National Park After Dark - Stranded: Devils Tower National Monument

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

George Hopkins was a thrill seeker, parachuting out of planes more times than anyone on record in 1941. While he's after more jumps, he first wants to do something no one else would - parachute onto Devil's Tower. His plan goes awry when he finds himself unable to get off the tower and he needs to be rescued.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Microdose: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order. Apostrophe: Use our link and code NPAD to get for first visit for only $5.Blinkist: Use our link to start your 7- day free trial and get 25% off of a Blinkist Premium membership.Away: Use our link and start your 100-day trial.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Another thrill-seeking episode. You're on a kick, I feel like. I am for sure. have this, I found this episode before two, before the Colorado River one. And I just really like adventure and fun things. I guess maybe to start the new year off, I'm just feeling adventurous. So I found this story, which is a really cool one. I'm excited to tell. So is it a survival story? Or what is it? Um, kind of. So my story today is going to be the story of a parachutist named George Hopkins, who set out to make a record number of parachuting jumps in a single day, and in that he wanted to create like this huge public spectacle of himself.

So beforehand, he wanted basically to do a publicity stunt. So he chose to parachute out of a plane and land on top of Devil's Tower National Monument to gain recognition. Is that legal? No. I was going to say, I feel like that is not. It is wildly illegal and you cannot do it, which was part of why he thought it was a good idea because people would take notice. Okay, gotcha.

And this was part of the multiple jumps in a day? Or was this just a single event that was supposed to be eye-catching? This was a single event that was supposed to be eye-catching where he would be like, hey, now that you know who I am, check out in a couple days, I'm going to be breaking the world record, like, come check me out kind of thing. Okay. All right. So he has a plan. It's just not probably a good one. Yeah. No. And you've been to, you've been to Devil's Tower. I did. Yeah. And it was, I say this, I think after I research stories, but I'm like, oh, if I had known this, there would have been other things I would have looked out for there,

which I'll get more into in the story. But I always think it's cool to know the history of parks and things that have happened there. So I look at it a little differently now, but maybe people who are visiting who will hear this story can now think of this when they go. I'm excited because I've never been, but of course, Devil's Tower is iconic. I feel like anyone can envision it when you think about it. Yeah, and if you can't, I would highly suggest everyone who is listening to this episode to just Google a photo right now. Because you really need to know what Devil's Tower National Monument looks like to get the full gist of the story. Okay.

To appreciate the entire. To appreciate all that it is. Okay. So as always, before we get into the story of George Hopkins, I do want to tell you. you all a little bit about Devil's Tower National Monument. If you have not heard of it, it is located in the northeastern portion of Wyoming. It's just over the border of South Dakota. So I went when Danielle and I did our trip to the Badlands, I stopped there first. And it was designated as a national monument on September 24th, 1906. And it was actually the very first national monument that was ever

established inside of the United States. Interesting. Yeah. It's a pretty small national park. It only protects two square miles of land, and it's part of the Black Hills. But within that two square miles of land, there stands the astounding geological feature of Devil's Tower. Devil's Tower is a solitary, tall, flat-topped, Google this, so you can see what I'm talking about, steep-sided tower of rock, which is known as a Butte, which is composed of igneous rock. It's believed to be over 65 million years old and it was believed to be formed as molten magma cooled near the earth's surface that long ago. Part of why this tower is so noticeable is because surrounding it is pretty flat. It's prairie.

There's some hills. It's kind of up on a little bit of a hill too. But it's relatively flat with this massive tower that's standing in the middle of it. And it stands at about 867 feet, which is 264 meters. And it ends up being about 1,200 feet above sea level. So it's flat prairie fields with some ponderosa pines that surround the bottom of it, but is relatively flat. And then this massive 1,200 foot elevation of rock just suddenly there. Also, an interesting part of Devil's Tower is that it has this huge, like these huge parallel cracks and divides on Devil's Tower that creates these huge columns.

And I'll post pictures, but you can Google it too. There are almost these very precise columns that are along the side of it. And these cracks vary in length. They range from areas that you can fit your whole body in between them. And then there's areas that you can barely fit your fingers into these cracks in areas. But because of this, it's a huge climbing destination for people. And it's become very popular for that approximately 5 to 6,000 climbers every year visit, which in retrospect for how many people actually visit the park isn't that much.

It only makes up about roughly 1% of visitors there because the park has, because the park has about 550,000 visitors per year. That seems like, I don't know what I was expecting as far as visitation, but that seems a little low. But I guess if it's only, what do you say, two and a half square miles? Yeah. So I guess maybe that is a lot for people to just go see a rock.

