of the Pacific
, with not speck on the oceans broad
expanse to remind them of the exist
ence of either land or ship.
AS soon as their plight was noticed
steps were taken to relieve them, but
it was found that the single boat al
the place-more than one had never
been needed in the swift current and
rapids prevailing in that portion OF
. the river-had broken loose from its
:, moorings when the flood of the Snake
had poured over the spillway Of the
, dam and had been swept down the
river.
When R. S. Shaw, who brought the
= story to Boise, left Miner, the couple
r were still in their sad plight, and il
T | seemed at that time that it would be
(. necessary for them to remain on theil
| rocky 1abitation until a boat could bf