Bighorn River rescue

What started out as a nice family float of the river turned into a rescue operation for one family in Thermopolis on Sunday.

Roland Luehne, along with some friends and family, arrived at the boat dock at the Wedding of the Waters on Sunday afternoon about 4 p.m., just as a group from Lander was about to hit the river.

The Lander group, numbering 10 women and young girls along with a single male, were setting out to float the river in tubes, which were all tied together.

Luehne and his group helped them get going before launching their own tubes and getting their boat in the water.

Although the water was running high and fast as it has all summer, Luehne and his group had a lot of experience on the Big Horn River and consisted of lifeguards, an EMT and others well versed with the water.

Luehne said they had gone about a quarter-mile past the highway bridge when they saw the Lander group caught up in a Russian Olive tree and heard them screaming for help. Two of their group had slipped past the tree and were continuing down the river.

Pulling their boat to an island just below the trapped floaters, Dan Powell secured the boat, Bob Peterson grabbed ropes and life jackets, and Luehne dove into the water, swimming to the trapped group to assess the situation.

While a strong swimmer, Luehne was swimming against the current and at one point grabbed a log floating down the river which ended up pulling him under. Keeping calm, he turned, dove again, and continued his swim to the folks who where all scared and completely panicked.

Luehne’s daughter, Taylor Schwalbe, along with Kris Wisser, Chris Leyba, Jordan Leyba and Dana Bjorhus floated further down to try to find the two Lander people who had been separated from the group, heading for another island downriver.

Luehne got the group somewhat calmed down, told them to stay put and called 9-1-1. There is no cell reception in that particular spot on the river, but 9-1-1 still worked and soon, Hot Springs County Search and Rescue were on the way.

Meanwhile, Schwalbe and her group managed to find the two missing floaters and had them safely on an island.

Search and Rescue arrived on scene and immediately got one of their guys on a jet ski and into the water. Unfortunately, the water was flowing so fast the rider was pitched off the ski and an additional life vest was tossed to him and he floated down the river to the island where the others were waiting.

Search and Rescue sent in a 10 man boat and the group was advised to grab the rope that was tossed to them and tie it to a tree. Unfortunately, the women tied the rope to their tubes rather than a tree, which slipped off, making it necessary for Search and Rescue to maneuver the boat into a better spot.

“We just started tossing them into the boat,” Luehne said. “It was crazy. It took us a good half-mile to get them all inside.

“The whole team worked so fast. Search and Rescue worked very, very hard. By the time we had them all in the boat it had to have weighed a good 3,000 pounds.

“That water is running so fast. I’ll tell you, even though we’ve all got tons of experience floating this river, after this, it kind of scared me, too. If we hadn’t been right behind them, I don’t know what would have happened.

“Everybody did their part and we got them out on the first try. They were really thankful. It could have turned out very badly. We all worked together though and we couldn’t have had a happier ending.”