Looking back: ‘Mad elephant’ chases family in car, prisoner shot while trying to escape and explosion in Soda Springs
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of July 17 to July 23 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
DOWNEY — A “mad elephant” on the loose in Downey chased after a car with a family inside, the Sugar City Times reported on July 17, 1913.
The incident involved A.H. Ensign and his family. The article said the elephant escaped from a small circus in Downey and “charged them on an unfenced road.”
“Ensign did not have time to turn completely around and had to take off at right angles to the road with the maddened beast whipping his trunk in the air only 20 feet behind,” the Sugar City Times wrote.
After a “wild chase of a mile or more,” the elephant gave up the chase “just as a canal blocked the further progress of the auto.”
“The keeper later captured the animal before it did any harm,” the paper added.
1926-1950
ST. ANTHONY — A prisoner was shot while trying to escape the Fremont County Jail, The Rigby Star reported in its July 17, 1930, newspaper.
Paul Rushton, who was charged with robbing a bank in Ashton and was returned from Alaska, was shot and seriously wounded. He was part of a group of prisoners who sawed their way out of the prison before being “fired upon” by county officers.
The attempted escape happened around midnight when only sheriff Jimmy Frederick and deputy sheriff Pat Bailey were at the jail.
“Gilbert Loveland, held on a charge of criminal assault, and said to be the leader of the attempt, escaped and had not been apprehended tonight,” the article explained.
1951-1975
POCATELLO — A California man trying to sell tools claimed he was robbed, the Idaho State Journal reported on July 17, 1972.
The man told police he was robbed of a drill, tools valued at $1,000 new and a revolver, after trying to sell them to two people in a Pocatello bar.
“The man left the bar with the men after it closed and drove with them to the West Bench,” the Journal mentioned. “He discovered the tools missing from his vehicle parked at the Yellowstone Hotel when he awoke from sleeping in the weeds all night and walked into town.”
1976-2000
SODA SPRINGS — An explosion happened in Soda Springs at a bulk plant belonging to Garth Bybee, the Caribou County Sun reported on July 22, 1976.
Bybee and another employee were in the office when the explosion took place but they only suffered minor cuts and bruises.
“The blast blew out the west end of the office,” the paper stated. “It appeared to have been ignited from the area under one of the desks in the office.”
The force of the explosion blew an empty propane tank that was next to the building into the street.
Bybee said he didn’t smell gasoline or propane fumes before the explosion, and his gas tank was filled about an hour before and moved to the east side.
“The possible cause was from vapor fumes,” the Soda Springs Police Department told the paper. “An air conditioner was operating in the office and may have pulled fumes in from outside the building.”