Three duck hunters were brought safely to shore Saturday morning, Nov. 7, after their boat capsized in the Mississippi River near Brownsville, Minnesota, according to Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson.
The Vernon County 911 dispatch center took the call at about 11:15 a.m. The capsized boat was in the river's main channel on the Wisconsin side, across from Wildcat Park and Marina outside Brownsville. Dispatchers pinpointed the location and coordinated the response, with the sheriff crediting the county's Next Generation 911 system for routing the call accurately.
The boat was a 14- to 15-foot flat-bottom vessel being used for duck hunting. Its operator, Eric Lee Southard, 60, of Appleton, told investigators water came over the bow as he tried to slow or stop the boat, possibly while turning, and that weeds or vegetation near the propeller may also have played a role. Southard and his two passengers, ages 18 and 42, were thrown into the water and got their life jackets on after going in.
The three men drifted south with the current before a Stoddard-Bergen Fire Department rescue boat reached them. Brownsville Fire and Rescue brought Southard back to shore, and the other two men came in with the Stoddard-Bergen crew. At Wildcat Landing, EMS crews checked all three for cold-water exposure — the air temperature was about 50 degrees — and none of them wanted transport for further treatment. Crews also recovered the boat and most of the group's belongings, and all units cleared by 1 p.m.
Responding agencies included the Stoddard-Bergen and Brownsville fire departments, the Houston County and Vernon County sheriff's offices, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Emplify Health by Gundersen ground EMS. The Fish and Wildlife Service, after consulting the Wisconsin DNR, determined the incident did not meet the threshold for mandatory reporting. Officials said the life jackets likely made the difference, noting that waterfowl hunters wear heavy clothing that makes an unexpected fall into cold water especially dangerous.
