by Mary Buchholz
In 1954, the Jesse Sipe and Shipman families spent a day at Iron Creek Lake. Edith Sipe, along with her daughters Regina and Mary and her niece Loretta Shipman, used one of the small rowboats available to visitors. While on the lake, two teenage girls attempting to swim across became exhausted and required assistance. They joined the Sipe family in the boat, which subsequently tipped over as they attempted to change positions.
Regina, the baby, does not remember the event but has heard the story multiple times: If it had not been for Jack Wells and his friend Mickey McTavish at the lake that day, you would have died. Maybe all of us would have drowned.” Loretta Shipman’s mother Florence saw the trouble from the beach and urged Wells and McTavish to help. They had just loaded their boat onto their car but quickly unloaded it to save the family.
In May 2025, 102-year-old Jack Wells explained why he took the risk: „You just do what you need to do.” The Sipe and Shipman families consider his actions that day a miracle. McTavish and Wells were enjoying the motorboat before returning to their jobs at Belle Fourche’s Montgomery Lumber. Although the motorboat was illegal on the small private lake due to its larger size, it allowed the boys to reach the family in time. Iron Creek Lake is located in an untouched area of the pristine Black Hills west of the scenic Spearfish Canyon. A trip to the lake is just a 20-minute drive from Spearfish on a well-maintained gravel road.
The lake was created through a WPA project to create jobs in the mid 1930s and to provide a recreation site in Lawrence County. The trail circle is just about one mile in length, making the lake small enough to prohibit wakes and high-speed watercraft.
Both Mary and cousin Loretta remembers the rescue clearly 71 years later. Baby Regina held onto her mother by her hair as her mother tried to hold her above the water, while Mary and Loretta clung to the overturned wooden boat on the opposite side from Edith and Regina. Loretta recalls Mary’s panic and scratches on her back as Mary tried to stay above the water. Remarkably, Mary managed to hold onto her new glasses throughout the entire incident. Brother 12-year-old Fred and his cousin Jerry Shipman also remembered the day and the rescue. They had been swimming across the lake and were walking back to the beach when the accident happened.
On June 20, Jack Wells will turn 102 years old. When Jack had his 100th birthday party in Belle Fourche, there was a You Tube interview still available here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=j46ULfu2brw
Wells, a World War II veteran, was one of the founding members of the Belle Fourche Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and honor guard, was named commander of the VFW in 1951, and is the only original member still alive. Wells recounted his experience as a World War II veteran in vivid detail. Wells joined the Air Force in February 1943 and served until 1947. He took basic training at Sheppard Field, Texas and at Biggs Field, Texas. He qualified as a carbine sharpshooter and was a Draftsman. In 1945, Wells was sent to serve overseas in New Guinea. He served at Milne Bay, Finschhafen, Attapeu in New Guinea. Also at Biak and Owl in the Netherland East Indies and Leyte and Mindoro in the Philippines as well as Okinawa and Japan.
“We were an Air Force filling station. We’d go in with the infantry, and take the airstrip, and then, when our planes started landing, we’d work on them. A lot of times there’d be an infantry guy here shooting his gun, here’s another guy shooting, and we weren’t supposed to shoot, but we did if we had to. So I was lucky I didn’t get shot.” Wells said. There was around 100 times where Wells said he was close to getting shot.
Wells was located on the airstrip where the Japanese would release bombs. He said that he recounts almost 1,000 times when the Japanese came and dropped bombs on them.
“One night they came over and dropped daisy cutters (a type of bomb) on us.” Wells said. “They missed us about 100 feet. If they’d have been 100-200 feet back, they’d have killed half of us.”
From New Guinea, Wells moved on to Milne Bay where him and his company stocked up on food and guns and other things. Then, they took a ship to Finschhafen and were sent to Biak to relieve the infantry. Wells said his company wasn’t used to conflict, as they had mostly experienced air raids to that point, but all 100 of them were ordered to relieve 200 infantry men.
Read the full issue of the Belle Fourche Beacon by clicking here.
