1945 — Nov 26, School Bus goes into Lake Chelan in Snowstorm, Chelan, WA — 16

–16 Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “16 Missing…School Bus…Lake Chelan.” 11-28-1945, 1
–16 Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “Chelan Plans for Memorial.” 11-29-1945, p. 1.
–16 Hammond Times, IN. “Navy Diver Finds Death-Trap Bus in Watery Grave.” 12-2-1945, 2
–16 Kingsport News, TN. “Body of School Bus Driver Recovered From Lake.” 12-4-1945, 1.
–16 Marysville Tribune, OH. “Abandon Search in Lake for Bodies of Children.” 12-3-1945, 1.
–16 McClary. “Schoolbus plunges into Lake Chelan, killing 15 students…driver…” 2-14-2006.
–16 San Mateo Times, CA. “Survived Tragic School Bus Crash [photo title].” 11-29-1945, 1.
–16 Seattle Times, WA. “Lake Chelan school-bus tragedy still resonates.” 11-20-2010.
–16 Times Record, Troy, NY. “Bus Motor Hood in Lake Chelan…Found…” 12-1-1945, p. 1.
–16 Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. “Small Community Mourns…Death of 15 Children.” 12-25-’45
–16 Twin Falls Times News, ID. “Rites Conducted for Victims of Tragic Bus Ride.” 12-5-‘45, 1
–16 Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Diver Fails to Find Bus at 248 Feet.” 11-30-1945, p. 1.
–15 Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). 1982, p. 424.

Narrative Information

McClary: “On November 26, 1945, the driver of a Lake Chelan School District bus carrying 20 young students and a woman, skids off South Lakeshore Road during a snow storm and plunges down a 30-foot embankment into Lake Chelan. The woman and five children manage to escape thorough broken windows and reach the shore, but the driver and 15 students drown in the icy waters. Two bodies are recovered soon after the accident, but the bus and remaining 14 victims disappear. After searching for a week, Navy divers finally find the bus sitting precariously on a ledge in more than 200 feet of water. The bus is carefully hoisted to the surface, but it contains the bodies of only four students and the driver. Lake Chelan has a reputation of never yielding its dead and the bodies of the missing nine victims will never be recovered. It is the worst school-related accident in Washington state history…

“Lake Chelan, located in central Washington state, is approximately 55 miles long, varies from one to two miles wide, and is the third-deepest freshwater lake in the United States, measuring more than 1,500 feet deep in places. The name “Chelan” is a modification of Tsill-anne, the Indian name for the lake, meaning ‘deep water’. Fed by glaciers in the Cascade Mountains, the lake flows into the Columbia River via the Chelan River. The Lake Chelan Dam, built in 1927 at the lake’s outlet to generate hydroelectric power, raised the water level 21 feet, requiring construction of new roads on the adjacent mountain-sides. Tragically, the new lake-shore roads were unimproved and lacked safety barriers.

“On Monday morning, November 26, 1945, Royal J. ‘Jack’ Randle (1921-1945), a Lake Chelan School District bus driver, was proceeding on his normal route along the west side of the lake, from 25-Mile Creek to Chelan, picking up school children. Mrs. Glenna Brown caught a ride on the bus, hoping to keep a dental appointment in Chelan. It had started snowing, but there was only a light accumulation on the unpaved road, so he didn’t bother putting on tire chains. But the snowstorm intensified, limiting his vision. Randle, a World War II veteran, had spent 26 months on Attu in the Aleutian Islands as an Army truck driver, so he wasn’t intimidated by severe winter weather.

“According to surviving witnesses, approximately nine miles from Chelan (now Lake Chelan State Park), a heavy accumulation of snow on the windshield stopped the wipers from working. Unable to see, Randle pulled the bus off the roadway to clear the windshield; however, the bus struck an outcropping of rock, sending it diagonally across the road, over a 50-degree, 30-foot embankment. The bus rolled over twice and came to rest right side up on a large boulder, with the front-end five feet under water. Randle, injured and trapped behind the steering wheel, ordered everyone to get out. There was mass confusion as the students frantically looked for ways to escape. Mari Condon, a student, managed to kick out a window near the back, but as she and others left the bus, it became over-balanced and slid off the rock. Only six passengers managed to escape before the bus disappeared into the lake. The survivors were Mrs. Glenna Brown, age 37; Donald Mack, age 13; Ethel Keck, age 9; Robert Watson, age 8; Peggy Rice, age 16, and Mari Condon, age 17.

“Having escaped through the broken window, Donald Mack swam ashore and clambered up the steep embankment. He found a U.S. Forest Service emergency telephone box on a nearby utility pole and called for help. On the road, Mack was joined by Robert Watson and Mari Condon and they flagged down passing cars, telling the drivers that the school bus had gone into the lake.

“Peggy Rice was credited with dragging most of the survivors from the water to safety on the embankment. Ironically, the first car at the scene was driven by her father, Albert R. Rice who, with his son Alan, had been a few minutes behind the school bus. After helping Glenna Brown, Peggy Rice, and Ethel Keck up the embankment, they looked for more survivors but found none; then, Albert Rice and other motorists took the survivors to the hospital in Chelan for medical attention. School officials were unsure how many students were in the bus. It was nearly 1:00 p.m. when an accurate count and their identities were finally established.

“Meanwhile, as the alarm spread, emergency vehicles were arriving at the scene from all over Chelan County. The Chelan Fire Department with a resuscitator was the first to arrive and stood by all day and into the night. The Washington State Patrol and Chelan County Sheriff’s Office established roadblocks to control traffic through the area. The Forest Service erected a shelter over the nearby emergency telephone that provided direct communications with Chelan and the outside world. The Red Cross set up a small canvas tent on the bank, providing the rescuer workers with hot coffee and sandwiches. A tugboat and 100-foot ore barge, belonging to the Howe Sound Mining Company, were moored at the water’s edge above the sunken bus to use as a platform for diving operations. But nothing could be done to retrieve the bodies or raise the bus until men with diving equipment arrived. Meanwhile, the snow continued falling heavily, at about an inch per hour.

“The Dives Begin

“Late that afternoon, two U.S. Bureau of Reclamation trucks arrived from Grand Coulee Dam, loaded with deep-sea diving equipment and air compressors. After donning their equipment, the divers, brothers Colin and D. S. ‘Mac’ O’Donnell, finally entered the water at 6:10 p.m. Since it was night, the divers used battery-operated spotlights to search the underwater embankment for any sign of the vehicle. They recovered the body of Henry Davis, age 16, and continued searching until 6:35 p.m. without further success. