DAY 41: A Tragic Story......With A Happy Ending

DAY 41:  Vernal, Utah
TEMP:  89 Degrees / 58 Degrees

"Death is not the enemy 

who puts an end to everything, 

but the friend who takes us by the hand 

and leads us into the Kingdom of Eternal Love."

Henri Nouwen 

While we were riding that hidden, lonely road I told you about in yesterday's Blog, we made a quick stop at a roadside picnic area to stretch our legs.

As we were leaving, we noticed this plaque:

I haven't been able to get it off my mind ever since, so today I started researching just exactly what happened that fateful day in June of 1965.  I thought you might find this tragic story interesting:

It was 26 years ago on June 9 that seven family members - Keith and LaVon Woodruff of Salt Lake City, along with their children, Jerry, 3; David, 2 and Karen, 1, along with two nephews, Randy, 15, who had just graduated from Jr. High a couple days before, and Paul, who just turned 13 the day before he died, had left for a week of fishing and camping.

Due to heavy snowpack and rainfall that year, it caused the dam at the reservoir to give way.  A 15 foot wall of water, rocks and trees washed down the canyon and through the campground they were staying at.  The morning of June 9, 1965, a road construction worker had seen a station wagon overturned in the flood waters at the campground in Sheep Creek Canyon and determined from the license plates that it belonged to the Woodruff family, however, the family could not be found.

Woodruff Family

That evening, their families got together for prayer.  The following day, a few of the cousins went to the site of the flooding, but the treacherous flow had prevented searchers from getting to the vehicle and by the time the cousins got there, the car had disappeared.

Eventually, with the aid of a mine detector, the car was found buried upside down under 4' of mud, yet no bodies were inside.  On June 11, Randall, the 15 year old nephew, was located and over the next 7 weeks, four more bodies were found.  The recently turned teenage nephew, Paul, was never located.

In a strange circumstance, a friend told the grieving family of a conversation he had with Keith Woodruff before the family had departed.  The friend said Keith told him of a dream in which he and his family had died in a flood.  He said Keith didn't seem upset about the dream, just kind of matter-of-fact about it.  Keith did indicate to the friend that he felt his mission on earth was drawing to a close.

Although this is a tragic story, the quote above just kept creeping into my head as I learned more about this God-loving family.  It's been one of my favorite sayings since I first heard it a few years ago.....I don't know for sure, but I feel that Keith and LaVon, if they were here today, might quote this very saying to their grieving families.

Our sunset tonight......