Austin Casson, a nationally recognized sculptor has been commissioned to create the Clark Fork Heroes Commemorative Monument. A little girl and her dog that were lost in the forest on a cold winter day are the subject of the artwork to celebrate the hundreds of people from Clark Fork who showed up to help find her.

THE SHORT VERSION OF THE STORY

Georgia Skye Tibbets was playing with her big dog Tundra in the back yard of their rural home near Clark Fork, Idaho. When the hundred plus pound dog took off into the woods, Georgia, age nine … followed. The next seven hours became the single largest community man-hunt in the history of Clark Fork.

An estimated three hundred townspeople dropped what they were doing and headed into the woods to find Georgia. A cold winter storm at night left little margin for the fragile life of such a small child. The girl and her dog were lost in grizzly country, and only a ground search would have any hope of finding them.

After a seven-hour search and an event that turned a town on its head, Georgia was found and reunited with her desperate family.

The moment is a part of history for the town of Clark Fork and is a monument in itself to the spirit of its people.

Austin Casson, a nationally renowned artist and sculptor has brought his vision to the story to commemorate the towns heroic bond. Austin is creating a sculpture that when completed, will honor the people of Clark Fork and remind future generations of the force of goodwill and the reward of lending a hand to those in dire need.

Please donate to this exceptional opportunity to leave a lasting landmark to heroism and hope delivered.

THE ENTIRE STORY

No time for weeping

Georgia-Skye Tibbetts was doing what 10-year-old children have done since the invention of the sled. She was teaching her dog to mush. It was a snow play date and she was waiting for her friends to arrive.

She had been playing with her guard dog, Tundra, a one-hundred-and-ten-pound fur covered package of canine energy, when with unsurprising dog behavior, Tundra bounded into the forest at the edge of Georgia’s yard. Tundra is a working dog, and she was on a mission to check the surrounding area for “threats” … and took the sled. It was a typical North Idaho winter day, and the fickle January snow was leaving just enough white stuff on the frozen ground to track the dog. At age 10, Georgia had good sense. She told her mom, Cassandra Tibbetts, that Tundra had run off again and she wanted to find her. It wasn’t a totally new event for Cassandra or the Tibbetts family in general as they had raised working dogs for many years.

“Usually, Tundra would return after some persistent calling,” Cassandra said, “Her recall is typically very good, but when these dogs catch the scent of a threat, they are not easily called off until the threat is dealt with. It’s why we keep them outside with our kids. We know nothing will mess with our kids with them around.”

Cassandra was the busy mom, caring for Georgia’s 4 younger siblings, including a toddler and 2-month-old infant. Ben was out working in their forestry & excavation business like any normal workday. Cassandra granted the request with the unspoken contract between parent and child.

“Be quick, stay in the safe zone, your friends will be here soon.” Georgia took off to find her dog and decided to follow the sled tracks into the woods. That moment would impact the lives of hundreds of people and change perspectives for the Tibbetts’ family forever.

The dog had big feet and a sled tied behind her. When Tundra had not returned in her normal timeframe, Georgia began to worry that her dog had gotten tangled on the sled and seeing a fresh sled track, she followed the tracks thinking it would be easy to find her way home by following her own footprints in the snow. The area surrounding the Tibbetts’ home is flat and thickly wooded. The absence of visual landmarks makes it a tricky place to navigate unless you are very familiar with the landscape. The area is pocketed with ponds and marshes. It is fertile ground for big game like deer and elk, mountain lion and wolves. It is also marked by warning signs from Idaho Fish and Game as a known Grizzly habitat.

When Georgia’s friends arrived and announced they couldn’t find Georgia, Cassandra became focused on the urgency of finding their daughter. The next events happened in fifteen-minute intervals. “I had assumed she was out with her friends. It truly never crossed my mind that she had gotten turned around in the woods. I went out and searched the back of the property quickly but couldn’t locate her. That’s when I realized we had a serious problem and we were on a timeline with the forecasted snowstorm moving in. She is a responsible, trustworthy girl with a strong head on her shoulders.”

From calling neighbors to help to calling 911, searching on foot, texting and reaching out on social media, Cassandra got the ball rolling, getting help to find their daughter.

