Swimming Hole Where Man Drowned Site of Other Deaths

The Thousand Oaks swimming hole where a 29-year-old Newbury Park man fell from a cliff and drowned has been the site of at least three other deaths and many serious injuries, authorities said Monday.

But danger did not deter at least a dozen youths from going to Hill Canyon on Monday to jump from the same cliffs where Mark Widner slipped and fell to his death.

“It’s a high-risk sport,” said Doug Whitwam, a ponytailed 23-year-old from Westlake Village, as he made his way along the rocky trail leading to the cliffs. “Accidents happen.”

Whitwam and other youths at the swimming hole Monday said they had heard vague accounts of deaths, including the most recent fatality.

Widner, 29, drowned Sunday afternoon after he slipped off a cliff, hit his head on a jutting rock about halfway down and landed in the 20-foot-deep pool.

The Ventura County coroner’s office said Monday that Widner, who moved to the area from New Mexico several months ago and lived with his fiancee, apparently was knocked unconscious when his head hit the rock, causing him to drown.

Fed by the Arroyo Conejo, the pool is about a mile’s hike from the north end of Ventu Park Road. Because the 20-foot-wide swimming hole is framed by sheer cliffs, Widner’s body had to be retrieved by a helicopter from the sheriff’s search-and-rescue unit.

Officer Glenn Conley said the helicopter unit has responded to many calls of serious injuries at the site. In the mid-1980s, he said, the unit retrieved the bodies of two youths who drowned there.

In addition, Sheriff’s Sgt. Gary Pentis said a teen-ager from his high school died about 20 years ago from injuries he suffered after slipping off a cliff at the swimming hole.

Thousand Oaks officials were trying Monday to determine who owns the land. Assistant Planner Mark Towne said parcels in the area are owned by the city, the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency and various private interests.

If the swimming hole is owned by either the city or the conservation agency, Towne said, officials may decide to erect signs warning visitors of the danger.

Pentis said he remembers that the spot was popular when he was a student at Newbury Park High.

“I can remember having a lot of good times there,” he said. However, he said, “when we were kids, there was a lot more water there. We used to swim there.”

Now, after six years of drought, water in the arroyo is shallow, and the swimming hole is the only place where water stands more than a few feet deep.

Although the site may no longer be suitable for serious swimming, it is still a private, watery playground for teens and young adults from the sunbaked east county.

The cool, fresh stream washes over boulders and flat rocks before plunging into the swimming hole. Visitors can cross the stream on rocks or slide down to the swimming hole using a long rope.

But the best adventure, visitors said Monday, is diving or jumping from ledges, which tower as high as 35 feet above the water.

“We know how to jump,” said Denny Gregory, a 20-year-old resident of Thousand Oaks who came with five friends. “We don’t slip.”

Gregory and others suggested that Widner’s accident may have been caused by alcohol.

Witnesses to Sunday’s accident said Widner appeared to be very drunk at the time of his fall. He had gone to the swimming hole with friends after calling in sick at Home Depot, where he had been employed for four months, said Kevin Hopp of Home Depot.

Hopp said it was the first time that he knew Widner to be absent. He was an excellent employee who drew praise from customers, Hopp said.

On Monday, at least one visitor to the swimming hole did not show the tough veneer exhibited by the other youths upon hearing of Widner’s death.

Jenny Caig, 18, of Calabasas got out of the water soon after a news photographer told her about the accident.

“It just seems so morbid,” said Caig, who earlier had jumped from the rocks. “I can’t believe I was in water where somebody died.”