Rasmussen Fell Here

I wonder who he was, that man that fell in eighteen eighty-eight from a fifty-foot precipice in Monroe Canyon. We know his name, but who was he, really? Did he leave a wife and children? Are his descendents still around? I first saw the sign on the canyon wall several decades ago. It fascinated me. W. H. Rasmussen. Was he a local man? Maybe from Salt Lake City? A visitor from another state? Google says he was on a pleasure trip, but doesn't say much more, except that his throat was cut on a jutting crag on the way down. The flesh was also torn from his cheek and almost every bone was broken in his body. He was dead on impact. Not much pleasure in this pleasure trip! Why didn't they tell us more about him? So many things we don't know, and probably never will. Maybe he didn't fall at all. Who witnessed the event? Is it possible that he jumped? Or was he helped on his final journey by a not-so-gentle push?