Push the Button: Remembering Evel Knievel and his Snake River Canyon jump 50 years ago

[TBoneTX 45,831]

Has it truly been 50 years?  Gosh...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Push the Button:  Remembering Evel Knievel and his Snake River Canyon jump 50 years ago

 

Over Labor Day weekend, Twin Falls, Idaho, held a 50th anniversary celebration of the September day in 1974 when Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon in a steam-powered rocket.  Twin Falls is a city of about 50,000 people in southern Idaho, but in 1974 it was less than half that size, and it was bracing for—and dreading—the arrival of tens of thousands to witness Knievel's long-deferred attempt, which had been promoted in the manner of a heavyweight championship fight.  "Heck," a waitress said, hearing the speculation about invading hordes, "I ain't never seen more than a thousand in one place.  It's scary."

 

In the end, a much smaller number, about 15,000 people, crowded into the space where the canyon sits, a remotely located gorge in the Earth not user-friendly for travel, lodging, public gatherings, or much of anything else.  Thousands of others around the country watched at theaters over closed-circuit television, the preferred technology in those pre-cable, pre-pay-per-view days for showing big events, usually championship boxing matches, that priced themselves off free TV.  For the star of the show, it was the culmination of a career spent daring, and cheating, death.  This time, it looked like death would have its say.  [...]

 

https://www.city-journal.org/article/remembering-evel-knievel-and-his-snake-river-canyon-jump?skip=1