Pastor's dying words still an inspiration

CALDWELL, Idaho — Ten years ago this week, a Caldwell pastor was found dead, his legs wedged between two massive boulders in Wyoming's Wind River Range. It was a freak accident followed by an ordeal of biblical proportions, endured by a man who sought out wild, high places to feel close to God.

But it's not the manner of Mike Turner's death that most resonates today. It's the way he lived and the way he faced that death, trapped alive for about nine days and pouring his thoughts, fears and faith into a journal that brought peace to his family and friends.

The Rev. Turner's saga drew national attention in 1998, but its impact is undimmed a decade later on those who lived it, including his widow, who plans to remarry next month, and the Wyoming man who led the search.

"It was a very intense search. It changed a lot of people," said Dan Holgate, former search commander for Tip Top Search and Rescue in Sublette County, Wyo.

The Rev. Turner, the 6-foot-6 pastor of Boone Memorial Presbyterian Church, strode into the Wyoming wilderness on July 30, 1998, with his black Lab mix, Andy. Capping the end of a three-month sabbatical, he planned a 10-day, 60-mile solo hike across the Continental Divide, ending with a family camping trip. He dubbed his itinerary "Wander in Wonder."

The Rev. Turner, 48, never emerged. On Sept. 3 his family learned another lone hiker had discovered his body, still trapped by granite, near the shore of an unnamed mountain lake. The next day they received his journal and an understanding of his experience.

"I had dreamed of a special time alone with God, facing the elements, the passes, thinking about my life, the direction of the church, about my family," the Rev. Turner wrote. "Indeed, this has been all of those things only magnified 100 times. Thoughts about life, God, people, risk, filling my time. ... God will make a way either earthly or heavenly. My only dread is not seeing my family and being present with them in body."

"So much of the story is beautiful," said College of Idaho Academic Vice President Mark Smith, a close friend who was part of the planned camping trip that was to cap the Rev. Turner's adventure. "Its beauty is terrible at the same time."

Although a pastor, the Rev. Turner never seemed preachy, Newton said, noting that he joined 500-member Boone Memorial after he met its minister at a Christian retreat. "He was nonjudgmental, but he made you want to do better and be better."

On July 29, 1998, the last night together for the Rev. Turner and his wife, Diane, they attended a James Taylor concert in Nampa with Matt and Lisa Newton. The next morning, before the Rev. Turner left, he gave Diane a bouquet of flowers.