Opinion: Twin Falls Can do More to Honor Evel Knievel

His most famous stunt (or infamous because it failed) was in Twin Falls.  He called Butte, Montana home and, yet.  The best exhibit I’ve seen honoring Evel Knievel is at the High Desert Museum outside Bend, Oregon.  The museum has a gallery honoring daredevils from Knievel to Kitty O’Neil to Denny Edwards.  Oh, and Debbie Lawler.
In the pre-cable TV era, these people were all household names across the world.  Knievel was the biggest name of them all.  He, along with Muhammad Ali, helped make ABC’s Wide World of Sports a weekly American institution.  Unlike Ali, Knievel loved the flag and never failed to mention his love of country. 

There isn’t much in Twin Falls to remember him.  We’ve finally seen some repairs to the monument at the Visitors Center.  I’m convinced a great many people simply walk past it and pay it little attention.

One of my former coworkers told me several years ago there were people locally who wanted nothing to do with glare of the cameras back in 1974.  As if bringing in tourist and media money was somehow tragic for the local economy in the days before the jump.

For the rest of the world we waited with baited breath.  It wasn’t televised live from my recollection.  I had a radio on the front porch and my buddies from around the neighborhood gathered with me and we listened for bulletins.  I can remember the day and the weather and how we looked at the man as a truly heroic figure.  As we saw a few years ago with a successful jump the public interest is now diffuse and frayed.  It wasn’t at all like that 46 years ago.  The exhibit at the museum brought back some happy times.  Now can we do even more here to commemorate the great man?