In 1968, a Kremmling man survived a crash that left the truck he was driving at the bottom of Green Mountain Reservoir in Summit County.
This year, the ongoing drought in Colorado uncovered the Ford pickup, much to Dennis Carpenter’s surprise.
Carpenter told KUNC the accident happened while he was driving to work during the first snow of the season. He slid into a cable guardrail, then the truck rolled and went into the water.
“We're estimating it must have went almost 100 feet,” Carpenter recounted. “I remember it hit the wall twice, and then it went tail-first into the lake. And I scooted over, got out the window, and swam to shore. And then it was taking water at that point through the windows, and it sank. And that was the last time we'd seen it for 58 years.”
After falling reservoir levels revealed the truck decades later, a sheriff’s deputy contacted Carpenter, who originally thought the call was a joke.
“He named a friend of mine, and I thought they were kind of gaming me or something; said he had seen the pickup, and I said, ‘Sure, you did,’” Carpenter recalled. “It turns out he is a real deputy sheriff, and they did find it. They wanted to get in and make sure nobody was in it, so they did that, and pictures started going around.”
He didn’t recognize the rusted vehicle at first, but Carpenter says it reminded him how humbled and grateful he is to have survived the wreck.
The resurfacing of the Ford has also revived memories and jokes among friends and family.
“I have a friend here [in Kremmling]; he's an older gentleman, in his 90s. He's always asked me, ‘did you get your truck yet?’ Everybody will forget about it, and then he'll bring it up,” he said with a laugh. “I was anxious to get to him after we found it to tell him, ‘yeah - found my truck!’”
He’s also reconnected with many friends and acquaintances over pictures of the truck that have gone viral online.
“All kinds of people are calling me, and it's really been a lot of talking about Green Mountain and memories coming up, and so it's been a good time,” he told KUNC. My grandsons have been able to look at it, but I was really blessed to be protected that day for sure.”
Carpenter, a lifelong Northern Colorado resident, hopes the discovery of the pickup will remindother drivers about safety in winter weather.
“You travel prepared, you know, clothing-wise and cars, especially tires. You watch the weather, because a lot of accidents we see that people shouldn't be out there. You just can't be too prepared,” he said. “I have a niece that got killed in the first snow of the year. Really, the crash didn't kill her, but a blood clot did so soon after that. But you’ve got to take care of your tires and your vehicle. The weather can really change in Colorado, especially in the mountains.”
There are plans to pull the truck from the reservoir, but the particulars haven’t been made public yet. Carpenter hopes to recover the license plate and some tools from the vehicle.
