RESCUE WORKERS AWAIT DAWN ... Gear and ropes ready this rescue crew organized by the sheriff's office awaits daylight before attempting to haul 15-year-old Guy Rockefeller to safety. Standing in rear is Deputy Sheriff John D. Anderson who plunged about 500 feet to his death after effecting the rescue of young Rockefeller. Others, right to left, are Arnold Carrillo, special deputy, Guy Rockefeller Sr., Deputy Ben Gonzales, Sgt. Harry Brannon, of the sheriff's office, and Harry Green.
HOW RESCUE ROPE WAS PASSED TO young Rockefeller. Top circle indicates base of operations. Center circle shows Deputy Anderson, working on a ledge 25 feet above the stranded youth. Anderson passed the rope to young Rockefeller (lower circle) and helped hand the boy to safety before falling to his death.
In 1948, a youth stuck on a ledge in Sabino Canyon was rescued unhurt. However, one of his rescuers wasn't so lucky.
The 15-year-old boy had to spend the night on a ledge that was so narrow he couldn't lie down. As uncomfortable as that must have been, he had at least made the cautious decision to stay put when he was unable to get a good foothold to climb down.
In the morning, one of his rescuers was able to get him to safety, but as he climbed up, he lost his hold on the rope and fell 500 feet to his death.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 1948:
John D. Anderson, 33, investigator for the Pima county sheriff's office, plunged 500 feet to his death in Upper Sabino Canyon yesterday morning a few moments after he had effected the rescue of a 15-year-old Tucson boy trapped for 14 hours on a ledge in the rocky canyon.
The boy, Guy L. Rockefeller Jr., son of G. L. Rockefeller Sr., employe of the Unit Laundry, was hauled to safety by a rescue party a few seconds after the deputy sheriff's body had plunged into a pool at the bottom of the canyon. The body was not recovered until 5:40 p.m.
Anderson, a veteran law enforcement officer despite his comparative youth and an excellent mountain climber although he wore an artificial leg as a result of a motorcycle accident in his high school days, had volunteered to descend into the canyon to a ledge 25 feet above the one to which young Rockefeller clung. This was necessary because the upper ledge rendered it impossible for rescuers to drop a rope to the boy.
A rope around his waist, the deputy sheriff descended to the top ledge, which was 25 feet below the rescue party and 25 feet above the boy. Unfastening the rope, he lowered it to the youth, who placed it around his own waist. He then was hauled to the upper ledge beside Anderson.
Apparently believing that the rescue party above him would need help in pulling young Rockefeller to safety, Anderson started climbing up the face of the cliff, clutching the rope still affixed to the boy's waist in one hand and grabbing on to protruding rocks with the other. He had ascended 10 feet when the rope slipped sideways in a crack on the face of the cliff and Anderson lost his grip upon it. For an instant he clawed desperately to regain his hold and then plunged to his death.
Sam Levitz, photographer for The Arizona Daily Star, was the sole eyewitness to the tragedy, standing 500 feet below on the canyon floor 50 feet from the pool of water into which the deputy's body hurled.
Levitz had spent the night with the rescue party in Sabino Canyon and then, at daybreak, had forced his way up the creek bed to a point below where young Rockefeller perched precariously on a ledge approximately 500 feet above the canyon floor. The scene of the accident is 14 miles northeast of Tucson in the Catalina mountains and a mile and a half beyond the end of the road into the Canyon.
"I watched Anderson descend to a ledge about 25 feet below from where the rescue party was stationed and the same distance above Rockefeller," Levitz related. "He lowered the rope and the boy tied it around his own waist and was then pulled up beside Deputy Anderson.
"As he gained Anderson's side Rockefeller slumped to the ground and it seemed to me that he had collapsed. Then Anderson started climbing up the face of the cliff, holding on the rope with one hand and bracing himself on jutting rocks with the other.
"He had gone up about 10 feet when the rope literally seemed to jerk itself out of his hand. What had happened was that the tope had worked to the left from its original position into a crack in the face of the cliff. I don't know just how it occurred but possibly the rock could have crumbled and the rope went deeper into the crevice.
"Anderson clutched frantically for the rope for an instant and then started to fall. His body struck three or four ledges on its way down, each time with a sickening thud that sounded above the noise made by the rapids in the creek at that point.
"The body struck the last ledge about 75 or 80 feet above the pool and then plunged directly into the water. I was standing about 50 feet away from the pool with my camera and as I ran toward the water I saw the body come to the surface once and then disappear.
"Although the body was in the air only a few seconds it seemed like an eternity to me and I focused my camera and snapped the shutter once as it plunged downward. I didn't know until I developed the plate whether I had gotten a picture."