It's a small area. And I mean, when I did go there, it's not, there's not great parking there. And I actually had to drive around for 30 minutes just to park my car. Oh, to wait for someone to leave. Yeah. There's a designated parking area. And then there's kind of like this grassy area that people just park on.

And I had to drive around several times because it's just this little circle to get there. And there's probably other places, but I was short on time. I think I was picking you up from the airport, actually. And I was like, I just got to get in and get out. So I couldn't take any trails or look up any ways to walk from further because I just wanted to like get in, get out. But yeah, it was, I mean, 550,000 is not as much as you think of with six million you hear for others, five million, four million. But it's a decent amount.

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chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. While it has become this tourist area, Devil's Tower also carries a huge significance for indigenous people and has been considered a sacred area for generations. And this is long before settlers discovered it in 1850s. There are several tribes who have been coming here to have sacred ceremonies, including the Lakota's, Crows, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and the Kiowa people who refer to Devil's,

Tower by different names. So Devil's Tower was given its name by white settlers who came in, but the names that it was given by indigenous peoples, there were several, but they included Bear Lodge, Bear Lodge, Bute, Grizzly Bears Lodge, Greyhorn Butte, and Ghost Mountain. There have been many cultural stories within indigenous peoples that have been passed down for generations, and each tribe has their own oral histories of this area. Many of these stories include bears, which is why all of the names are related in bears. And a lot of their stories include on why there are these large cracks in the rock. And if you Google pictures and I'll post them again.

But they say that these huge indents and large columns are actually bear claw marks that are down the tower. I roughly remember this. Did I, like, did we cover this a little bit on a Patreon story before? I think that I did like a mini episode. I was trying to think of that too. We've definitely gone to this park before, but it was very briefly in a story. Exactly. It wasn't the center of any story, I don't think.

I think maybe I did like a, maybe it was a trail tale or it was like a legend or something where I did just like a small piece on it. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Now the Sioux legend is that the tower was created by the Great Spirit to save six women being chased by bears. The legend says that the Great Spirit lifted the ground that the women were on and formed the

tower when the bears were chasing them and the bears tried to climb the tower to get to them but fell to their deaths leaving the claw marks in the side of the rock. The Kiowa legend carries a similar story but it incorporates astrology with it. In their story, seven girls were out playing when they were spotted by giant bears and were chased. When the girls prayed to the great spirit, the spirit raised the ground underneath them towards the heavens. Then the bears tried to climb the rock and managed to get their deep claw marks into it, but they couldn't get to the top. When the girls reached the sky, they were turned into the constellation Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, which is also tied into Greek mythology as well. And the stories go more in

depth than that, but I think it's important to touch on it because if you look up Devil's Tower or you visit Devil's Tower, you'll see these big portraits of Devil's Tower with this huge bear climbing up it. And there's figures up at the top. So to know where that's coming from. I love it. There are spiritual practices that are still happening at the monument today in the form of group ceremonies, sweat lodges, sun dances, and prayer offerings. Along the park trails, it is very common to see colorful cloths that represent personal connections to the sites, and you're not allowed to touch or remove any of these prayer offerings that you see in the park. So it's still very, very highly used and occupied by indigenous people. And when I was there, I saw them. When you're walking on the

trail, you can see them all. And there are signs everywhere to be respectful. and that this is indigenous land. And there's a lot of history there, too, that you can go in and learn about everything, which I thought was really cool. The park is also home to wildlife. The tower itself is surrounded by groves of ponderosa pines. And if you're there on a quiet day, you might see white-tailed deer roaming around or hear the cries of prairie dogs. It's the home of lots of different species of rodents, birds, and reptiles. There is also, and I know I talked about this on the podcast before. But there's also wildlife that's on top of the tower. Yeah, see, this is all ringing a bell to me. Yeah, we talked about this and I know I did when I was researching this. I'm like,

I remember this. There's native grass that's up there. There's cacti and there's sagebrush. And plants aren't the only thing that have made their way to the very top of this tower because there's chipmunks, mice, pack rats, and snakes that all live at the top. Do you know the area of the top, like how big the top is? It's about an acre. Okay. So it's a decent size. And I was reading, how did these animals get up here? And there's conflicting. People aren't totally sure.

But climbers have reported seeing them climbing up the rocks, they've seen snakes, like, slithering up the sides. So climbers have reported that scientists think maybe they've been up there for a really long time and reproducing. And there were a lot of theories of it. But I thought that that was very interesting because it's not. You can't just, like, climb up there easily. I cannot imagine a pack rat scaling an 800 and something foot sheer rock face. They do it. We had, this is just a total side note, but one time, in our first house in Washington,

Ian and I lived in a log cabin and we like heard stuff in the ceilings and, you know, everywhere we're like, okay, we definitely have mice. And so the mice were like we took care of. like we relocated and whatever. And it was fine. And then we started hearing a significant amount of noise from the roof. But it sounded different than like little mice. We're like, what the fuck is that?

