Stuntman completes Knievel’s failed Snake River Canyon jump

Earlier this month, Eddie Braun said he didn’t think he would have any trouble clearing the Snake River Canyon east of Twin Falls with a replica of the “X2 Skycycle” that Evel Knievel used in his unsuccessful 1974 jump.

Braun, 54, a Hollywood stuntman, told the Idaho Statesman earlier this month he expected his “Evel Spirit” rocket to propel him at 400 mph and land 1,000 feet beyond the canyon’s south wall. He did just that Friday afternoon.

“It was pretty cool. I’m glad he made it,” Twin Falls Mayor Shawn Barigar said. “I look forward to hearing him share what it was like to complete his dream.”

Barigar watched Bruan complete the jump from a live stream by KIVI-TV. He also watched a video posted to the Facebook page of the Times-News newspaper from Twin Falls.

Braun landed safely on the south rim of the canyon, the Twin Falls Times-News reported.

He piloted the “Evel Spirit,” a steam-driven rocket ship patterned after Knievel’s “X2 Skycycle.” The launch site was in Jerome County, a few miles east of where Knievel shot off from the opposite bank.

Originally scheduled for Saturday, Braun’s team said earlier this week that the jump from the canyon’s north rim would happen sometime between Friday and Sunday. Friday afternoon, media and onlookers have gathered in the area near the Hansen Bridge, just east of Twin Falls, amid suggestions that the jump was going forward.

The “Evel Spirit” launched at 3:52 p.m. Braun’s ship reached an estimated 400 mph and flew for about 4 seconds before Braun deployed three parachutes, colored red, white and blue and floated through the air to a landing on a farm field well away from the south canyon wall.

Evel Knievel’s family was at the site for the jump, Times-News reporter Tetona Dunlap said on Twitter.

Statesman media partner KIVI 6 On Your Side reported that 200 to 300 onlookers showed up after word got out that Braun would be attempting the jump on Friday. Cars and other vehicles were parked on side roads up to about a mile away from the jump site.

On Sept. 8, 1974, Knievel failed to reach the north wall of the canyon when the rocket cycle’s parachute deployed early and stopped the ship’s forward thrust. The rocket floated toward the water before a gust of wind blew it back to the rocks on the south shore, below the launch site. Knievel suffered only minor injuries and a jolt to his ego.

The canyon east of the Hansen Bridge, along Idaho 50, is about 1,400 feet at the spot where Braun jumped, 200 feet narrower than where Knievel jumped. The trajectory of Braun’s jump was at a higher angle and the stuntman said before the jump he expected to travel at 400 mph and clear the canyon wall by 1,000 feet into a farm field in Twin Falls County.

Unlike Knievel, who was lowered into his rocket ship riding inside a metal cage swung into place by a crane, Braun walked up several steps on the platform and slipped into the Evel Spirit.

Braun’s team — also including Scott Truax, son of Knievel’s 1974 engineer — was the last remaining of several that sought to jump the canyon in 2014, the 40th anniversary of Knievel’s attempt. Braun was the first to follow through after decades of people talking about re-enacting the event.

“What better way to pay homage to the guy who inspired me and led me to become everything that I am professionally?” Braun told the Idaho Statesman ahead of the jump. “I like to say I’m not doing something that Evel Knievel couldn’t do. I’m simply finishing out his dream. How many people get to finish the dream of their hero?”

People still debate whether Knievel’s parachute malfunctioned and opened early or whether Knievel, born Robert C. Knievel in Butte, Mont., pulled the chute cable himself. He always claimed a glitch caused the problem partway across the canyon.

Decades later, Knievel, who died in 2007 at age 69, blamed rocket ship engineer Robert Truax for the failure. Truax was a former U.S. Navy engineer who developed concepts that led to high-profile projects such as the Polaris submarine mission and the military’s pre-NASA space programs, the Los Angeles Times reported when Truax died in 2010 at age 93. The New York Times called him one of the 20th century’s “premier rocket scientists.”

“I was so mad at that engineer. That guy was an idiot,” Knievel said in a 2005 documentary, “Absolute Evel.”

Because Knievel failed to cross the Snake River Canyon, the feat often gets overshadowed by the sideshow that took place around the jump. Knievel promised a weeklong festival complete with celebrities, a golf tournament and fun. Although the 50,000 spectators he said would show up didn’t materialize, those who came upset locals by skinny-dipping, partying excessively and fighting.

Knievel also allegedly left town without paying certain business debts.

Tim Woodward covered the 1974 attempt for the Statesman. In a 2007 column, he summed up his memories: “Far from historic, it was three days of insanity best forgotten.”

Stuntmen and daredevils certainly didn’t forget it, and 2014 was not the first time another jump had been proposed. Notably, Knievel’s son Robbie visited Twin Falls in the early ’90s and again in 2010 to tout a possible jump (the second time with a camera crew following him). Both times, his project went nowhere.

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Stuntman completes Knievel’s failed Snake River Canyon jump."