50 years after the flood, the faces behind an iconic photo return to Rexburg
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REXBURG – Eleven high school kids look at the camera as Main Street in Rexburg is seen in the background buried under 5 feet of water.
This is one of the iconic images from June 5, 1976 — the day the Teton Dam collapsed.
On Friday, 50 years to the day the photo was taken, most of the group reunited at 2nd East and Main, two blocks west of the original location, to re-enact the photo.
“The trees on 3rd East had grown to the point that it obscured the view of Main Street,” Brent Gibson, one of the guys pictured in the photo, tells EastIdahoNews.com.
Two of the guys in the original photo were not there. One of them recently died.
Brent’s brother, Brian, is pictured on the far left and Brent is the guy crouching down in the middle, touching his knees. Rett Nelson spoke with the Gibson brothers on a recent episode of “It’s Worth Mentioning” about their memories of that day and how the photo came about. Watch it in the video above.
Steve Wasden, who took the original photo, is pictured in the retake on the far right. He’s also featured in the interview above. Carson Davis, a freelance photographer from Rexburg, captured the group on camera for the new photo.
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After Friday’s re-enactment, Brent — who is now 65 and lives in Provo, Utah — says it was a fun experience getting together with old friends under more pleasant circumstances.
“It was really fun,” Brent says. “People were generally happy to see each other again, reminisce and share stories from that day.”
Brian, 67, of American Fork, Utah, agrees. He echoes something another person in the photo, Dallin Larsen — pictured to the left of Brent in a white shirt and ball cap — said to him about the reunion.
“After it was over, and (Dallin) was headed back to Nashville, he said, ‘It was good for my soul being out there surrounded by friends and being back in Rexburg again,” Brian says. “I echo that. It was well worth it!”
Community members gathered to witness the photo re-enactment, many of whom spent the next several hours visiting and catching up.
“I’m glad everybody came,” says Brian. “People we hadn’t seen in a long time came and it was fun to get together again.”
The brothers grew up in a house near that intersection on South 4th East. They stopped by and took a photo of their childhood home during their visit.
Brian noted how much the neighborhood has changed. He remembers moving sprinkler pipe as a boy in a field next door, which has since been replaced by residential development.
RELATED | Voices from the flood: Survivors reflect on the Teton Dam collapse
The Gibsons say their childhood home, which sits on a hillside, was not directly affected by the flood. But many of their friends and neighbors lost homes that day, including Larsen and other friends in the photo. Brian recalls his parents taking people in at the time.
Just as the community came together in 1976 to help those who were affected, Brian says it was amazing to see the same community reunite 50 years later.
Daniel Andrus, a fellow classmate who was not pictured in the photo, came up with the idea for the re-enactment. He and Richard Robison, who grew up in Rexburg, fleshed out the details in a conversation in April. They spent several months coordinating it with participants and the city.
Mayor Jerry Merrill joined the Gibson brothers and others who graduated from Madison high school around the time of the flood.
Brent says they spoke with Merrill later that day and learned that he had come to their house when they were teenagers. Neither Brent or Brian remember the interaction, but Merrill says he met them during a business meeting with their parents, Jed and Karen Gibson.
Jed was the former track coach at Ricks College and Karen was an instructor.
Half a century after the original photo, Brian cites something one of his classmates shared with him. Noting the destruction pictured behind them, he says their faces are looking forward, which is the perfect metaphor for how things played out.
Ultimately, Brian says the year ended on a high note, including a state championship for the football team.
Brian says their group of friends remain close to this day and he attributes that to the flood that took place before their senior year of high school.
“With the flood happening, and going into our senior year with all the unknowns, maybe that’s part of it,” he says. “We had the destruction behind us and the future to look forward to.”