Take it from an eyewitness: "Jump" was a chaotic mess
woodwardcolumn@hotmail.comSeptember 27, 2013   This column was
originally published in the Idaho Statesman Dec. 1, 2007  Seen
from the vantage point of 33 years later, Evel Knievel's 1974
"jump" over the Snake River Canyon is thought by some to have
been historic.  It wasn't. It was chaos.  I was there. Part of a
team sent to cover the event, I spent three days in Twin Falls
as the crowd grew in size and volatility.  It was, in the
terminology of the day, a "happening." Spectators and groupies
came by the thousands from all over the country, bringing drugs,
alcohol and nudity in profusion. It was Woodstock without the
music.  Or the peace and love.  As the countdown to Knievel's
launch grew shorter, tempers did the same. Conflicts between
conservative locals and free-wheeling visitors were commonplace.
It was oppressively hot and crowded, and that combined with
substance abuse turned a segment of the crowd ugly.  People
broke into beer trucks and threw u