Somewhere Evel Knievel is smiling. Finally, after waiting over forty years, someone has successfully jumped over the Snake River Canyon. Hollywood stuntman Eddie Braun climbed into a steam powered rocket on the canyon's north rim, near the Hanson Bridge and soared hundreds of feet into the air and landed successfully in a farmer's field on the south side.
The time of the jump was moved back several times, as organizers were trying to avoid huge crowds showing up near the launch site. However locals got word through social media and showed up from everywhere to watch history.
Braun's sole motivation for attempting the jump was because of his childhood hero. Braun grew up a huge Evel Knievel fan. As a matter of fact, Braun credits Knievel for his decision to beome a professional stuntman. "I don't know if he actually went to the other side of the canyon," Braun told 6 On Your Side this week, "To see what the view is like, I wonder if he ever thought about that."
Knievel attempted the jump from a different location, closer to the Perrime Bridge back in 1974. Unlike Friday's launch, Knievel's jump was heavily promoted, and televised to a national audience on ABC's Wide World of Sports.
This journey started three years ago, when the Idaho State Land Board auctioned off a piece of property for a two year lease. The original idea was to have the jump take place on the original Evel Knievel launch site and land on the state property of the north side of the rim. Big Ed Beckley from Texas won the bid, but failed to execute his plan. That's when Braun and engineer Scott Truax planned their own jump on private property, about eight miles to the east.
