Boat Lost On Lake Over The Weekend

Three men from Oregon did not have the sort of vacation on Fort Peck Lake that they expected last weekend. The left Hell Creek on Frida night in a 26-foot pontoon boat and were blown around lost in the wind and the rain until Tuesday.

They got a call through on a cell phone on Monday at about 7 p.m., saying that they were "someplace on Fort Peck Lake." They didn't know their location. They had no compass or GPS.

"They said the lake befuddled them," said Sheriff Glen Meier. "All thee hills looked alike."

The pontoon boat was covered and the men were onshore somewhere, with food.

Meier said it was unsafe to send an airplane into the storm and he didn't want to put people on the lake in the wind, so he told the men that an airplane would go out looking for them on Tuesday morning. However, late Monday night someone from Hell Creek found them on Graves Point, on the south shore of the lake in Garfield County. It is across the lake from The Pines. 

The lost party was back in Hell Creek by midnight.