Like, what is that? And so it goes on for like a week. And it's always coming from this one area. So we finally, we had a flashlight that we left right near the door so we could go out and see like if we could see it. Just the way that the roof was like slated. and we looked it up because we finally found. So one day, Ian goes outside, and he's like, he uses the flashlight and there's like two little eyes like staring back at him.

And he's like, babe, babe, he's like, I thought, I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. And so I go out and we see it looks like a chinchilla. Like it looked like a chinchilla. He's like, is this a chinchilla? And I'm like, them, there's no fucking way. This is it a chinchilla. If you chinchilla in your roof?

But I'm pretty sure, like 95% sure. It was a pack rat. That pack rats are chinchillas. Is that a question or a statement? A statement. Oh, they are? No fucking way. Okay.

Okay, hold on. Let me look it up. Oh, pack rats are cute. Okay, yes. Okay, so this is what I'm trying to get, like, the point across. A wood rat. It was a wood rat. That's what it was.

A wood rat. And they, he was so cute. And we're like, okay, but he's like stealing everything and, like, making a nest up there and, like, fucking up the insulation. So we named him budge. I don't know why we named him butchie. So finally, we get to have a heart trap and we put it out there. And Ian's like, what do I put in it?

Like peanut butter. I'm like, I don't know. And he finally, he just takes a huge ass slice of like bread and throws it in there. And we're in the middle. Like, we had a lot of wildlife. I'm like, I'm not sure we're going to catch budgie. Like, we might catch something else. And lo and behold, the first night, like, I was still at work.

And I was driving home. And he like sent me a video. And he's like, I caught the budgie. And his little hands were like up on the cage and he was like kind of really cute and inquisitive. And he's like, can we keep him? Like, no fucking way. So we had to relocate him. And it was a big to do.

But I'll try and find the video or a picture of it. I was going to say, we need to see, budgie now. It's so cute. That's so funny. But anyways, so when you were describing the top with all these like different rodents, I'm like, there's no way budgie would have been able to scale down. Devil's Tower. With his tiny little hands.

No fucking one. You don't underestimate it, but gee. Okay. All right, I'll shut up for the rest of the entire episode now because that was enough. Well, now we can go into our story. Oh, good. We learned enough about Devil's Tower. So back into George Hopkins, this parachuting Daredevil.

He was 30 years old from South Dakota and he had made a reputation for himself for doing crazy things, and he had found this love for parachuting. At this time, the story takes place in 1941. He had held the world record for the most parachute jumps ever done, which was 2,347 jumps at the time, and his highest jump was out of a plane at 26,400 feet. This was also exceptional at the time, because at this time, most people who jumped out of airplanes were all military personnel, which he was not. And also, to be noted at this time, parachuting technology is not what it is today. And once you jumped out of a plane, you were largely at the mercy of the wind. There was very little control to guide yourself down for landing. And it was just, it was a different sport then because

the technology was not as good as it is today. For George, that didn't matter, though. He had also been a bit of a stuntman. And not only did he parachute often, but he also liked to parachute into strange places and difficult places to land. He had made a partial living performing stunts where he would leap out of burning airplanes for motion pictures. He was always looking for his next adrenaline rush and for his next bigger and more exciting challenge. And with that, George Hopkins now had his sights on a new record to break. He wanted to not only hold the most jumps ever recorded, but he wanted to hold the world record for the amount of parachute jumps in a single day. And he not only wanted to accomplish this, but he wanted to grab the public's attention. He wanted the world to take notice of

what he was doing and while he was doing it. He set a date to do the jumps, but now he needed this plan to get people to want to watch him set this world record. This was all happening in October of 1941 during the height of World War II. The United States was so focused on what was going on with the war because they knew that it was just a matter of time before the U.S. joined in. And at this point in October, there was large debates going on of whether or not the U.S. should join World War II or not, and almost nothing else was ever reported in the news. It was the only focus that was happening. During a conversation with a very eccentric friend named Earl Brocklesby on how to raise awareness for his record setting, Earl, who was also known to do bizarre things himself, he owned reptile gardens in Rapid City,

South Dakota and was known to keep a live rattlesnake under his hat, which he'd like to surprise and reveal to people on occasion and would let people pet his rattlesnake. What? Yeah, he was a weird. This friend is a very eccentric guy. And there's books on him actually when I was researching him, because I'm like, who is this guy? There's books and photos of this guy. So I'll include that when I post it. but he thought that it would be a fun idea to bet George $50, which equates to about $800 in today's money, that he couldn't parachute and land on top of Devil's Tower, which was something that had never been done before.

