Many years ago this event happened. It went down in drilling history and will be remembered by me now.

We were doing some pier borings for a new bridge that was going to be built across the St. Croix from Stillwater to Wisconsin. It was an overcast day, a Saturday I believe, and there was the threat of rain! “Heavy rain” they said!

Well, we sat on the shoreline a bit debating what we should do? Eventually we loaded our boat and started out to our drill which was on a barge in the middle of the river. We got half way to the barge and the rain started to come down in sheets. You could only see a few feet and the wind was horrendous. We barely were able to board the barge once we got there! 

I was the first to board the barge and we were completely soaked. Next to board was Donny D. and last to board the barge was Donny P. (who would later be known as Donk the Great)! 

Once we were on the barge, I opened the big doors on the back of our tool truck so we could take shelter from the torrential downpour. The hurricane level winds were rocking us around out on the river.

We were in the back of the truck when I glanced over to where we had landed and I couldn’t see our boat? It was nowhere in sight!! We asked each other who tied the boat up? But each of us thought another had secured it and no one had!!! UH OH! 

Well, the rain continued the rest of the day as we waited in the drill cab and the tool truck cab! We were going to call for help but someone left the phone in the pickup on shore? UH OH! Now our only hope was to spot a fisherman coming down the river. We might be able to hail him with flashing lights on the trucks and a lot of horn honking!!!! Only one fisherman came by on the far side of the river and he was looking down because of the rain! We were totally marooned in the middle of the river!

As we gathered again in the back of our tool truck, I had an inspiration and I put it to my fellow river rats? 

I told Donny D. and Donny P. that I could empty the mud tanks we used for drilling, lash them together and row them to shore for our rescue or to find our boat! 

We dumped our tanks that were full of water strapped them together, and I lowered them over the side of the barge with the drill. Two grates we used to stand on when in soggy ground were turned into a makeshift seat! This sure looked like it might work???

This was my idea, so I volunteered to man this craft. I put two life vests on!! One in front and one on backwards. I lowered myself in to the craft and sat down. I was handed a No. 2 square nose shovel which was to be my oar, and there was no more than 1 inch of the craft above water? I had exceeded the crafts capacity!!

Out I climbed and we were contemplating our next move when Donny P. said “LET ME TRY!” 

He put on the vests, got in the craft and there were 3 inches of boat above the water! He took the oar (that No. 2 shovel) and he pointed the craft towards the Wisconsin shoreline and started rowing at an incredible speed! We knew at this time (those of us left on the barge) that we were pretty sure we were witnessing SUPER SWEDES Viking Ancestry kicking in. For a moment in the pouring rain we thought we saw a Viking in a long ship?

Well to our disbelief SUPER SWEDE made it to the shore without sinking! Donny D. and I could hardly believe it? Then we saw Donk head towards the direction of the lift bridge that ran from Stillwater to Wisconsin. He went around a bend and out of sight. He had a long walk to get back to our pickup on the Minnesota side of the river.

It was quite a period of time and then in the distance we could see and hear a small boat coming in our direction? It was SUPER SWEDE? But he wasn’t in our boat, he was in someone else’s smaller boat? Wow Donny D. and I thought he may have raided another party somewhere beyond that point? He was from Viking ancestry you know! 

Well it proved to be something simpler than that when he got to the barge, he informed us that he came upon a young couple in a tent up the river. They were having a secluded get away when Donk happened upon them. They had found this spot while traveling up the river in their little boat.

Donk told them of our situation and offered them $20 dollars if he could borrow their dingy and they said YES.

Well I went with Donk and we found our boat farther up the river, so I manned that and followed Donk back to the young couples tent! Then we went down the river to our mud tanks or as we now called them Donk‘s long ship and we towed them back to the barge. We secured our equipment and thought we should count our blessings and call it a day. We couldn’t take much more excitement than what we already had had! 

Some time later when Super retired he was given a rendition of that day in the pouring rain going to shore in the mud tanks (long ship).

This took place a few years before Donk the Great took the LEAP OF FAITH on the St. Louis River in Cloquet, MN. More on this coming soon!