Body Recovered From Fort Peck Lake

A Cody, Wyo., man is dead after falling through the ice while riding his four-wheeler on the evening of March 6, or morning of March 7, at Fort Peck Lake.

According to Valley County Sheriff and Coroner Tom Boyer, the body of 80-year-old Ronald Spomer was discovered by anglers on March 8 at around noon floating in the recently thawed open water. The Sheriff said the anglers had been working to free their own four-wheeler from the ice when they noticed the man—whom they had met on Friday—was not near his ice fishing equipment.

The Sheriff stated it was apparent he had fallen through the ice on his ATV near his equipment around the Duck Creek area, but they could not narrow the time of the accident since he had been fishing alone at the time.

Spomer was not taking part in the Lakeridge 48-hour ice fishing tournament that had been hosted the same weekend on Fort Peck Lake. Temperatures over the last week have been consistently above freezing, causing a rapid melting of snow and ice across the region. Regardless, dozens of anglers came out for the competition in spite of the treacherous ice conditions.