Mervin Minish (1912-1974)  *61

Mervin Minish was a guest/passenger, along with his wife Maxine Minish, on an ARTA trip down the Main Salmon River (River of No Return section) on June 16 and 17, 1974. On these dates, the Main Salmon River was experiencing a 100-year flood, the hydrographic gauge at Whitebird, Idaho registering 130,000 cubic feet per second. The Minish's were part of a group of 19 passengers and four guides.

The raft in which the couple were riding on June 17, 1974 (guide, Laurel Nesbitt) capsized in rough water opposite Barth Hot Springs camp and Mervin and Maxine swam to shore. Another raft picked them up and continued downstream (guide, Mike Baron). This raft also capsized around Nixon Creek on the Main Salmon, throwing all passengers in the raft, as well as the guide, into the flooding icy cold river. At that point, no one was downstream in a position to go out and save them, and the Minish's were washed down the river wearing their lifejackets. They died of drowning and/or exposure to the very cold water.

It is testimony to Mervin Minish's high moral character that, while he was still physically able to have swam out of the Main Salmon River, he instead chose to remain with his wife. Indeed, he stayed close to Maxine, who was a non-swimmer and unquestionably exhausted from her previous immersion after the first capsize. I like to think that Mervin's presence and, perhaps, his words likely calmed Maxine as they both faced their long journey to forever.

The last time anyone ashore saw the couple alive they were floating side-by-side in the vastness of a flooding wild river, finally disappearing around a bend below Bear Creek Bar. Some twenty miles farther downstream, having passed through very rough whitewater, their bodies were recovered by two men in a jet boat. Even then, they were still near each other.