The Scout Monument

This quiet monument marks one of the worst tragedies in Boy Scout history. On June tenth, nineteen sixty-three, an old cattle truck packed with more than forty Scouts and their leaders was bouncing down a rough desert road, headed for a Colorado River trip at Hole in the Rock. On a steep grade the driver tried to drop into a lower gear, the transmission would not catch, and the brakes failed to hold.

The truck rolled backward, ran off the road, and tumbled down a thirty foot drop on this very turn. Thirteen people died, twelve at the scene and one later in a Panguitch hospital. More than two dozen others were hurt.

Among the dead were the expedition leader, two Scoutmasters, a teacher, a newspaper reporter, and seven boys. The monument stands so the names of those lost on this lonely road are never forgotten.