Now, with the amount of visitors and the park service managing the area, George thought this was a great idea. He thought that this was the perfect and possibly greatest publicity stunt he could ever pull, and he was pretty confident that he could land his parachute precisely on top of Devil's Tower. So he took the bet. He said, sure, I'll bet you 50 bucks. I'll jump onto Devil's Tower. And of course, part of this publicity stunt was that he was going to make it a complete surprise.

He had no intentions of notifying the park service that this was going on. And he thought that it would be fun if they found out when he landed on top of Devil's Tower. Well, it's all part of the razzle dazzle. Mm-hmm. He did, however, tell one news station of his plan, but only with the agreement that they would not publicly announce it and that they would be there at the bottom of Devil's Tower to take pictures, report on it, and he would do an interview at the bottom, and they would post it all over the newspaper the next day. So was his plan to parachute onto the top land? Climb down. And climb down. Okay. Like, rappel town. Okay. He wanted to repel down. So his plan essentially was he was going to land onto the Devil's Tower, propel.

himself down and then he would have a news reporter at the bottom who could take his picture to an interview, post it all over newspapers, get everyone's attention and write, hey, he's going to set the world record. He just did this. No one's ever done this before. And it was a big deal because parachuting was thought to not be a precise thing. So to land on Devil's Tower was like, oh, you can maybe control where you land. And he wanted this to be like this big publicity stunt that would get him more recognition. George planned the entire jump. out. A pilot by the name of Joe Quinn agreed to fly him to Devil's Tower and return later with ropes and climbing equipment to drop him down so he would be able to get off the tower. George had planned the entire jump out and he had a pilot by the name of Joe Quinn who agreed to fly him to Devil's Tower and then the plan was he would come back, he would circle back around and drop those ropes for him so he could get off the tower. But everything did not go as planned. The morning of October 1st, 1941, George gathered his gear and Joe Quinn had the plane ready and prepped for him. They left from Rapid City, South Dakota, and reached their target pretty

quickly. George jumped out of the plane, like he had done thousands of times before, but with all this planning, he failed to take into account the wind that frequented the tower. Because of the location and the dramatic increase in elevation where the tower stood, there was often severe up and down drafts around the tower, and that day was particularly windy. He struggled in the air to direct himself over the tower into a place that he could land on top of it. The wind whipped him around in midair and after several moments of struggling, he managed to get himself above the tower, but the wind gusts were at a severe risk of blowing him away from his target and landing on the spot.

So instead, he made a quick decision to partially collapse his own parachute, which sent him plummeting down towards this rocky plateau. toe. His parachute was open enough to cushion his fall and not kill him on the landing, but he was blown several feet across the rock and wind slammed his body into a boulder. But he made it. He had some scrapes and bruises, but he was overall okay, and he had made his landing. He really committed to that. He was just like, I have to land on top of this thing. I'm just going to let myself. I'm going to break half my parachute. He's like, this is fine. No worries, no concerns. Now next, it was the pilot's job to fly over and drop down the climbing equipment so he could get himself down. It should be noted

that George Hopkins was not a climber. And in fact, climbing was really just beginning to become a bigger sport. No one had ever climbed Devil's Tower until the 1890s, but it wasn't attempted much after that. And it was only five years prior in 1936 when rock climbers began taking a lot more interests there. But overall, not many people had ever climbed Devil's Tower at this point. George had specially prepared a pack for himself for Joe to throw down to him with everything he thought he would need to descent down. He packed a rope that was 200 feet shorter than it needed to be to reach the bottom. George assumed that he could free climb the last 200 feet to the bottom. Why would you assume that? I don't know. 200 feet is a long way. I will say at the very bottom of Devil's Tower,

it's huge rock boulders. And I don't know if he thought that that was the part he was going to be climbing down was he could just like scramble over these rock boulders, but this was 200 feet shorter than the rock boulders. Oh, okay. Not until the ground. Well, it was until the ground. He would be in the middle of the air at the bottom. He wouldn't have a way down. He'd have to literally free climb. But I don't know if he thought maybe because of the boulders that was like part of the 200 feet he was missing. But it wasn't. Along with that rope, he packed a sledgehammer and an old car axle that had been sharpened at the end, and that was it. I have to ask, does he have any climbing experience? No.

Oh, okay, good. All right. No, there's none. Just jumping out of planes. Just jumping out of planes. Okay, solid. He's like, it's fine. So Joe comes back around with the plane.

