December marked the 50 year anniversary of a tale of survival for a pair of Pennsylvania hunters and a truck camper. Dick Lansberry and Bob Wise headed off in the woods on a winter's hunting expedition on December 2, 1961 in a home-build truck camper, built from wood and aluminum siding. Their one week planned trip turned into a nightmare that left both of them with missing toes and a big story.
Lansberry was a avid hunter, and to support his trips built a "portable cabin" on the back of his 1956 Ford 1/2 ton pickup. The well-insulated unit was eight feet long and stood six feet tall, sleeping two comfortably. Bob's regular hunting partner couldn't make the trip, so he talked Bob Wise into coming with him on the deer trip. It proved a fateful decision.
Perhaps the men should have known things weren't going well for them when on the sixth day out, the two were separated from one another and got lost in the woods. After wandering about, shooting rounds to attract attention, Dick Lansberry wandered into a hunting camp where he was finally turned around and pointed back to his camper. His friend Bob found him, and both were plenty tired out from the day's activities.
Lansberry's camper was outfitted with a kerosene stove for heat, and a 6" duct in the roof plus a partially opened window served for ventilation. Trouble was, the heater conked out sometime in the night, and early on December 7 Lansberry woke up, recognizing there was real trouble: He could smell kerosene fumes, but he was so cold he could barely move. Wise had fallen out of his bed and lay on the camper floor, and Lansberry couldn't wake him.
Bob Lansberry knew something had to be done, like relighting the heater. Yet the cold was so deep he couldn't even fumble the matches, nor turn the knob on the heater. Almost 60 hours passed while Lansberry faded in and out of consciousness. Finally waking again, he found the camper door frozen shut. Attacking it with a hatchet, his frozen hands fumbled and almost caused the hatched to hit his partner. Finally, after repeatedly pounding on the door lock with a hammer, Lansberry got the door open and stumbled outside.
Reaching the cab of the truck, one can only imagine the frustration Lansberry felt when he discovered he'd left the keys in the camper. After suffering a to-andl-fro trip, he couldn't get the keys to work the truck door lock. Back in the camper, Bob Lansberry said his prayers, figuring he and his friend had reached their end.
Almost.
Two other hunters happened on the scene some time later. they later described the sounds that came from Bob Lansberry's throat as, "mumbled hollering," as the frost-covered man fell to the ground at the end of the camper. Both Lansberry and Wise were literally frozen into unnatural positions; Wise had to be "jimmied" out of the camper door and into the passing hunter's vehicle for a trip to a hospital.
Doctors were amazed at the condition of their two patients. Gangrene was setting in on each man's extremities; they were both so cold that when the hospital staff put in urinary catheters they found ice crystals in their bladders.
After 11 days at a local hospital, both men were carefully transferred to a larger facility. There, hoof trimmers were used to cut away dead and dying flesh. It would be months before they finally got to go home.
While many would try and forget such an experience, Bob Lansberry has kept it close to his mind and heart, even writing a survival guide to help other outdoorsmen avoid the fate that he and his pal endured.
Both men remain friends--and continue to hunt--down to this day. No word on whether or not either of them enjoy RVing.
photos: chronicle.northcoastnow.com
