TUCKER COUNTY, W.Va. — A Camp Horseshoe staff member and a camper were still being treated at Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown on Monday after being hurt when a rock shelf along a creek gave way near the Tucker County camp site last week.
Dave Cooper, director of Camp Horseshoe which is run by the Ohio-West Virginia Youth Leadership Association, was on that “creek walk” near Lead Mine that traditionally closes camp.
On Friday, teens from West Virginia who were part of the Teen Entrepreneurship Summit set out on the trek that included a stop along the ledge, a roughly ten foot section, that serves as a popular setting for pictures.
“We’ve been doing this for 30-some-years-plus, the hike, and we’ve sat on that ledge and we’ve taken pictures there for that many years and, as you know, with nature, when it was time, it was time,” Cooper said.
Five to six people were on that ledge when it collapsed, sending seven and eight people into the water when the ensuing rock slide pushed them down the hill several feet.
“There’s a little ledge there, when it hit the water, it rolled 180-degrees and that’s when the two people were trapped,” Cooper said of how those who were still hospitalized were injured. One person was wedged under the rock by his feet but, Cooper said, he was freed within a few minutes and brought to shore.
The male counselor is Shelby Patrick, 20, hometown unknown. The female camper was not being identified publicly as of Monday morning.
Three other campers who were injured were treated and released from Garrett County Memorial Hospital in Oakland, Md. on Friday.
Cooper said the injuries could have been much worse. “To see it all happen and to see what took place after the rock slide was miraculous, to say the least,” he told MetroNews.
Members of the Tucker County Ambulance Squad, firefighters from Parsons and Thomas, deputies with the Tucker County Sheriff’s Department and the community response team from nearby Lead Mine responded to the scene.
Camp Horseshoe was hosting another round of campers from West Virginia and Ohio on Monday for the Senior Teen Leadership Summit. Cooper said he was planning to again take the campers on the traditional hike this week, weather permitting.
“The danger of it falling again is no longer there. There’s no more other ledges there. Everything is now resting in the water,” Cooper said.