Man Dies in Boat on Madison River

On Tuesday, a man reportedly died in a boating accident on the Madison River. According to a press release from the Gallatin County Sheriff's Office, the man was found in a flipped canoe that had been caught in some snag.

The Gallatin County Sheriff's Office and Search & Rescue, along with Three Forks Ambulance, and the Three Forks Fire Department all responded to the lower Madison River, about two miles north of Cobblestone Fishing Access, where they found a canoe that had flipped over because of a large cottonwood tree/snag in the river channel.

Two fishermen had already found one man from the boat on a gravel bank with minor injuries. A deceased man remained in the vessel, still caught in the snag.

It was the fishermen who had called dispatch with a cell phone. The official cause of death is under investigation by the Gallatin County Coroner’s Office.

The deceased man has been identified as Scot E. Smith II of Belgrade.

It was a busy Tuesday for Gallatin County Search & Rescue. Later that evening, around 7:40 p.m., they were called to Bear Canyon outside Bozeman, where a woman had suffered traumatic injuries after a rock-climbing fall. Rescuers performed a low-angle technical rescue to get the woman back to the trail.

The woman was transported to the trailhead and then transferred to American Medical Response who transported her to Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital. The patient was treated at the hospital for non-life threatening injuries to her head, arm, and leg.