1978
September 8
Gary Roden, 29, of Enumclaw, Washington, asks Ranger Hank Tanski for permission to leave his pack at the Visitor Center for a few hours while he explored the Rim Village area. When Gary did not return by closing time, Hank left a message and phone number on the door of the center and took the pack to Headquarters, returning to the Rim area several times during the evening, in search of Roden. Several days later, Hank discovered a postcard of Wizard Island in Roden’s pack saying, “I are on the island, and I’m not coming back alone.” This note, plus the report of several visitors say they had seen movement on the Island, prompted Tanski and Rick Kirchner to attempt a rescue in the Park’s Zodiac Raft which first required carrying the boat down the Cleetwood Lake Trail. As the craft arrived outside the boathouse, the door was flung open and Roden asked, “Are you looking for someone?”
Roden claims to have swum over to the Island with the idea of committing suicide by swallowing drugs, including cocaine. Roden had a change of heart and supposedly burned the drugs. He spent his first two nights in the Island’s crater, the next two nights under the trees and one night in the boat house. He also thought that the Island would be a quiet place to play his silver flute, which he had brought with him. Roden stated that the water was two cold to swim back, and waited five days for his rescue. The only food Gary was able to find was a shriveled up orange in one of the boathouses. On the way back to Cleetwood, as Hank was offering Roden part of his lunch, he asked Hank, “Are there any fish in the Lake?” Since this is the number one question asked by visitors and since Hank had heard the question all summer, he said he felt like pushing Roden overboard. It was later determined that Roden was a mental patient from Salem.
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12-11-2013, 03:04 AM
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