January 24, 2005 started out as a great day for Fairburn agate hunting. Jamie Brezina met me at my house about 7:00 AM. He decided to drive his 1997 Jeep Wrangler on this hunt because the rancher where we were going knew this vehicle.
The sky was clear and the forecast was for calm winds and near 60 degree temperature, perfect, especially for January in South Dakota. We arrived at the ranch house at 8:00 and met with the owners’ brother.
After a short visit with him and Gervis, one of the ranch hands, we drove the remaining 1 ½ miles to our jumping off point. The Cheyenne River crossing where we were to start our hunt was ice covered. Although the ice looked to be solid at the crossing, there was a little open water in the middle. Jamie had hunted the gravel bars here in the past and was familiar with this crossing; he knew the river was fairly shallow. We decided to drive across and park on the opposite side so we didn’t have to get wet, and then spend the day hiking with damp boots. This was the first time for either of us to hunt this area across the river and the adrenalin was pumping. We loaded our packs with lunch, water and the necessary tools for a full days hunting. We both had visions of fist sized agates to be had for the picking. As we climbed the foothills in search of our quarry it became apparent that we weren’t going to find more Fairburn’s than we could carry, a dream we both shared the night before. The day was fantastic; the area was beautiful with wildlife and rocks everywhere. We both found a couple of ”scruffies” (what Jamie and I call a poor or small Fairburn specimen) but the real deal was eluding us. At noon we stopped for lunch and talked about the day so far. No agates yet but what a terrific outing it was. After hunting for another hour or so I finally hit pay dirt, it wasn’t that fist sized super agate we sought but it was a keeper. Not to be outdone Jamie claimed a nice one for himself before we decided to start hunting back towards the jeep. We ran into a spot that had concretions sticking out of the grass so we examined a few of these and Jamie came up with two nice scaphites for his collection.
The sun was starting to get low in the sky so we picked up the pace a bit and arrived back at the jeep about 45 minutes before sundown. After packing things away and taking another look at our two newly discovered Fairburns we started back across the river. That’s when the day started to look “not so rosy”.
About half way across the river we broke through the ice and were stuck! All the jockeying and wheel spinning in the world wasn’t going to get us free so I climbed out into 18” of broken ice and water to survey the situation. Not so bad after all. It only took 15 minutes or so to bust away the ice and we were able to back up to the river bank again. Now what! There was only one way home and that was back across that river. We both got out and looked our possibilities over and decided that about 50 feet down stream was a good spot to cross. I walked over to the other side and found what appeared to be only 2” of rotten ice then 6” of water the entire way. Jamie tested it out and decided the same thing. No sweat, we were home free. Jamie climbed back into the jeep and gave her the boot. Everything looked great so I turned and was getting out of his way when I heard the most gut wrenching sound I’ve heard in quite a while. I turned around just in time to see the jeep sink in the water to within a couple of inches from the top of the fenders. The sudden stop almost put Jamie through the windshield. What we thought was river bottom under the 6” of water was actually the rough top surface of 10”-12” of not so good ice, and then beneath that was more water, about 2 ½’ of it. The jeep had broken through all the way to the bottom and created a cage of ice that prevented Jamie from driving forward or backwards. There was only one thing to do and that meant getting in the water up to our backsides. After severalattempts to break the ice away we lost Jamie’s shovel and my rock rake. Jamie was wet clear up to the pockets of his jeans and I had done a little better than that, I had fallen down several times and was completely wet except for the tops of my shoulders. The water was running in the drivers’ door and out the other side. By now the sun had set and it was getting really cold. The jeep was still running and we were afraid to shut it off for fear that water would get into the engine. We were in deep doo-doo. Decision time! Remember, we were tired, having just spent the entire day rock hunting, it was now getting dark, the temperature was dropping, we were wet and cold and that ranch house was a mile and a half away.
