Rescuers rush to help boaters pinned between rocks on edge of waterfall in Oregon
Two men got trapped in a boat filled with water at the edge of a waterfall in Oregon, deputies said.
Multiple people called 911 at about 3 p.m. Aug. 8 to report the stranded men on the Santiam River near Mill City, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post.
When rescuers got to the river, they saw the men “standing on the bow of a submerged drift boat pinned between rocks at the top edge of the falls,” deputies said.
The teams used rescue boats below the falls to reach the men in the fast-moving river and then brought them to the shoreline, deputies said.
They were both uninjured, deputies said, and they had been wearing life jackets at the time of the rescue.
The pair was out on the drift boat that day when they took a wrong path on the river, causing the “nose of the boat” to “hit the rocks,” the sheriff’s office told McClatchy News on Aug. 13 by email.
Drift boats are often used for fly fishing.
“Rivers can change quickly, and hazards like waterfalls, submerged rocks, and strong currents can be dangerous even for experienced boaters,” deputies said in the post.
Mill City is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Salem.
This story was originally published August 13, 2025 at 1:21 PM with the headline "Rescuers rush to help boaters pinned between rocks on edge of waterfall in Oregon."
