Failed Dam Detour Leads to Delightful Stay With Idaho Family
A nice revisit with Ms. Ellen Laux. in Ashton, Idaho in June 2016. She and her husband, the late Rev. Richard Laux, invited Carl and I to spend a night at their house after a confusing, depressing day being rerouted by the dam collapse. The above photo is on a mud-coated street from the flood.
The former dam wall that was breached, sending the 280-foot-deep reservoir gushing across farms and towns below. This is as it looks today.
Marker by the failed Teton Dam site, The $55 million Dam gave way as workers were putting on the finishing touches.
Storm cloud brewing ahead as Carl and I, unknowingly, head toward the Teton Dam disaster in 1976. The photo below is the same stretch of highway today along Highway 20 in eastern Idaho.
ASHTON, Idaho _ There are people in life that come along at just the right moment. The Rev. Richard Laux and his wife, Ellen, did just that as Carl and I were biking through eastern Idaho in 1976 on our ride across America.
Rev. Laux was outside his church in Ashton as we rolled up dazed by all the calamity we had just ridden through. The massive Teton Dam had collapsed less that two weeks earlier, detouring us on routes unknown. Remember, this was before GPS and smart phones. We were diverted onto unmarked gravel and mud caked roads still clogged with debris from all the destruction.
Rev. Laux was a lifelong adventure seeker and a true man of God. The combination of his faith and his fascination with our cross-country journey led him to readily invite us into his home. The hospitality was even more noteworthy given that they had four children and it was late Saturday when he would have been preparing for worship the next day, The overnight could not have come at a better time. We had just been through another brutal day of pedaling through the Idaho hills and heat. A comfortable stay with a family boosted our spirits and gave us much needed rest after an exhausting several days crossing the high desert of Oregon and Idaho.. Here is an excerpt from my diary the day we came across the Teton Dam devastation. ""Leaving Arco around 10 a.m. we had a 20 mph wind against us which really made it tiring. We went 54 miles without stopping but when we did, boy did we eat. Stopped for lunch and left that grocery store in Mud Lake at 2:30 and rode a against an east wind 70 miles to Ashton where we are now.
The highway detoured us all over the place because of the Teton Flood two weeks ago. We couldn't even get across the Snake River into Rexburg because it was washed out. The detour put us on a little country road going north alongside the Teton River. Parts of the road were washed out but we splashed on through. As we got into St. Anthony, telephone poles were down, dirt and muck filled the streets and there were trees and debris scattered everywhere.
Many houses were destroyed and farms demolished. Cars, tractors and farm machinery had been carried by the flood waters for miles and then smashed into houses with parts left along the way. Dead carcasses of cows and other animals were laying in the fields. It seemed like such a tragedy. We had a 2-mile stretch of gravel road before reaching Highway 191 which we followed 15 miles into Ashton. Along the way, we had a beautiful view of the Grand Teton Mountains in Wyoming. They were snow-covered and very pretty. As we got to Ashton, we asked a Lutheran minister permission to set our tent up behind the church. He was so nice be invited us to his house to stay where we had showers and a great meal."
Ellen Laux was just as gracious yesterday welcoming my family into her home. I learned all about the new church Richard established the year after Carl and I biked through, their travels in life, their children and now grandchildren, My heart was saddened that Richard passed away this past January. Ellen lined us up with a stay in a nearby RV park managed by one of her friends. We had a lovely visit before leaving to follow our bike route into the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park.
