The Three individuals put in the Missouri above Black Eagle damn. They floated above the damn for a while then portaged around the damn then put in at the Black eagle damn island or memorial point. They put the canoe in the water and headed for the rapids.  At this point they did not think that the rapids looked all that bad and a few minutes later they hit the rapids by the first island as you head down river. 

When they got closer to the rapids they tried to turn the canoe toward the shore to avoid the rapids.  The water was very swift and the canoe was turned sideways and dragged them into the rapids which swamped the boat and ejected the occupants.
 
The current was very strong and all three of the men tried to swim to shore.  One subject wasn’t swimming very well and was not able to keep his head above water as well. The subjects were unable to swim to shore line of the river, so they swam to the island that was closer.  They were able to catch their footing just down from the island, and were both completely exhausted. The two looked around for the victim and saw him floating down river. he had missed the shallow water. The survivor explained that the victim did not look like he was fighting very hard at this point to keep his head above water and it was not very long before they could no longer see the victim.
 
The survivors went to the edge of the island to try to get help. After 45 minutes of waiting they were finally able to flag a car down and get them to call for help.  The subjects waited there on the island for approximately 20 to 25 minutes before game warden was able to locate them and pull them from the island.

It was found out later in my investigation that the victim could not swim. The truck that dropped them off at there launch point had three PFDs in the back, but for some reason they did not bring them along with them in the canoe
The SO report number for this case is 6815-10. The CFS on the river at the time of the accident was 19,800

Great Falls                   