Search called off for St. Croix snowmobiler
A search was suspended Sunday for the second of two snowmobilers who went through the ice this weekend at different points on the St. Croix River.
Pine County authorities stopped searching for a snowmobiler they believe broke through ice and was swept down a remote part of the river on the Minnesota-Wisconsin border about 70 miles north of the Twin Cities.
Earlier, in Washington County, authorities recovered the body of a 22-year-old snowmobiler who went through the ice near the Allen S. King power plant at Bayport.
An analysis of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources data shows 234 ice-related fatalities since 1976 in the state, nearly three-quarters of them on the state's lakes. Before this weekend, just two of those had been on the St. Croix.
In 1987, a man on a three-wheeler went through the ice on the St. Croix and, in 2010, a snowmobiler fell into open water. Snowmobiles have been involved in 82 of the ice-related fatalities in Minnesota since 1976.
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