Death of the Tackle Box


The Death of the Tackle Box
Picture near Ringbolt Rapids during the building of Hoover Dam,
True name Boulder Dam
As young men in Scouts, our scoutmaster took us to a place where we could hike down to the Colorado River below the Dam. There were some little rapids there. They ran along the cliff on the Nevada side and could be reached by hiking down the Arizona side. They were called the Ringbolt Rapids. There were large rings on the cliff side that could be tied onto, if you wanted to line a boat down below the rapids, at least that was what we were told.
We were having a great time playing in the water, and a couple of guys were fishing from the edge of the river where the ravine came down. We ate our lunch and then headed up to get picked up. On the way back the scoutmaster took off ahead of the rest of us to get the pickup, which was on the Nevada side and come back and get us. It was probably a bad decision on his part.
We were then alone coming out of the long draw; it ran for about two miles. Looking all around we saw a little cave just above where we were climbing up out of the canyon. Of course, we had to stop and explore. It went back about eight feet or so. Inside there was a box of dynamite, fuses, and caps. We took some of the dynamite, fuses, and caps and went back down the ledge. When we got down, we had a great discussion about how to put the items together. We finally came up with an agreement and put a fuse and cap into the hole in the top of one of the sticks of dynamite and set it next to a large boulder. We lit the fuse and took off running up the ravine. It was about that time that Wade started yelling that he had left his tackle box next to the boulder. Of course, it was too late to run back and get it, and then get back out of the way of the blast. The blast was really loud; it is good that we were as far away as we were.
We went back down to see if we could find anything left of the tackle box. There was nothing. Wade was really upset. It was his dad’s equipment. Everyone was pretty quiet on the ride home. We were in the back of the pickup with a shell on it. Wade never came to Scouts again.


Picture taken from top of  the Dam of the new bridge connecting
Nevada and Arizona  (photo credit Stephanie Perez )
Part Two: The Shot Heard Around the Town
A few week later most of those who had been on the scout trip were at Afton Arp’s home for a party. Sometime during the party, we decided to take the dynamite that we hadn’t set off previously and go down to McKeeversville where the old railroad track ran and set it off. They used to take large items down to the Dam on the rail when they were building it. It was now not being used as far as we knew. We took the rest of the dynamite that we hadn’t used to blow up Wade’s tackle box and took it down and set it up on the track and lit a fairly long fuse and took off back to the party. We had only arrived a few moments be fore there was an enormous blast. Again we were pretty quiet about the whole thing. It had blown up the track and one of the roads going into McKeeversville. We were worried that we were all going to end up in jail, but no one ever questioned us about it. They just repaired the road and the rail. That was the end of the dynamite and that is a great thing. It was 1960, and I think the statute of limitations is now past.  



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