Teenager dead after fall at Petit Jean State Park

Petit Jean State Park was Arkansas' first state park. (Democrat-Gazette file photo/Marcia Schnedler)
Petit Jean State Park was Arkansas' first state park. (Democrat-Gazette file photo/Marcia Schnedler)

A teenager fell to his death near a trail at Petit Jean State Park on Saturday, Arkansas parks officials said Tuesday.

The 17-year-old boy fell from a large rock off the Bear Cave Trail on Saturday afternoon, and park rangers located him in a narrow crevice between two cliffs, according to a statement from Shealyn Sowers, spokeswoman for the Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism.
Rangers worked the stabilize the teenager and got him to an ambulance that took him to Petit Jean Airport, where he was flown to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Sowers said. He died of his injuries at the hospital.

The boy’s friends had been stranded on the rock near the trail, Sowers said, and rangers worked with Arkansas National Guard using a Blackhawk helicopter to rescue them and reunite them, unhurt, with their families.

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