Scotts Bluff National Monument Superintendent Ken Mabery says the mood at the park is somber today, following the discovery yesterday of the body of a man who apparently fell from the Saddle Rock Trail.

It’s the first death at the Monument in about 15 years, and Mabery says today is a difficult day for members of the smaller off-season staff.

The body was spotted yesterday by a walker on the Saddle Rock Trail who saw a piece of clothing about 100-feet down a slope some 50-to-75 feet east of the trail’s tunnel.  Mabery says the clothing “mostly blended with the landscape,” with only a small patch sticking out.

Because death is so rate at Scotts Bluff National Monument, park rangers have discussed if there was anything they could have done to avoid the death, and Mabery says from what they know now, there wasn’t.

Scotts Bluff County Sheriff Mark Overman, whose office has jurisdiction in the case, says the victim is in his early twenties. An autopsy was being conducted this morning at Regional West Medical Center and more information, including a positive identification, is expected to be released by Overman