Snake River Canyon defies daredevil Evel Knievel 40 years ago this hour (Sep 8 1974)


Video: 'Snake River Canyon jump 1973-EVEL KNIEVEL Awesome video!!'

(Sunday, September 8, 1974, 3:36 p.m. MDT) — With much media fanfare, daredevil Evel Knievel tried and failed to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon today on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle.

His drogue parachute malfunctioned and opened on take-off. Evel and his contraption floated to the bottom of the canyon, landing on the riverbank directly below his launch ramp.