Woman survives harrowing Mother's Day ordeal in PacifiCorp canal

Mother’s Day was a special bonding experience for Eve Holthausen and her son.

But it’s not a day she’d care to relive.

Holthausen was walking with her son and her dogs on Mother’s Day along the Pacific Park trail in Bigfork. 

The park is popular with hikers and people who walk their dogs in open space. The trail from the park crosses a bridge, and tall steps lead down to the Swan River. Another trail winds along the water channel, which eventually leads to turbines in the Bigfork power house.

One of her black Labradors, Walter, fell into the water over a concrete embankment, and Eve went into the water to help the dog.

Quickly she and the dog were swept downstream in the concrete channel, and through a narrow gate where she was forced underwater.

“As soon as I got into the water I could tell there was no bottom,” she said. “I held on to the dog, but we kept going under. If I had been a child, or had been by myself, that would have been it. It just happened so fast.”

Holthausen scraped and clawed at the side of the channel, trying to get a purchase on the slick wall, but to no avail. “There was nothing for me to grab on to,” she said. “I was rubbing my fingertips raw and Jason couldn’t reach me.”

Coming out on the downstream side of the bridge she heard her son shout “Mom! Grab my hand!”

Jason was able to pull his mother to safety, while the dog was swept further downstream and out of sight in the concrete channel. 

“We thought he was gone, and we never were going to see him again,” Jason said. 

The Holthausens went to the Bigfork power house and found a worker who eventually found Walter, cold but safe, next to Jason’s baseball cap on the shore. 

 “We got our dog back, which was a miracle,” Jason said. “They said they had rescued two or three dogs from the dam before.”

Three days after the incident, Eve was still shaken. She returned to the park for the first time and recounted her son’s rescue efforts.

She looked at the small gate that she passed through underwater. On one side of the channel a grate collected sticks and logs. Next to the grate the stream is forced through a narrow concrete chute. “Oh my God I can’t believe I went through there,” she said, stepping gingerly near the water.

“We like it here because there’s not a lot of people here and we can let our dogs run free,” Eve said. 

She said people need to be careful around the channel and not go in the water, especially those who can’t swim.

“I’m not a swimmer,” she said. “I haven’t swam since my Jersey days 20 years ago.” 

The family has had the dogs for 11 years and they are dear family pets. Walter is Sheba’s puppy. Walter is a bit overweight, and with a gray muzzle he looks his age. “I knew she was going to help Walter any way she could,” Jason said. 

When his mother and the dog were being swept downstream, Jason rushed into the nearby cottonwoods to find a tree branch to rescue them. “I tried to help them out, but the sticks just snapped,” he said. “I realized I was not going to be able to get them out. I waited on the other side of the bridge, and she came out of the water at the right time.” 

As the Holthausens were walking along the trail Thursday, other people arrived, letting their dogs swim in the swift, cold water above the headgate. Eve and Jason looked visibly upset.

“It was a blessing Walter made it out alive, and me,” Eve said. “If it had been just me and the dogs, I would not have made it.”