The Vidette

The body of a 61-year old California hunter has been recovered after he fell into Canyon River north of Brady on Friday Oct. 21.

According to Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office Chief Criminal Deputy Steve Shumate, the hunter had been crossing the river on a zip line when he fell into the water.

“The zip line has been there for years. It’s one of those zip lines where you sit and hold on and it zips halfway, and then when you reach the bottom of the dip, you have to reach up to the rope and pull yourself the rest of the way,” Shumate explained. “The hunter was unfamiliar with that type of zip line and when he got halfway across he reached up and let go of the middle bar, lost his balance and fell backward.”

The man was with a party of hunters. Some members of the hunting party had made it across.

Shumate did not know who may have installed the zip line.

On Monday, Shumate said he had received reports that the area is owned by Green Diamond Resource Company, which prohibits zip lines.

Patti Case, public affairs manager for Green Diamond Resource Company, confirmed that zip lines are prohibited.

“It is private property. And just as I would not allow somebody to build a zip line on my property without permission, that is not allowed on our property either,” Case said. “We will be removing that zip line, and we do remove other unauthorized structures on our land as well when we run across them.”

“This was a very tragic accident, and this is exactly why we do not allow such structures to be built on our property,” Case added.

The location is about a mile and a half up Kelly Road from Boundary Road in Montesano, 15 miles north of Brady.

The hunter fell in the water at about 8 a.m. It wasn’t until 9:40 a.m. that the hunters could call for help.

“Unfortunately, it took some time before the other hunters could get out to cell service,” Shumate said.

Search efforts were hampered throughout Friday. Deputies responded with a department vessel and were able to launch in the general incident area, but the river was so swollen with recent heavy rainfall it was unable to search beyond the launch area. Fish &Wildlife sent an aircraft to the scene, but poor weather halted the air search.

At about 3:45 p.m. on Friday, the hunter’s body was found downstream. Due to the time of day and conditions, the body could not be removed when it was discovered. The body was removed on Saturday at about noon.

Grays Harbor County Coroner Lane Youmans identified the hunter as Steven Davis of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., following an autopsy on Monday.

Dan Hammock of the Grays Harbor Newspaper Group contributed to this report.