In a recent interview on Newstalk 107.9, Jay Calderwood shared a harrowing first-hand account of the Teton Dam collapse as Idaho observes the 50th anniversary of the catastrophe. Calderwood, who was working as a general excavation foreman at the time, was one of the last people on top of the dam before it gave way on June 5, 1976.
Speaking with hosts Neal Larson and Julie Mason, Calderwood described arriving at the site after receiving reports of a leak. He operated a D9 bulldozer, attempting to push massive rocks into a growing whirlpool in a desperate bid to slow the breach. Despite the crew’s efforts, the structural integrity of the dam failed rapidly. Calderwood recalled the moment the general superintendent felt the ground tremble and signaled for an immediate evacuation.
The escape was a matter of seconds and inches. Calderwood described backing his bulldozer toward the south abutment while the ground in front of him began to fall away. “I thought, oh man, I’m not going to make it,” Calderwood said, noting that 20-foot sections of the dam were sloughing off as the gap widened. He told the program that he considered jumping from the machine but realized he could move faster by staying in the cab and backing up at full speed. He reached the safety of the canyon wall just moments before the section he had been occupied on vanished into the rushing water.
From his vantage point on the side of the river, Calderwood watched the floodwaters engulf a two-story powerhouse and a nearby concrete plant. He described the sight of the water moving down the canyon, mowing down large cottonwood trees “like a haymower.” While 11 people lost their lives in the subsequent flooding of Sugar City and Rexburg, Calderwood noted that the project engineer assured him at the time that downstream residents had been notified as soon as the leak was discovered.
In the months following the disaster, Calderwood led a crew to reconstruct the railroad grade that had been destroyed by the surge. Reflecting on the personal impact, he described the emotional reunion with his family in Victor, Idaho, who spent hours without any means of knowing if he had survived the collapse.
