Thirty-Five Years Later, Great Smoky Mountain National Park Rangers Still Being Thanked for Rescue

Published Date

December 2, 2009

Mrs. Johnson was joined by Supt. Dale Ditmanson and Ranger Bob Wightman when she dropped off a Poinsettia in 2004. NPS photo.

Can you ever say "thanks" enough to those who have saved your life or the life of a family member or friend? The parents of two 15-year-old Boy Scouts who were stranded in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by a blizzard 35 years ago evidently don't think so.

Eric Johnson and Randy Laws, both Eagle Scouts, went into the park during Thanksgiving weekend 1974 to hike a stretch of the Appalachian Trail. They were stranded at the Tricorner Knob Shelter along the trail when a storm dumped several feet of snow and whipped up drifts approaching 5 feet. When the boys' parents discovered the storm had closed the Newfound Gap Road and prevented them from meeting the boys at a predetermined trailhead, they turned to park rangers to help find their sons.

The deep snows hampered ground searchers, some of who turned to snowmobiles only to have them bog down in the fresh snow. On December 3, 1974, three days after the boys headed down the AT, they were spotted near the shelter by a Chinook helicopter crew from Fort Campbell, a U.S. Army airborne base in Tennessee. The crew, along with rangers from the park, were able to hoist the boys into the hovering Chinook and whisk them to safety.

Every December 3 since, Eric Johnson's parents have visited park headquarters to deliver the finest Poinsettia plant that they could find to thank the rangers for their work. While Eric's dad, Harry Johnson, has passed away, his mother, Wannetta, continues the practice.

"Even though she recognizes that nobody involved in that 1974 rescue are still here, she still comes to thank the park for saving Eric and, symbolically, for saving hundreds of other lost and injured people since then," park officials said this week. "Rangers who were here for that rescue felt like it was no big deal, just part of the job. But to Wannetta it was huge."

On Thursday when Mrs. Johnson stops by the park she'll be accompanied by her son, who went on to become a Drug Enforcement Administration agent. If you're near the park's Sugarlands headquarters on Thursday, the Johnsons plan to stop in around 11 a.m. to drop off this year's Poinsettia. Park officials plan to recognize the occasion with cake and coffee, so feel free to stop in and say "Merry Christmas."

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