ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Minn. — A massive search effort is underway in northeastern Minnesota for two missing paddlers after a pair of canoes went over well-known falls in the BWCA.
Planes have been grounded all day Tuesday in the vicinity of Curtain Falls and Iron Lake due to forecasts of bad weather. Law enforcement officials say crews will camp in the area so they can continue their search for the men who disappeared Saturday night.
The St. Louis County Sheriff's Office says a 911 caller contacted dispatchers from Iron Lake in the popular canoe wilderness area just before 7:30 p.m. to report a water emergency. The caller said two canoes had gone over Curtain Falls between Iron and Crooked Lakes, leaving one paddler badly injured and two others unaccounted for.
Sheriff's officials have identified the missing men as 40-year-old Reis Melvin Grams of Lino Lakes, and 41-year-old Jesse Melvin Haugen of Cambridge.
"He's just a good man... I need my husband to come home," Reis' wife Angie Grams told KARE 11 Monday.
Grams said Reis goes up to Curtain Falls, on the border of Minnesota and Canada, every year to go fishing. She shared what investigators and others on the trip say happened.
One of the canoes fishing above the falls got into trouble, in what is reported to be fast-running current. Angie said her husband and his brother Erik tried to help. Both men went down Curtain Falls. Erik suffered injuries but was pulled from the water. Reis is still unaccounted for. Both canoes were recovered but the lifejackets were not, leaving Angie Grams hanging on to a thread of hope.
"I'm just waiting for a call, saying, 'He's on the shore, he's hurt, but we found him,'" she said.
Angie's sister-in-law has started a GoFundMe for the families of the two missing canoeists. "This tragic accident has left the families with emotional, spiritual and financial need," Laura Grams wrote in her post. "This event has changed the lives of all involved including the wives and young children of these two amazing men with a love for adventure and the outdoors."
Sheriff's officials said a DNR helicopter arrived on the scene around 12:30 a.m. Sunday and removed an injured paddler and another person from the wilderness. At daylight, the St. Louis County Rescue Squad was mobilized to search for the missing paddlers.
Commander Nate Skelton of the St. Louis County Sheriff's Department said the group involved in the incident is made up of experienced paddlers who reportedly were fishing near the top of the falls when one of the canoes got into trouble and the other tried to help. Four people in the two canoes ended up going over the falls.
Skelton said about a dozen members of the rescue squad are on site, with some working the shoreline while others use remote-operated vehicles (small underwater subs with cameras) and drones in hopes of locating the missing men. "Not many better-trained individuals," he said.
The commander also reported that a number of family members and friends have come up to the region but are not on the search site, as Curtain Falls is a 10- to 12-mile paddle from both Ely and the Crane Lake area.
In a Facebook post, the rescue squad noted that two families and a wide circle of friends are "devastated" by the events at Curtain Falls, also reporting that three members of the canoeing party – two injured paddlers, and one uninjured – had been evacuated from the remote setting.
"We are still in 24-hour operation," read the post, which was put up Sunday evening. "Members ran search sorties this evening until it was too dark to see, and are sleeping on the ground tonight in order to be up to run more sorties at first light. An Advanced Base Camp is staffed all night to 'keep an ear on' those in the field. Curtain Falls is extremely difficult to access, and we are depending heavily on our aviation partners to transport equipment, supplies and personnel in and out of the backcountry."
Due to the intense activity onsite, the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the BWCA, has issued an emergency closure for all portages, trails and lakes that lead into Iron Lake, including the LaCroix Bottle portage, LaCroix Iron portage and Crooked Lake west of Sunday Bay. Those closures will remain in effect until Wednesday unless a change is posted.
KARE 11 is following this developing story and will have the latest information when it becomes available.
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