He throws the supplies out of the plane, and with the wind, it misses the target, hits the edge of the plane. hits the edge of the tower, bounces off the top, and falls 50 feet down before getting snagged on rocks and being completely out of reach of George. Oh, shit. Leaving him with no supplies and him stuck at the top. Okay, but we'll go on. But, like, yeah, it's kind of like an oh shit moment, but obviously the pilot saw this, right? Yeah, he did.

So he could just, like, get more supplies and try again. Yeah, and that's what they did. Okay. another plane was brought well actually what happened was because of this the park service figured out what was going on they saw what happened or someone reported it it was kind of unclear in the research i did if the news reporter reported that it was missed or if the pilot reported that it was missed but another plane ended up being brought in with more rope supplies and they brought in a rope that was 200 feet shorter than he was supposed to have again but by the time that this was a initiated, it had gotten later in the day and bad weather had rolled in. The plane successfully dropped the rope, but they literally just dropped a rope. It wasn't in a bag. It wasn't tied well. And by the time it landed, it was in complete knots and disheveled. And a blanket of fog had rolled in that had brought snow. So when it landed, the rope was completely frozen and tangled the

knots. And George couldn't untie it, unfreeze it, use it at all. Come on, guys. Like, let's get in to get it. a little bit. Dropping the ball here. Now, by this time, it was getting too late in the day, and there was not going to be any rope dropping. It was too dangerous to climb down because it was now really icy. So instead, he managed to send a note down off of the tower.

I'm not exactly sure how. But on the note, he said that he knew who stuck up there for the night, and he asked if they could send him whiskey for medicinal purposes. Just like a paper airplane. Can I? Like, note down. down and like how balls he's like, okay, sir, you're not even allowed to be here. Why the fuck would we send you whiskey? Like, yeah, sure, like, I want you to be comfortable. It's like,

you're not even supposed to be up there. Yeah, it's like, you're not even supposed to be up there. He's like, yes, but please get me my whiskey, this flavor, please. Well, the funniest thing about it is they did send another plane up and they sent up food and warm supplies so he could survive up there for the night. And it carried him a bottle of whiskey too. Of course. You got to have your creature comforts no matter where you are. He did survive the night and it was a little bit of a difficult one. He was pretty cold. It was very windy. And by the following day, the news of his failed jump had spread nationwide and over a thousand people showed up the following morning at Devil's Tower to watch these events

unfold. There were lots of reporters, photographers, and there were even just local people who showed up that was interested in what was going on. Was it really a failed jump though? It's a Failed descent. Yeah, that's probably a better way to put it. Failed dissent. Yeah, like, it's obviously gone wrong or not according to plan, but he did, I mean, it was kind of like a crash landing when he landed. He did plummet down into the rocks and made it.

So I guess that counts. So not totally failed. Well, that next morning, they brought more food, more blankets, more supplies, and they brought him a bullhorn. They employed a car equipped with bullhorns on it and parked it on the road below Devil's Tower so they could communicate with each other. So now they're just like shouting back and forth. It's like, more whiskey. Like a walkie-talkie wouldn't have done the job.

It's in 1940s. I don't know what the technology is back then. Yeah. And with this new communication, George suggested that he would just parachute himself down. But that idea was shot down very quickly. Even his friend Earl had come and told him that it was a really bad idea. the winds still had not let up. It would be way too dangerous. He would have very little control of the direction and also not enough time to drop. Usually when he was dropping, he was parachuting. He was

thousands of feet up in the air and he was just 1,200 feet above. So he didn't have much room for error if anything happened. Well, that's more of like a base jump at that point. Yeah, which he did not have the equipment for that. Yeah, let's just cut your losses now. Like, you're not doing well. Yeah. So The Navy offered to bring in a helicopter to airlift George out, but the winds were too strong and the weather was too dangerous and a helicopter couldn't fly safely up there. So again, that idea was kind of vetoed and out. I was really cold. It was icy and it was windy.

And while George's ideas hadn't worked out exactly the way he wanted, he was kind of enjoying his time because he noticed the publicity that he was getting. He was in pretty good spirits. He was just kind of like, hey, yeah, I'm up here. Names George Hopkins, write it down. Add it to your newspaper. Another night came and went, and the park service had more supplies dropped to him. They exchanged conversations with the bullhorns, and often were saying words of encouragement.

Like, don't worry, we're getting you. Another night, we're figuring this out. We'll come for you soon. Now the news had spread nationwide with what was happening, and letters started pouring in from civilians and military personnel offering to help or offering ideas to get him down. But the weather had still not let up. Even Goodyear with their famous, I don't know if you've seen it before, their famous Good Year blimp.