The recovery of Anderson's body took nearly seven hours of long and arduous work under difficult conditions. As the search continued Sheriff Martin's staff was increased by the addition of all the deputies that were not on duty. Also Sam Sloan mobilized all of the special deputies on Martin's force. Later a group of 73 soldiers from Davis-Monthan plus officers and military police were added to the group. A Red Cross unit under the direction of Mrs. Downey, aided by Mrs. Humphries and Mrs. Lundberg took over the feeding of the workers.
The search was held up at first when the deputies were misled by a boy who said he saw the body fall into one of the crevices in the canyon walls. However, Levitz was able to tell them that the body had hit in the pool at the base of the canyon.
Anderson's body hit in a small pool and then was carried out by the force of the stream into the deepest pool in the whole canyon, knows as the "old dam site pool."
With a party of four divers, barney Armstrong, Jerry Martin Jr., Red Hill and a volunteer life guard called "Buster" the work went on. As the divers would tire, the men with grappling hooks, Arnold Carrillo, Auturo Estrella, Bud Brannon, Earl Seal, Joe Hill, and Wesley Dunn would go to work. At 4:50 Dunn, a merchant patrolman, on his third cast succeeded in finding the body under the overhanging rocks on the western side of the pool.
At this point the D-M soldiers arrived and were instrumental in carrying the body to the road on the canyon rim. A helicopter had been on deck to bring the body out but the canyon thermals made it impossible to get the 'copter down into the canyon, so that pilot, Charles Marthens, used his craft only to bring water up to the workers over a trail that took over an hour to walk, but only five or six minutes to fly.
The exact time of the accident was determined when Anderson's battered body was recovered with his crushed watch had stopped at 8:32.
After the recovery, Sheriff Martin made the plea that parents keep their children out of the area that has been called unsafe.
Rockefeller Senior, who resides at 848 East Sixth street, took his son and six other boys of the same age to a camp site in Sabino canyon Sunday afternoon and left them, saying he would return for them early in the evening.
The pool into which Deputy Anderson later was to plunge was reached, and the six boys, Wilbur French, Freddie Thomas, Roy Brown, Freddie Rico, Robert Fasio and Willie Sillik ─ all students at the Roskruge Junior High school ─ decided to go in swimming.
Young Rockefeller alone demurred and announced that he was going up on the mountain side. Accordingly, he set out and by 5 p.m. had reached the narrow ledge 500 feet above the canyon floor. Then he found that he was unable to proceed further. Neither could he descend, as some of the stepping stones he had used in his climb had slid out beneath him.
The boys debated for some time as to what to do and were handicapped by the fact that the noise of the rapids drowned out directions called to them by the trapped youth. Finally, young French volunteered to hike to the U. S, forest ranger's lookout post, five miles away over rough terrain.
French arrived at the ranger post at 7:25 p.m. and called the sheriff's office. Deputy Sheriff Ben Gonzales left immediately for the canyon and was joined later by Investigator Anderson, and Deputies Harry Brannon, Earl Seals. Richard Prince and Arnold Carrillo.
The father already had returned to the canyon and he, the deputies and the six boys kept an all-night vigil awaiting daylight to attempt the rescue. Then the party followed a torturous trail to the point just above where young Rockefeller was perched, a ledge so narrow that when seated his feet hung over the edge.
The deputies had a 300-foot length of rope and a half-dozen attempts were made to throw the end over the upper ledge and down to the boy. When these proved futile Anderson volunteered to descend to the first ledge and effect the rescue. This he did and he was only 15 feet from the top and safety when death struck suddenly and terribly.
Sheriff Jerome P. Martin left immediately for Sabino Canyon when informed of Anderson's death and directed the search for the body. Meanwhile, a young woman who identified herself as Anderson's bride of 11 months, the former Miss Bonnie Morton, took up her vigil at the sheriff's office and did not leave until a radio report on the recovery of the body was received.
Born in Shelbyville, Mo., Investigator Anderson came to Tucson as a boy. It was while a student at the Tucson high school and a motorcycle enthusiast that he was involved in an accident with an automobile that cost him his right leg just below the knee.
Early seeking a career as a law enforcement officer, Anderson served for two years as a jailer under the late Sheriff John F. Belton. Then followed two years as a special delivery letter carrier for the Tucson postoffice, followed by four years as a member of the Merchants Police Patrol under M. T. Guiney, present undersheriff of Pima county.
Despite the handicap of an artificial leg, Anderson received an appointment as a city patrolman in December, 1943, and served until July, 1946, when he rejoined the merchant patrol. When Martin became sheriff January 1, 1947, he immediately appointed Anderson as investigator for his office.
"The loss of Anderson is a genuine one," Sheriff Martin said last night. "He was a skilled investigator and a fearless one. I know that he died as he would have preferred to die ─ in the performance of his duty. He was a courageous officer and a fine one.
Besides his wife, Anderson, who resided at 51 South Grand avenue, is survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Anderson, 803 East Seventh street, and two brothers, James Jr. and Roger B. Anderson.