Jamie didn’t hesitate long before taking off at a fast trot for the ranch house with me dogging along behind. It seemed like time had just stopped but I kept walking as fast as my near 60 year old legs would allow. I finally lost sight of Jamie, but then he’s a mere 30 years young and that was his jeep back there in the river. That’s what kept him pushing himself to the limit.
I was still several hundred yards from the ranch when I heard a truck coming. Boy am I glad that Jamie can run! The only one home at the ranch was Ernie but having had a stroke sometime earlier he wasn’t in any physical shape to give us much of a hand. He sure was willing to give it a shot though. I was so wet that I just jumped in the back of the pickup and off to the river we went. When we got back there it was obvious that we lacked the necessary manpower and equipment to do a thing but look. Jamie finally waded out to the jeep to shut it off and pick up what belongings he could carry (especially our precious Fairburn agates!). Ernie drove us back to the ranch but this time I was so cold that, wet or not, I set up front. Ernie offered to let us take the ranch truck so we headed out. There was a lot of planning done on the ride home. We decided it was best to get the truck back to the ranch that night so after calling and making amends with his girl friend for not being back in time for a pre arranged dinner, we fueled the truck and I followed Jamie back out to the ranch.
Once back in town Jamie met up with his girl friend for that late dinner and I headed home to bed. After that it was a pretty much sleepless night for both of us. Jamie arrived back at my house early the next morning and we packed all the pry bars, chain, and tow rope and straps that we owned into my pickup and along with extra dry clothes we headed out to recover the jeep.
What a great sight it was to see that Gervis and Ernie had a tractor all ready and were actually waiting there to give us a hand in the recovery operation. As we approached the river we eagerly craned our necks to get a first glimpse of the water logger jeep. It hadn’t gotten any better than we had left it the night before, in fact the conditions were worse because now the wind was blowing and it made that water seem twice as cold. We got the tractor in place and found that we could walk on the ice to the front of the jeep and didn’t have to wade in the water. After sticking our arms in that cold water up to our arm pits to attach the tow straps we started breaking the ice cage that held the jeep captive. That ice might not have been strong enough to hold the jeep up but it took plenty of time, and hard work to break it away from the front end of the jeep to clear a path to shore. Jamie made the plunge back into the water to put the transmission in neutral and hold the steering wheel straight. I don’t think I could have gotten him back out of that jeep and into the water again even if I had a gun. I finished breaking the rest of the ice away then stood back to let the tractor do its work. I never thought a nylon tow rope could stretch so far as that one did before the tractor was able to jerk the jeep up over the last ledge of ice and free it. I couldn’t tell why Jamie had set there so awkwardly with his knees on the seat instead of setting down like he should, that is until the jeep was up on dry land and I could see that water was halfway up the seat and totally covering the shift counsel and floors. Even though it was inside the jeep that water hadn’t warmed up any at all. And with that wind blowing Jamie was about frozen solid.
After making sure we had a handle on the situation Gervis and Ernie headed back to the ranch to make a pot of hot coffee. Jamie and I changed into dry clothes and started bailing what appeared to be an ocean of water and ice out of his jeep. We did find things floating around that he had misplaced long ago and I even found a rock that had mysteriously disappeared on another hunt. It took a while but we managed to get the water out and we started to tow the jeep back to the ranch house. We had checked the dip stick and there wasn’t any sign of water in the oil so on the way we decided to try and pull start it. It fired up and Jamie drove it back to the ranch under his own power. There are some problems, like none of the gages working, a shock or something making a horrid noise underneath, a couple of dents in the hood, a bent bumper and a totally waterlogged interior, but we were OK and were able to drive the jeep home. Hopefully the jeep will dry out and most of the electrical problems resolve themselves. With our fingers crossed only time and warm weather will tell.
As for Jamie and I ~~ are we going to do it again? ~~~ You can bet your dry boots on it! Only next time we’re going to park on this side and wade across the river!!!!!
