Two men involved in saving an 11-year-old boy who’d fallen into the whitewater rapids of the Popo Agie River in May say they are convinced the rescue was a miracle from start to finish.
Lonnie Porter and Ronnie Disbrow both can count a series of fortunate coincidences that day, any one of which, would have meant certain death for the boy, who’d slipped off a rock into the Popo Agie, while trying to rescue one of his shoes.
The two men were recognized during Cheyenne Frontier Days as Hometown Heroes, in front of a crowd of at least 10,000 spectators, earning them a standing ovation.
Pace-O-Matic, which makes Cowboy Skill Games, teams up with Cheyenne Frontier Days each year for the special recognition, hosting annual Hometown Heroes in their sponsor box and providing them with dinner, lodging and concert tickets.
“He had one of those crocs on, and it slipped off,” Porter told Cowboy State Daily. “So, he tried to reach down and grab it, and the river was going so fast it just grabbed onto him and pulled him right in.”
The boy had about 3 seconds to think about what to do in those raging rapids of the snow-melt swollen river. He managed to lodge himself between a large and small rock, partially shielding him from the onslaught of rushing water.
The boy’s father ran to find help and spotted a state park ranger’s vehicle near one of the camping yurts.
“Ordinarily, I wouldn’t stay at the park in one of the yurts,” Porter told Cowboy State Daily. “I had gone to Sinks Canyon State Park for a shadowing program that we have in our district, and there was some kind of like Expo happening in Lander at the same time, so there were no hotel rooms.”
Porter had just put on his shirt that morning and was getting ready to leave for the day when he heard a knock on the yurt’s door.
It was a panicked father, who told Porter his son had just fallen into the Popo Agie.
Porter knew how dangerous the Popo Agie can be in the spring, with speeds over 500 cubic feet per second, crashing over giant-sized boulders, making it a river to be feared. He ran with the father to the riverside, where he saw an 11-year-old boy — skinny as a rail — smashed up against some rocks, held in place by the force of the water.
Training Mode On
Porter, who is from Glenrock, is stationed at Seminoe State Park, where he had just completed swift and cold-water training. In that moment, all of his training was kicking in. There was no time to be stressed out. He had to focus on the mission.
He knew from that training the boy was just at the edge of his throwing range.
He told the boy to stay put, and not to try swimming again. If the boy tried swimming again, he might get further from shore than Porter could throw. Or he might also get swept down into the Sinks Canyon, where all the rushing water flows and disappears underground.
“I knew if he fell into that, we would never find him again,” Porter said.
Another top concern right then was keeping the boy’s father from jumping into the raging white waters to go after his son.
“I knew that look in his eye,” Porter said. “And I was afraid if he jumped in, we would lose them both. The waters were too rapid for anyone to swim against them, whether child or adult. You wouldn’t even want to kayak in that stuff.”
Just in case the father ignored his advice, Porter gave him a life jacket vest from his truck, then took off as fast as he could for the Sinks Canyon State Park headquarters, about a mile away, to find some rope.
“We were supposed to be getting new throw bags, which is basically a bag with some rope in it,” Porter said. “So, mine was on the counter in my office, getting checked out.”
Porter’s bag had become so old it was disintegrating, and his chief had just ordered a brand-new one. He had kept the old bag to check out all the items in it, to ensure nothing else needed replaced.
A Series Of Fortunate Coincidences
While Porter was running toward the headquarters as fast as he could go, Disbrow, who is from Lander, had arrived for his last day of work at the state park.
He was just about to go home because he could not find the keys to get in to his work.
Just as he was leaving, he encountered a colleague, who knew where the keys were, and asked him to do her a small favor. That set Disbrow’s feet on a new path, one that led him directly to Porter, who was coming in fast.
Porter quickly explained to Disbrow that there was a child trapped in the river, and that he needed some rope, fast, to go and save the child.
“I knew exactly where the rope and everything was,” Disbrow told Cowboy State Daily. “And so I got that, and we headed back down to the river.”
By this time, the child was so cold, he was starting to lose motor functions, Porter said.
It only takes 10 minutes of hypothermic conditions to put most people out of commission, and the child he was trying to save had already been in the water for 35 minutes.
“He’s really a tough little guy,” Porter said.
Tough or not, Porter could tell from the boy’s drooping eyes and lolling head that he was not going to last much longer.
“It was a godsend that put him in that spot against those rocks,” Porter said. “It gave me like a goal post to throw the rope between. So, I created a loop with the rope and threw it to him and told him to wind himself within it.”
Disbrow said the toss was a “perfect shot” the first time.
Divine Intervention
The child tried wrapping the rope around his arm like he had been told, but he was so cold he dropped it instead.
Normally, Porter explained, he has the person being rescued wind the rope all the way up their arm, so there’s no chance it comes loose.
In this case, it was just caught around the child’s wrist in a river that was a raging force of unstoppable nature.
“We didn’t have any more time, though,” Porter said. “He was starting to lose consciousness, and if he passed out, I knew he wouldn’t be able to help us at all.”
So, Porter pulled the boy in with a silent prayer, not knowing how things were going to play out.
It wasn’t until he got the child to shore and was trying to get the rope off the boy’s arm that he noticed something incredible. The rope had somehow, someway, been tied in a half-hitch around his wrist. That was what had made it strong enough to hold.
Thinking back, he realized that the river itself had caught the rope when the boy dropped it, finishing off in a half-hitch that had saved the boy’s life.
“It was like divine intervention,” Porter said.
A Space Blanket And A Big Beanie Of Warmth
Once on shore, a space blanket was wrapped around the boy and Disbrow put his jacket and a beanie on the boy, too, who felt just like a cube of ice to the touch.
He looked up at both men, shivering uncontrollably, and said a simple “thanks.”
“That really got to me,” Disbrow told Cowboy State Daily, visibly emotional as he recounted the moment. “You could tell he was just so grateful to be alive.”
Disbrow later learned that at least four or five people have fallen into the Popo Agie during the spring, none of whom could be saved.
At the hospital later, the father showed Disbrow a photo of his son wearing Disbrow’s jacket and his beanie, smiling and happy.
“I should have let the boy keep the beanie,” Disbrow said, joking. “It looked better on him than me.”
From the father he learned the boy’s body temperature was 90.3 degrees — kill you cold — even a half hour later.
They had clearly gotten the boy out of the cold water just in time.
“That was a raging river,” Porter said. “And he didn’t have but maybe three seconds of thinking to put himself where he did.”
“I think it was divine intervention, really, because I was going to leave,” Disbrow added.
“There were at least 10 things that happened that if any one of them wouldn’t have happened, we couldn’t have saved him,” Porter said. “Starting with me not having a hotel room to stay in that year, which put me there, within 100 yards of the scene.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
