{"id":13122,"date":"2014-12-28T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T12:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=13122"},"modified":"2014-12-26T09:15:05","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T14:15:05","slug":"sure-its-there-but-must-one-rocket-the-st-lawrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2014\/12\/28\/sure-its-there-but-must-one-rocket-the-st-lawrence\/","title":{"rendered":"Sure, it’s there. But must one rocket the St. Lawrence?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This<\/a>

This is daredevil Evel Knievel photographed in front of his house in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, circa 197?. Image by Bill Wolf, Creative Commons<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

There’s no shortage of daredevils\u00a0in the world.<\/p>\n

The well-known\u00a0Evel Knievel<\/a>\u00a0actually survived his stunts long enough to die of disease in 2007, though not for lack of trying, as summarized by the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Performing stunts hundreds of times, Mr. Knievel repeatedly shattered bones as well as his bikes. When he was forced to retire in 1980, he told reporters that he was \u201cnothing but scar tissue and surgical steel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In 1974 Knievel tried (and failed) to jump Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered motorcycle.<\/p>\n

In that same time frame, Stuntman Ken Powers tried to jump the St. Lawrence in a rocket-powered car (a Lincoln Continental) in 1976.<\/p>\n

One might think all that belonged to the crazy 70s, but no. According to this recent article<\/a> from the CBC,<\/p>\n

A California stuntman is hoping to become the first person ever to soar across\u00a0the St. Lawrence River in\u00a0a steam-powered rocket.<\/p>\n

“Mad Mike” Hughes says he’s planning the high-stakes jump in May 2015 in the town of Morrisburg,\u00a0even if the township of South Dundas might still have a few reservations<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

CBC reports that Huges is confident of success, assuming the project actually comes together. You can check out his professional website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfamiliar with the 1976 St. Lawrence River attempt, I poked around and found this short archival footage, if “archival” is the right word for events that took place while I was in high school.<\/p>\n