Innertubing on Deep Creek

In the summer of 1980, my wife Susan, daughter Dawn, son Chris and I went on vacation to the Smoky Mountains. Dawn was 5, Chris was 2. We spent a night camping in a campground in North Carolina next to a small winding creek named Deep Creek. Right outside the park, innertubes were available for rent for a couple of dollars apiece. Susan stayed at the campsite with Chris while Dawn and I rented a tube apiece. We walked, rolling the tubes, past our campsite and up to a bridge about a quarter of a mile up stream.

The water was very shallow and very cold. Dawn sat down on her tube while I got situated on my tube. We held hands as we started floating slowly with the current. As we came to larger rocks, we bounced from side to side on the water. Before very long we came to a spot that was too shallow for me. I became grounded. I let go of Dawn while I stood up and away she floated.

Suddenly, without me holding her back, she picked up speed. She floated faster than what I could follow as the water got deeper. I began to lose ground and she floated around a bend in the creek. I panicked, got out of the river and tried to run ahead to catch her. I could have been the inspiration for the O.J. Simpson commercials as I leaped over campfires and cooler trying to keep track of where Dawn was. I would look into the creek and not see her, but not know if I was ahead or behind her. When I arrived back at our campsite, Susan was sitting next to the creek waiting for us.

Susan quickly determined that I didn't have Dawn and didn't know where she was. I started running back the other direction when a couple of older folks waved me down. Are you looking for this little girl, they asked. Talk about relief. I don't understand how one little girl could just disappear that quick.