“Ben was my first call and he immediately dropped everything to drive the hour plus home. He knew Georgia, and this situation was out of character for this big sister.” Ben jumped to action reaching out for help and texted a local who often used game cameras to monitor their remote property.

“This is Ben Tibbetts your neighbor up on old range road. We can't find my 10 year-old daughter. Have you seen anybody on camera on your property up here?” The reply text from the other end was a frustrating “No.” Ben and Cassandra were facing a parent’s worst nightmare. Snow had become the new problem in an increasingly complicated event. A snow storm was moving in and nightfall only added to the number of cards stacking against an easy search. Panic began to rise but Cassandra was fielding calls and talking to searchers.

“I didn’t have time to break down. I didn’t want anyone focusing on putting a hysterical mother back together. I could help or hinder the efforts and I am half decent at performing under pressure so I got to work doing whatever I could. My husband is a Marine and excellent in the woods, but I had barely recovered from giving birth and had a 2 month old inside that I couldn’t leave. I knew I had some draw on social media and decided to post just to see if I could scrounge up some extra help. The post went viral which I didn’t expect. I then fielded hundreds of calls, texts and messages from people wanting to help, some even from many hours away. Ben and I are forever grateful to every single person who helped and prayed for our girl to be found.”

Bonner county sheriff’s had already been notified, the nature of the situation was well understood. As darkness arrived, and the snow intensified, aerial search tactics would be grounded. Even the drone operators rushing to the search area would be stripped of their advantage. Infra-red cameras would be rendered useless in the falling snow and dense tree coverage. The success or failure of the search would fall squarely on the shoulders of the people who answered the call. No one was prepared for how many that would be.

Landscapes change in the snow. They morph into a scene of quiet strangeness. “We never had silence feel so loud - the snow muffled everything.” Ben and Cassandra reflected after the incident. The familiarity of long known features all but disappears as the snow piles up on branches and the contour of the ground is smoothed visually. Roads and trails become invisible, and the light and color schemes turn opaque like faded black and white photographs. In a very short time, what once seemed like home can become an alien landscape. That was Georgia’s reality, complete silence, except her screams, the crunch of snow under her feet and thankfully her dog.

She had found Tundra, or Tundra found her, but at least now she wasn’t completely alone. The tow rope was broken and the sled was nowhere to be found. Georgia tried to follow her tracks back but they began to disappear under the snow. The light was fading and her sense of direction vanished. Georgia’s own candid realization summed up how the situation deepened.

“I thought Tundra might help me find my way home so we kept walking, but looking back on it I realize she just thought we were on a fun adventure together. She was still just a big puppy. She didn’t leave me and that did help me feel less alone and safe from the wild animals. She’s the best dog ever.”

Within a few hours, hundreds of people had converged on the Tibbetts’ home in the Cabinet mountains. The word spread like wildfire from the internet, phone trees, prayer groups and word of mouth. Everyone asked the same questions, but the biggest question of all. “Where was Georgia?,” remained a mystery.

Cassandra fielded those questions. “What was she wearing? How can I help?”. She was the de facto search coordinator. “It really helped me not dwell on the what ifs or let panic set in. I had a task to do and it kept me busy the entire time.”

As word of Georgia’s plight spread via neighbors and social media, a search and rescue mission started that grew from the neighboring homes and close friends to an enormous crowd of concerned townspeople. There were so many people crowding the roads leading to the search area that a coordination center was improvised at the local high school parking lot, getting teams of 2nd and 3rd wave searchers organized. Literally hundreds of people had taken to the woods and local forest roads on foot with little information and scant provision for themselves. Men and women with light clothing and flash lights were seen walking the roads, hoping to catch a glimpse of the missing duo. Some searchers grabbed their hunting packs and headed into the storm, knowing full well they could spend the night out there with only what they had with them. In most cases, it was significantly more than Georgia had but no one was resting until she was found. Their grit was the stone-cold understanding of the need and the consequence of failure.

First responders from agencies across three counties brought everything from ATV’s, to horses, joining an estimated 300 people to search for Georgia as the temperature dropped and the snowfall erased her tracks.

The distinct smell of snow, mixed with the apprehension of the moment set a scene for anyone arriving to assist. K-9 deputies from Bonner county had been on site for hours. The dogs and handlers' efforts were frustrated by the many scents from so many people and the confusing foot prints that were created by the great number of people in the woods surrounding the Tibbetts’ home.

