Searchers recover body of man who fell from canoe into Missouri River
by Kim Bell
St. Louis Post Dispach
May 18, 2022
ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Searchers have recovered the body of a man whose canoe capsized Sunday night in the Missouri River.
Crews with the Monarch Fire Protection District spotted the body of Caleb Gage about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Cpl. Dallas Thompson of the Missouri Highway Patrol.
The body was about 100 yards from a low-head dam near Howell Island Conservation Area where the canoe capsized. Authorities had gone over that very area in grid searches using sonar equipment on Monday and Tuesday, but apparently the victim resurfaced to be visible Wednesday morning, Thompson added.
Gage, 32, was from Ballwin. Gage was the father of a 4-year-old girl, said a friend, Andrea Voskuil.
Family of Man Who Died Canoeing Sue, Blaming Dangerous Dam
The family of a man who drowned on a canoe trip is suing two state agencies, alleging a dangerous dam was to blame
By Associated Press
April 9, 2023
U.S. News & World Report
CHESTERFIELD, Mo. (AP) — The family of a man who drowned on a canoe trip is suing two state agencies, alleging a dangerous dam was to blame.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Caleb Gage, of Ballwin, was 32 last May when his boat capsized near the St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield. His friend survived.
The suit, filed on behalf of his parents and young daughter, faults the Missouri Department of Conservation and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Both state departments are tasked with maintaining the Centaur Chute, a waterway that branches off the Missouri River along the Howell Island Conservation Area.
The suit said the low-head dam near where he capsized was in disrepair and the state failed to remove access to the chute or warn boaters of the unsafe conditions.
Low-head dams are known as “drowning machines" because they spawn powerful hydraulics that tend to catch objects, or people, that go over them. It can be a long time before whatever is caught works its way free.
