Stuntmen still seek to make Knievel's Snake River jump

TWIN FALLS (AP) - Seven daredevils have expressed interest to succeed where Evel Knievel failed 40 years ago to jump the Snake River Canyon in southern Idaho, but bad memories and resident resistance continue to haunt the stuntmen's dreams.

However, the Times-News reports that only one team appears viable in launching a rocket across the canyon.

Hollywood stuntman Eddie Braun and son of the engineer who built Knievel's rocket Scott Truax say their jump is a tribute to Knievel while also hoping to cure history. They have a rocket and ramp but have not set a launch date.

"A successful, well-organized jump would go a long way in curing some of those wounds," said Mayor Don Hall, who watched the jump on television from Utah as a teen.

Those opposed to the jump remember the Knievel event as a fiasco that left the town with a stack of unpaid bills.

Longtime Twin Falls resident Doug Fisher said he doesn't understand why anyone would want to recreate the jump.

"To do it technically would be something of an engineering feat to not get someone killed," he said. "But I've thought for years that the best thing they could have done was to bulldoze that pile of dirt down and forget about it. It holds no significance. A lot of people lost a lot of money on that deal here. I never thought it was a crowning moment in Twin Falls history."

Twin Falls City Councilman Chris Talkington also said a successful jump won't heal anything.

In 1974, Talkington worked as the news director for the local television news station and watched Knievel fail to make it over the canyon and then fail to pay vendors for their services.

Forty years later, he says that Twin Falls is smarter about what to expect from a daredevil wanting to jump the canyon, but that knowledge has made some residents hesitant to welcome them in.

"I don't care, frankly, if one or 20 people jump or rocket or parachute or glide or vaporize themselves from one side to another," said Talkington. "The old Snake River Canyon has taken many lives from carelessness and foolishness. It is always ready to take more."

Fellow Councilman Shawn Barigar disagrees.

As executive director of the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce, he said the event could be beneficial to the Magic Valley business community. Barigar added that he's skeptical Knievel's original event gave the town a black eye, saying that the original jump site continues to attract tourists.

"It can have value if it's done right, but it certainly has the risk of going completely south," he said.