Oh, yeah. It's a blimp that says good year on it. They offered to fly their blimp in to rescue him, but they had a condition that the blimp would have to be guaranteed to survive the rescue. It couldn't have any damage. It couldn't, like, they had to be able to guarantee that every. thing would go smoothly. And the park service was like, I can't, I can't guarantee that. Like, okay, yeah, we'll just tell the wind to take it down a notch. And yeah, that's such an odd thing. It's like,

excuse me, what? Yeah, it's like, and they were like, well, our brand can't look bad, I'm assuming. It's like, if our blimp goes down in fiery flames and rescue, then it's going to look bad. So they backed out. They're like, never mind, we can't help them. On the third day, weather had still not let up, and the park service was working day and night to come up with a rescue plan. Thousands more people had shown up to the park to see what was going on, and many of them were camping within the park. There were news crews, there were onlookers, and I said it's a small park. There's not a ton of room, and there's now thousands of people gathered around the bottom. And the news had completely shifted from the concerns of World War II and the anticipation

of the U.S. joining the war to now Devil's Tower National Monument and the guy that was stuck up there. So the world had shifted or the U.S. had totally shifted their focus now. While the Park Service was contemplating ways to rescue George, they were also very frustrated that he was up there. The regional coordinator of the National Park Service at the time, Edmund Rogers, was quoted saying, this is the kind of stunt we are not sympathetic with. We of the Park Service hate to jeopardize our men's lives for stunt somebody thought was smart. So they're pissed. Very fair.

Yeah. It's like, don't do stupid things because you're putting our people. at risk. George's friend Earl, the snake guy, rattlesnake in his hat, had also become a huge advocate in his rescue and he was helping plan ideas to save him. They also brought in a field ranger from Rocky Mountain National Park named Ernest K. Field and a licensed climbing guide from Colorado, Warren Goral. Ultimately, it was decided that a team of climbers would have to go up to the top of the tower and guide him down and they knew just who they wanted to ask. There's a man by the name of Jack Durrance. Jack was an expert climber who had previously pioneered the easiest and

most popular climbing route in 1939. That is the most popular route to this day up Devil's Tower, which is now known as the Durant's route. He was attending Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. I was going to say Dartmouth. Wow. Yeah. We got a New Hampshire tie in. We got a Colorado tie in here. We need Vermont for the trifecta. I know. And well, he, He was this very expert climber in New Hampshire, and he actually founded the Dartmouth Mountaineering Club in 1936, which is still a club to this day. He had been part of an attempted climb of the second tallest mountain in the world, K2, where four men had died on the expedition, but he was credited for saving the lives of one of the

men who was suffering from pulmonary edema. And he was a clear choice for the mission. You know, he had done these crazy climbs. He had rescued people before. and he had pioneered the easiest way to get up Devil's Tower. And at this time, there really weren't many people who had ever climbed it. So this was a no-brainer. It's like he's the guy.

So he agrees and he assembles eight climbers to join him. Because of the continued bad weather, the team was forced to leave New Hampshire by train. And they didn't arrive until the night of day five, which was October 5th of George on top of the tower. So George is still just hanging out on top of this tower, just waiting for someone to come in. The press had obviously heard of the news of Jack's incoming, and when he arrived, they surrounded him with questions and were interviewing him. And he was quoted saying, it's not easy, but it can be done. The following morning at 7.30 a.m., Jack led the team up the climbing route. And because of how cold and wet the rock was, it took them several hours before they reached the top.

When they did reach the top, they found George Hopkins in great spirits. He was excited to see them. He didn't seem like he was afraid at all. He even came across as nonchalant about being up there. And he invited them to lunch. Well, of course he's in great spirits. He's been getting air-dropped whiskey all the time. Yeah.

Well, the National Park Service had dropped so many supplies there. He had tons of food. He had blankets. He had warm clothes. He was like kind of comfy up there. And he's just like, yeah, thanks for coming, guys. Like, you want some lunch? I've got lots of food up here.

It was even I read one thing that said that They brought him a medium rare steak and like dropped it to him. What? This is reminding me, you know, the audio for different reels and tuk talks from Borat. And he's like, enter a place. This is my house. That's like what I'm doing. Welcome.

That's so funny. That's exactly what it is. He's like, I live here. Welcome. Would you like some lunch? Exactly. And they were like, yeah, sure. we've been climbing for hours. We'll sit and hang out and eat some lunch. So they sat around,

eating lunch, they talked for a while, and then the team discussed how exactly they were going to get him down and the protocol and what he had to do. So it wasn't until they started at 7.30 in the morning, and it wasn't until 4.45 p.m. that day that they began their descent. Well, they were having lunch and steak and hanging out. Yeah. And it took a long time to get up there, too. Now, while it was a relatively uneventful climb down, it was done carefully and precise, which took them several hours to complete. They didn't reach the base until 8.20 p.m. that night. So they had a 13-hour day of rescuing this guy. That's like a day at the old vet clinic. Yeah. Yeah, it is. 12-hour shifts. Any nurses, like human medicine, too, nurses know it's 12-hour shift and then some.

