On the afternoon of Monday, May 23, 1960, a one-ton truck missed a curve on the Mink Creek road south of Pocatello and dropped down an embankment. Its driver was Neil S. Miller, 65, a schoolteacher at Arbon. Miller came out of the cab, and it was over two hours before anyone found him there, hurt, close by the wreck. The Idaho State Journal gave the story a short column on its front page the next day, beside the news of the failed Paris summit, the tidal waves from the Chilean earthquake and the arrest of Adolf Eichmann.
The Mink Creek road was one of Arbon Valley's old ways to town. It climbed Mink Creek canyon from the Pocatello side, crossed the divide into the Crystal country and came down into the valley, and in the 1920s the valley's mail came in over it. It had seen a wreck before: in 1925 the motor stage carrying the Arbon mail went off the road into the creek. The story of the road in the 1920s and the 1925 stage wreck are told elsewhere on this site.
The investigating officer was Kenneth Wharton, the chief deputy sheriff. The paper does not name his county, but the canyon was in Bannock County, and a 1964 article in which Wharton said he would file for sheriff of Oneida County says he had been a deputy and chief deputy for Bannock County, so this is very probably the same man. By Wharton's reckoning the truck left the road sometime between 3 and 3:30 that afternoon, roughly three miles past the ranger station. Judging by the scene, the paper said, Miller had probably dozed off, though it does not say who made that call. The 1952 truck never made the bend. Over the bank it went, and it was 56 feet out before it hit anything. It was a total loss.
Miller was seen at about 5:30. The article is not consistent about who found him: its opening paragraph gives the credit to a motorist driving by, while further down it is lumber workers. They may have been the same people. He ended up at St. Anthony Hospital, where the Tuesday paper put his condition at fair.
That is all the paper said, and much is unknown. It does not say which school he taught, where he lived, or whether he was driving toward the valley or away from it, and it does not describe his injuries. No later report of his recovery has been found, and Neil S. Miller does not appear anywhere else in the newspapers searched for this site or in its family records. If you know more about him or his years teaching at Arbon, the site would be glad to hear from you.
On this site: the valley's schools and the Arbon community.
The story as reported
Idaho State Journal, May 24, 1960, page 1. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.
An Arbon teacher, Neil S. Miller, 65, was hurt on Monday when his truck crashed up Mink Creek, and more than two hours went by before anyone came along and found him near the wreck. St. Anthony Hospital gave his condition as fair on Tuesday.
It was about 5:30 p.m. when someone finally saw him. The story's lead gives the credit to a motorist who happened by; a later paragraph gives it to lumber workers.
The wreck happened on the Mink Creek road, roughly three miles beyond the ranger station. Kenneth Wharton, the chief deputy sheriff who looked into it, placed the time at about 3 to 3:30 p.m.
The paper said the scene suggested Miller had dozed off while driving, though it did not say whose judgment that was. The truck did not make a bend. It went off the edge and down the bank, airborne for 56 feet before it came down, and its driver did not stay in the cab.
The truck, a one-ton of the 1952 model year, was wrecked beyond repair.