Phone service was sketchy at best in the area and the few people with radio’s were from search and rescue agencies and a few locals who formed hasty search teams and took their walkie talkies. One search team in a tracked side by side received a static filled cell phone call in spite of the poor conditions.

“Hey, It’s FaithAnne. I heard you were out here. I'm on the west side of the big pond with Tim. Where are you?” Faithanne Hutto and her brother Tim had grown up in those woods. It was a favorite playground and the two of them were experts in navigating the terrain. “I’m on the east side on the logging roads with a team of four. We’ll spread out and converge on you.” Came the reply from the tracked vehicle team. The operator of the side by side had hunted the area for many years and knew the terrain well.

The cell coverage was awful but the plan seemed like it would cover a huge portion of difficult ground. The fallen trees and the lack of spacing stopped the tracked vehicle completely. Two of the searchers headed out on foot, the driver and his radioman headed down a logging road to see if they could find a way west. Ten minutes later the tracked side by side was still unable to find a path into the new search area.

Suddenly the cell phone rang again and Faithanne’s voice was barely audible but her excitement was clearly evident. “I just found some small boot tracks and the paw prints of a big ass dog!” The Marine and her brother Tim, had found the only tracks likely to be Georgia’s as the snow threatened to erase them.

The radio man tried to get a call out on a hand held radio to the search base at the Tibbetts’ house - no contact. Then they tried the cell phone and again had no luck. Ten minutes passed as he teams tried to converge on foot. Then the cell phone rang again for an incoming call.

“Faith Ann’s voice was amazingly clear as she reported …“We have her! She’s ok and we are carrying her back to her house!

Nearly 7 hours after the first call was made, Georgia was found with her faithful friend Tundra, huddled under a tree, soaking wet and exhausted. She had walked next to a pond and slipped in the snow-covered water at one point, so her boots were filled with water and her jacket was soaked. Faithanne traded her dry boots for the flooded pair Georgia was wearing. Somehow, they fit well enough to allow the trade. Then they traded the outer layers of their jackets so Faithanne’s dry layer could help the freezing Georgia. The Hutto siblings were anxious to get Georgia to a warmer place, so they took turns carrying the now giddy soaking wet child and the activity was enough to keep their own temperatures up. Getting back to the road they loaded up and Tundra, not leaving her girl’s side, sat squarely on Georgia’s lap warming her until they could get back home.

In the final analysis, Georgia had traveled a serpentine route but had gone a straight line distance of about a half mile. Much of her behavior was typical of lost persons and in many cases where weather and unpreparedness meet, the outcome can be grim. But not on that night, not in Clark Fork.

The search and Rescue manager, informed Cassandra and Ben first, letting their “worst case scenarios” leave as they could finally breathe again. The stress and the potential tragedy would be muted by the cheers of relief and cries of thanks when the rescuers carried the girl out of the woods to the waiting team of the Clark Fork Ambulance and the arms of her distraught family.

Today the memory, while vivid, is not central to Georgia and her family. Georgia later shared, “I got tired and it was dark so I had decided to go to sleep and try again in the morning.” She did not know how dangerous that sleep could be. Ben and Cassandra said, “Sometimes it’s still hard to believe how close we were to losing her. She is so precious to us and her entire family. This situation really shook our world and to this day I still struggle not to panic if one of my kids isn’t right where I expect them to be.”

The passing of winter and the following seasons have helped to dull the trauma of that night, but the need to remember the way strangers can form powerful forces for good has become a point of focus for a small group. Austin Casson, a nationally renowned sculptor has offered to help the town remember its people and how they became the rallying cry for unity and hope on a dark and snow-filled landscape for the love of a child; a child most had never met.

His vision of a larger than life sculpture captures the picture of desperation and hope delivered. The vision is for a piece to be placed in central Clark Fork with a plaque commemorating the townspeople and their selflessness. Tim and Faithanne will have their names at the top of the plaque with space available for future names to be added as the town recognizes the significant events and those who are central to the life of our home.

The expense of creating and placing the monument will come from donations of local residents, businesses and entities who share the desire to publicly acknowledge the efforts in the community.