You think you're having a 7-7? Think again. I don't know. I was notorious for like, the building's on fire and it's seven o'clock on the dot and I'm like well that's my cue to go. I got to get out of here. I remember ordering like pizzas for dinner because like we would have. I can't remember being stuck in surgery in surgery. In surgery. 9.30. Because you know what doctor. I won't put her on blast. Love her. But she would always add more. It's like she's like yeah, sure. We can get this emergency surgery at this non-emergency hospital going at 7 p.m. It's like, oh my God. It's like, okay. cancel anything that we were going to do. It's like it's 658.

We're not closed. Get them prepped. Yeah. So we can sympathize with the rescuers. In total, George had been up there for about six days before his rescue. And reporters, of course, were sitting at the bottom waiting to ask him all about it. But before he answered any questions, his first priority was Earl. And when he saw him, the first thing he did was he extended his head.

hand out in a gesture of like hand over my money. Like, come on, cough it up. Come on. You owe me 50 bucks. And Earl did. He was waiting at the bottom and he handed him $50. And he's like, yep, you made it. You landed. You won the bet for sure. Yeah, it wasn't a failed whatever, you said. It was not failed. Yeah, it was not failed. He did do it. It was a failed descent down. Then the reporters started asking him questions and they were like, what were you doing up there? It was one of their questions. You were out there for six days alone. What did you do to occupy your time? And he was quoted saying,

I counted the big boulders on that damn mountain peak a thousand times. I gave them all names. You couldn't print if I told you what they were. So I don't know what he named these boulders, but they were clearly colorful names. And he was just like, I just sat there counting boulders and naming them. It's like, well, I guess for six days. Now, during his six days up there,

over 7,000 people had visit the park. news articles had spread nationwide about it, including character drawings of the event in the Chicago Tribune, which I'll post a picture on Instagram. For those six days, the U.S. had stopped focusing on World War II and the debate that was going on and clearly focused just on the National Park and him on top of the tower. But that all changed on December 7, 1941 when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened and the U.S. officially joined the war. After this, it was very seldom that people visit national parks at all. And this would continue for several more years before people started going back to national parks once the war started. So this was the last big event that happened at a national park before World War II. Interesting.

When we officially went into war, George Hopkins enlisted in the military and trained new paratroopers on how to safely jump and land using a parachute. It is believed that he set his world record while he taught in the military. military. Although today the world record has been recorded in 2006 by Jay Stokes, who completed 640 skydives in 24 hours. Oh my God. And that insane? I'm like, how is that even possible? He must have just like, he would jump and then already have new gear and a new plane ready and waiting and he would just run into over and over and over. There had to be a whole team. Oh, for sure. It was probably a huge endeavor. Yeah. That's crazy. crazy 640 times and I think of that and I just think you're in such a rush to do it in this time frame

that the preciseness of it has to go out the window and it has to get more dangerous how many did you say 640 640 and 24 hours are you doing the math to see like how many a minute that is or an hour an hour 26.6 an hour wow that's wild that's like two minutes it's two and a half, like something around two and a half, every two and a half minutes he was jumping out of a plane. So he couldn't have gone super high up, like to gain, I don't know, whatever. We're not going to get into the discussion. I don't know how long it takes a plane to get to 14,000 feet, but. Is that where at the height in which? That's where you jump out of for skydiving generally. Yeah. That's what I did when I jumped. It was 14,000 feet. So I don't know what he did.

Interesting. Yeah. Crazy. Now, after the war, George often staged air shows, for charity, but he did abruptly quit jumping and flying all together in 1958. He was doing an air show in Mexico and when he landed, he suddenly asked himself, what am I doing? Like, what am I doing here? And it was just like this weird switch that went off in his head and he never jumped again after that. That kind of gives me chills because I feel like that's his intuition being like, okay,

you're pushing it and something bad will probably, even though he was like, I feel like I'm going to die if I keep doing this, even if he didn't have that. exact thought. It's just kind of like his intuition stepping forward and being like, maybe we should call it. It's like you had a good run. You're done. Yeah. And it was just like the switch that went off. And he ended up living until the early 2000s and he died at the age of 91, I believe. Wow. What a life. And as for Devil's Tower, no one has ever attempted to parachute and land on top of it ever again. Yeah. And let's not get any ideas. No. It's very illegal. You can't to it. And the park service, I am pretty sure frowns upon it very much. But it's never been done again.

