Accident Database

Report ID#69040

2001-06-30
accident date
Richard Cook
victim
70
victim age
Tatonduk
river
23 miles Upstream from Eagle, AK
section
n/a
location
n/a
gage
Medium
water level
I
river difficulty
Unknown
cause code(s)
Does not Apply
injury type(s)
Solo Paddling
factors
Private
trip type
Other
boat type
status?
status

Description

Sometime in late June Richard Cook, 70, flipped a motorized canoe on Alaska’s Tatonduk River. Cook was far from inexperienced. He had been living a subsistence lifestyle in a rustic riverside cabin about 23 miles upriver from Eagle, Alaska. The canoe was his primary mode of summer travel. When residents reported him missing the National Park Service began an intensive search. According to the NPS Morning Report his canoe was found swamped and overturned several miles below the cabin. It’s not clear what caused the accident. His body was recovered on June 25th. CW