MySource:Mksmith/A.D. Smith at Popo Agie

FROM: Sheridan [Wyoming] Daily Enterprise, 5 Aug 1918.

Hangs From Ledge Nine Hours Before Friends Save Him

Lander, Wyo., Aug. 5.---Clinging to a ledge in the Big Popo Agie river fifteen miles from here, Arthur Smith, a Northwestern [Railroad] freighter, faced almost certain death for a period of nine hours. A party of friends finally rescued him. Smith had slipped and fallen from a precipitous cliff in the falls of the river.

Smith and several companions were spending the day in an outing along the river. He had climbed to an almost inaccessible jut of rock in the falls to take a picture of the scene. He lost his footing and plunged headlong a distance of twenty-five feet to a ledge below.

Two of his companions looking over a cliff, one hundred above the stream, witnessed the accident and hastened to the ranger station for relief. A party of friends, who saw Smith on the rack[?] taking the picture as they drove up the river road, were advised of the accident that had occurred after they passed, and went back to get the injured man.

The relief party discovered that Smith was caught in an almost inaccessible spot and that the only means of reaching him was through building a bridge. They felled three trees and after hours of labor constructed a bridge. Making a stretcher of two poles and some articles of clothing they rescued the injured man and brought him to the Bishop Randall hospital.

His injuries consisted of a broken left leg below the thigh and it is thought that both ankles and wrists are broken. Hope is held for his recovery.

FROM: [unknown paper]. "Aug. 5, 1918" handwritten at top.

Man Falls Over Cliff

A.D. Smith, a Wyoming & Northwestern brakeman, who was spending Sunday in the Popo Agie Canon with a party of friends, sustained a broken leg caused by a fall from a high cliff. Smith had climbed to the top of the cliff just above the Popo Agie falls, twelve miles from Lander, to take some photographs of the scenery. In some way he lost his footing and slid down an embankment fifteen feet. Not being able to check his descent he was precipitated over the cliff, and fell a distance of another fifteen feet to the bottom of the canon. Smith landed on the rocks below with terrific force, striking on his hip and sustaining a broken leg between the hip and the knee.

Fortunately some of his companions saw him fall, and not knowing how to get down to the sufferer below, they hastened to the ranger's station three miles down the stream for assistance. John G. Bruce, the forest ranger, accompanied the men to the scene of the accident, and it was discovered that the only way to get to the unfortunate man was to go up the stream some distance and let themselves down into the canon, then follow the bed of the stream down to where the man lay. When they arrived at the point they were on the opposite side of the stream. They were compelled to build a crude bridge across the roaring waters, and after an interval of four hours, during which time the sufferer lay in that one position on the hard rocks, they succeeded in reaching him.

here they built a litter and placed Smith on it. It took the rescuers several hours to get him to the ranger' station, from which place he was taken to town in Dr. Replogle's car., arriving at the hospital at midnight.

The leg was set and placed in a plaster cast, and latest reports state that the man is getting along as well as could be expected.

Smith was very fortunate indeed because of being seen when he took the plunge down the embankment, because at this point the canon is steep, and very few people have ventured into it. Had he not been seen he would not have been missed in camp until late in the evening, and perhaps his companions would not have been able to have found him in time to save his life.