Looking back: Five struck dead by lightning while attending church girls camp and wolves escape zoo enclosure

IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of July 29 to Aug. 4 in east Idaho history.

1900-1925

ST. ANTHONY — A man was taken to the hospital after his foot was “almost cut in two with an ax,” The Teton Peak-Chronicle reported on July 30, 1903.

Roy Porter, who had a homestead near the “Osborn ford in Island Park,” was the man involved in the accident. Dr. Middleton and Dr. Harshbarger helped Porter, who was recovering “very nicely.” It’s not clear what Porter was doing when the incident happened.

“The big toe was almost severed from the foot and it became necessary to drill a hole in he severed bone and spike it together with a silver spike after which the gastly wound was stitched together,” the paper wrote. “This is the first operation of this nature ever attempted in this part of the country.”

1926-1950

IDAHO FALLS — A two-year-old child miraculously survived after falling in a small irrigation ditch filled with water, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on Aug. 1, 1933.

Genevieve McCabe was pulled from the ditch near her home “in time to prevent drowning.” The child wandered from the house and once people realized she was missing, they immediately started looking for her.

She was found in a shallow ditch by her brother, Arthur. She had been under water about five minutes, according to the report.

“The child was taken immediately taken to the hospital where efforts to revive her were successful,” the paper stated. “She was released from the hospital Tuesday morning.”

1951-1975

DRIGGS — Four teenage girls and one woman were killed instantly by a lightning bolt while on a hike near The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Darby Girls Camp, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on Aug. 2, 1951.

The victims were Carol Engstrom, Betty Kearney, Mary Dee Severson, Bernice Malone and Mrs. R.A. Holst. All but one of the five victims were from the LDS Idaho Falls Fifth ward. The Post Register reported nine people were hospitalized, most of them being teenage girls who suffered “painful burns on the back and arms.”

The tragedy happened in the mountains east of Driggs. The article explains a party of hikers from the Darby Girls Camp were huddled underneath a large tree near the mouth of the Wind Caves, a scenic spot two-and-a-half miles east of the camp “higher in the mountains.”

Originally a group of 42 hikers started out but five of the girls turned back early during the hike, leaving 37 who continued on.

“After coming out of the caves around 1 p.m., camp leaders reported an electrical storm thundered into the mountains and the group ran for the cover of some large trees,” the paper mentioned. “Two of the girls remained separate from the party … but most of the group huddled under one of two large trees near the entrance to the caves.”

Fred Miller, Driggs scouter and the only man in the hiking party, had just advised the girls to “get away from the tree during the storm” when “the bolt fell with a crackling crescendo … killing the five outright and sprawling several other stunned hikers over the mountain side.”

Miller, who was “stunned and burned himself,” “aroused himself to apply artificial respiration on six unconscious hikers.” He revived them and dispatched two girls back to camp to get help.

Dr. Gordon Jensen, Teton valley’s sole physician, and the Teton County Sheriff’s Office “immediately set out for the scene of the tragedy.” A “hardy group of leather faced ranchers” helped Jensen, 35, as he treated the injured on the hillside at the scene of the tragedy before placing them in stretchers to be carried back to the camp where ambulances were waiting.

It continued, “Cars could only get within about two miles from the tragedy site and two jeeps made it up a rough hewn trail another mile. Only horses and men walking could make the last tourturous mile from the end of the trail up the pine covered mountains.”

As “anxious Idaho Falls relatives of the girls” made their way to the camp, an “evacuation and information center” was set up at the Driggs LDS church building.

“As the first bus load of girls rumbled into town, the milling crowd at the Driggs LDS tabernacle grounds, surged with muffled cries toward the bus door,” the paper said. “When the girls tumbled from the bus, they were met with shrieks of joy — or by agonized moans by those whose searching eyes had not found a loved one.”

The paper said this was “Teton Valley’s worst tragedy in recent years.”

1976-2000

POCATELLO — A wolf at the Ross Park Zoo in Pocatello escaped and attacked a six-year-old girl, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported on July 30, 1977.

Police reports said the girl, Kasi Croft, was sitting on the ground near some bird cages when two timber wolves, a male and a female, got out of their enclosure as a park employee was cleaning it. The employee shouted the wolves were loose.

“Kasi’s father, Ron Croft, said he told his children to remain quiet,” the article reads. “One of the wolves, a gray-white male, ran along a paved walkway toward the bird cages. Kasi was in the animal’s path and was attacked and pinned down.”

Ron and a park maintenance worker, Bruce Tullotson, “kicked and beat” the wolf, forcing it away from the girl.

“Gates leading away from the area were quickly shut down, confining the wolf,” the Post Register explained. “Park employees lured him back into the cage after about five minutes.”

The female wolf was recaptured in the park’s upper level by police and zoo personnel. Zoo foreman Ray England said all animals in the zoo had shots and there was no chance of rabies.

“The incident occurred when a partition separating the wolf and bear cages failed to close all the way as a park worker entered the cage to clean it,” zoo officials stated. “The wolves were driven into a bear cage, but a length of chain caught on a crank controlling the door, leaving it partly open.”

The employee said he saw the wolves crawl through the opening and run from the cage but that he didn’t have time to close the door properly.

“The wolves ran past several other bystanders before the male wolf reached the little girl,” the paper said.

The injured girl was listed in fair condition the day after the incident. She was being treated for lacerations on the head, shoulders and hand.