I think it also is important to note that because this is such a sacred area, that climbing the tower and probably landing on the tower, I'm sure, is actually considered very disrespectful in indigenous cultures. But climbing is permitted. It is permitted. I think that you have to, you do have to get permission from the park service to do it. I don't think you can just show up and climb. So it is allowed. But especially back in this day, I mean, he's jumping on top of this. There's thousands of people around. He's like there's supplies and food and all this stuff getting thrown to the top of Devil's Tower. I imagine that it was, I don't know what it was like for indigenous people, obviously, but I imagine that it was very, it was a very disrespectful event for them.

And the park service was even said that they were worried about other people trying to jump and land on top of Devil's Tower. But no one was trying. And they're like, you know, after a while we just figured like no one else is as disrespectful. Or they said people respect Devil's Tower too much to do that. Okay. Again. Yeah. Well, hopefully that holds true because you never know with people.

But hopefully, yeah, now it's a one and done type of thing. But it wasn't interesting. I just, I thought this story was just so interesting all around. And the fact that World War II was happening and the world kind of shifted their focus for a minute and was like, what is going on here? And it brought so much attention to a national park. And the fact that people didn't visit national, for a lot of people who were there, it was probably the last time they visited a national park for a very long time. Do you know why that is? It was because people were enlisted in the military.

people were gone. People were so focused. World War II was just such a big thing that happened, especially when Pearl Harbor was attacked and then people in Europe, off in Europe, it just became such a massive thing that people weren't visiting National Parks anymore because everyone was occupied with the war. Makes sense. Yeah. Wow. I mean, and of course, it seems like the news story was maybe a bit of a pallet cleanser in the media, like just for that brief moment. Yeah. I, I mean, think so and the the drawing that I'll put up from the Chicago Tribune is it's a picture it's a drawn picture of Devils Tower and all the media frenzy and thousands of people around it and there's someone in the back being like hey the war's going on like hello and it's like that's exactly

what it was some people were like why are we focusing on this there's a huge war going on but I think for other people it was like oh we can look at something else for like a couple minutes and for six stays. That's what it was before it went right back into it and then everybody. And then obviously World War II happened for several years and the U.S. was part of it for several years. The media attention and the people flocking to the area reminded me of, of course, like, it garnered a lot of media attention at the time as well in its own respect, but several years before, I believe. Yeah, maybe about 20 years before. I forget now. But in mammoth caves, remember when the gentleman, I forget God, this was literally episode two that I did. So

pardon me. Oh, you're talking about the guy who got stuck in and people were like having little like food stance outside and it was like a tourist attraction for people and he was stuck. Yeah, he was literally he died down there. But people were just like flocking to the area to kind of watch every, the rescue attempts unfold and the whole thing. It's like a car crash. She can't look away. But people were literally. people flocked. Yeah. It was what and I was like, yeah, food trucks and stands popping up. It's like, yeah, the morbid attraction of it all. And same thing with Devil's Tower. Just people were just like, well, we're here and we're watching it. And yeah, there was no like, all right, everyone needs to back up.

This is a secured scene. Nothing like that. Well, I mean, for Devil's Tower, too, there are all of the pines that are around the base of it too. So they weren't like in the way of rescuers as far as what it looked like. But I think that it was just like what you said, people just wanted to see it. And they just flocked from everywhere. Seven thousand people at a time that the parks weren't being visited that much either. Well, and if you think about it, these, both those things, the mammoth cave situation and this one, people do still watch things unfold live. It's just via social media. It's not, we had no other option beforehand. If you wanted to see something for yourself firsthand, you had to go there. Now, there's just as many, if not more people who have the same

morbid curiosity. It's just you're not physically there, but you're sure as shit watching it unfold in real time through a device. Yeah, so true. And for George Hopkins case, I mean, there was real concern he was going to die. I mean, die from exposure, die on the way down. You know, there were so many things that could have gone wrong. So it was definitely a morbid curiosity of people being like, is he going to make it? Is he going to, are we going to see him? What's going on? Yeah. Well, cool story and I'm glad it worked out all around and that, you know, for the last however many years, no one else has attempted it. And hopefully it stays that way because obviously it's not a great idea. Yeah. Obviously, you should not do it. All right. Well, is that about it for us this week? I think that's it for today.

Cool. All right. Well, everyone, have a great week. And we'll see you next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale you'd like to share, send us an email at NPAD Stories at gmail.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Become an outsider by joining our Patreon where you'll gain access to monthly bonus stories and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our partners, you're supporting our show. To access our special discount codes along with source information from today's episode, check out the show notes.

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