Robert Craig Knievel was born in Butte in 1938 and raised mostly by his grandparents. He worked in the copper mines, sold insurance and ran into regular trouble with the law. The story he told about his nickname was that he once shared a jail cell with a man called Awful Knofel, and a jailer joked about having Awful and Evil Knievel together. He changed the spelling to Evel.
His stunt career started in the mid-1960s with a small daredevil show. He became famous after his 1967 jump over the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, which ended in a crash that left him badly injured. The footage made him a national figure.
Fame and broken bones
Through the 1970s, Knievel was one of the most recognizable people in America. He jumped buses, trucks and cars in front of huge crowds and television audiences, and his toys and merchandise sold in the millions. His 1974 attempt to cross Idaho’s Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered Skycycle failed when the parachute deployed early, but it drew enormous attention.
He was known for the number of bones he broke, a figure that was often exaggerated but was very large. His career faded after he was convicted of assaulting a former promoter in 1977.
Knievel returned to Butte often, and he is buried there. He died in 2007 in Florida.
His hometown holds Evel Knievel Days each summer, a street festival in Uptown Butte with stunt riders and motorcycle crowds. For a city that has always admired toughness, he remains one of its most famous sons.