The rescued youth related his version of the events later the same day from his home, where one might imagine he had a few more sleepless nights.
"Suddenly he lost his footing. With his hands clutching the rope, he slipped down about two feet. Then he let go and fell out and backwards into the canyon. He didn't yell or say a word."
In those words Guy Rockefeller Jr. told what he saw from his position some eight feet below John Anderson, sheriff's investigator, who fell to his death yesterday morning while effecting Rockefeller's rescue.
Remarkably calm after his harrowing experience, the youth told his story last night, interrupted only by telephone calls from anxious friends. The boy's father, Guy Rockefeller, Sr., 848 East Sixth street, had taken his son and six other youths up as far as the third bridge in Sabino canyon yesterday afternoon. After unloading watermelon, pop, hot dogs, ice and other picnic necessities, Rockefeller Sr. returned to town, promising to meet the boys at that spot at 8 p.m.
After eating, the party followed the stream up the mountain. About 4:30 p.m. they came to a pond formed by waters cascading into a plateau at the foot of a cliff.
"The other boys had swimming suits," said Guy, "but I didn't. They decided to go in for a swim, and I started climbing the cliff to see how high I could get. After about a 30-minute climb, I sat down to rest on a ledge about four feet long and three feet wide. Looking down, I could see the pool about 400 feet below me; the cliff seemed to go straight up above me. I tried to go down, but when I couldn't get a foothold, I decided I'd better stay where I was."
Guy then called down to his swimming buddies. Wilbur French volunteered to go to the ranger station near the mouth of the stream for help. The sheriff's department was notified and deputies were sent out, but decided to wait until morning to attempt the rescue.
"I was cold and scared. The ledge was so narrow that I couldn't lie down. I had to sit there until early morning. Once or twice an hour my father and the deputies would call to me and tell me not to worry," said Guy.
Rockefeller Sr. had come to the appointed meeting place at 8 p.m. When he didn't see the boys he drove up to the head of the canyon looking for them. He spent the night with the deputies, 400 feet below the stranded youth.
In the morning, as soon as there was enough light, the rescue party started climbing, looking for a way to reach Guy. It was finally decided that they climb to the top of the mountain and lower a rope. In order to reach Guy with the rope, Anderson had to climb down to a ledge some 25 feet above the boy.
"I could see three men on the ground apparently giving directions. Suddenly I saw a rope drop from the cliff above me. I was told to tie it around my waist. The rope wouldn't reach me while I sat down, so I stood up, wrapped it around me, and tied it with one big know. It wasn't long enough to tie any more knots.
"Then they started pulling me up. Straight up. I cut my arm when I banged against the side of the cliff. When I got to the ledge directly above me, a deputy (Anderson) gave me a hand. From here we started climbing. The deputy would go ahead of me, hanging on to the rope until he was eight or ten feet above me. Then he would have the men at the top pull me up to him. They couldn't see us, and pulled only when he asked them to.
"The deputy seemed nervous, and that made me kind of scared. When he's start to climb, he'd have to hold his foot to keep it from slipping. Then, when he was about eight feet above me, he fell. I watched him go down. I'd heard the name of the man he'd been calling to pull up on the rope, so I called out and asked them to haul me up."
When he got to the top, Guy was asked where Anderson was. They also wanted to know if a boulder had made the noise falling into the canyon. Said Guy, "They wouldn't believe me when I said that the noise was the deputy falling. They said they hadn't wanted him to go down after me, but that he'd insisted."
Guy is 15 years old and a ninth grade student at Roskruge junior high school. An only child he has lived in Tucson with his father since 1942. Rockefeller Sr. works for the Unit Laundry and Dry Cleaning company.
It is likely small consolation to his widow that Anderson died a hero, but we present this story again to remember him and his bravery.
Johanna Eubank is a digital producer for the Arizona Daily Star and tucson.com. She has been with the Star in various capacities since 1991.
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Johanna Eubank is a digital producer for the Arizona Daily Star and tucson.com. She has been with the Star in various capacities since 1991.
RESCUE WORKERS AWAIT DAWN ... Gear and ropes ready this rescue crew organized by the sheriff's office awaits daylight before attempting to haul 15-year-old Guy Rockefeller to safety. Standing in rear is Deputy Sheriff John D. Anderson who plunged about 500 feet to his death after effecting the rescue of young Rockefeller. Others, right to left, are Arnold Carrillo, special deputy, Guy Rockefeller Sr., Deputy Ben Gonzales, Sgt. Harry Brannon, of the sheriff's office, and Harry Green.
HOW RESCUE ROPE WAS PASSED TO young Rockefeller. Top circle indicates base of operations. Center circle shows Deputy Anderson, working on a ledge 25 feet above the stranded youth. Anderson passed the rope to young Rockefeller (lower circle) and helped hand the boy to safety before falling to his death.
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