Many residents of Sweetwater County and beyond enjoy the vast expanse of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Stretching 90-miles long with 350 miles of shoreline, the Flaming Gorge provides a recreation paradise for campers, beach bums and boaters alike.

While this oasis in the southwestern Wyoming desert furnishes locals with a summertime playground for fun in the sun, another group of people patrol these waters with one thing in mind: your safety.

Meet the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Department Marine Unit

The Sheriff’s Department protects these waters with a group known as The Marine Unit.

Sergeant Corporal Steven Powell completed special training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia and now leads a team of 13 other deputies who share time patrolling the waters.

He continues to train his colleagues as the unit numbers grow.

“Hopefully we’ll have about 20 of us, and that’s not only our patrol guys who are out on the road, but also our detention officers that come out and run the boat with us also,” Powell said.

Unlike road deputies, the Marine Unit doesn’t need a violation to stop and inspect a boat, said Powell.

“Because they’re on the water, we can make sure that they’re safe to be on the water.”

The team is charged with keeping boaters, divers and swimmers safe from dangerous areas and making sure recreationalists are obeying the law.

The Marine Unit uses a vessel safety checklist that covers everything from personal floatation devices to making sure load-plate capacities, or how many people can legally be on a certain-sized boat, are being met.

State-of-the-Art Equipment

The Marine Unit also serves as first responders when trouble arises.

Gone are the days of rescue efforts that relied solely on spotlights and good, general knowledge of the area.

Now, the department uses a Lowrance Totalscan Bundle Radar Unit that can pinpoint a distress signal to its exact GPS coordinates on the lake.

The unit charts the course and speed of the boat, water depth, debris, and landmarks near and far. In other words, its a fishfinder on steroids.

Sgt. Powell and a crew member recently went to help a stranded boater near the Anvil Draw area only to discover another emergency situation on the way back to the marina.

“The waters were really, really rough so I had the radar screen up knowing we couldn’t see everything clearly,” Powell said.

“We came upon a capsized paddle boat, but I was on the crests (of the waves) and they were going down in the troughs, so we couldn’t see them. But the radar picked them right up and we were able to rescue them.”

The radar unit is particularly handy at night, said SCSD Public Information Officer Dick Blust.

“You have GPS working for you on this beautiful, flat two-dimensional surface. Its the ideal surface for GPS,” Blust said.

“Absent all this gear at night, the best you can do is creep down the lake with spotlights on and visually going about 5-6 miles per hour. We’ve run this lake in the dead of night at top speed many times with this equipment.”

The equipment greatly increases the department’s ability to reach a rescue situation faster and safer than ever before.

Common Sense Boating

Because the Flaming Gorge is not considered a “high traffic” boating area like places on the east and west coast, Powell said people have the tendency to think boater safety boils down to line-of-site visibiity.

“If I can see another boat near me, then everything should be okay,” he said.

But he added there is much more to boater safety, and he would eventually like to share his training by offering courses to the general public in the near future.

In the meantime, both Blust and Powell encourage everyone to use common sense, and exercise safety first, when recreating at the Flaming Gorge Reservoir.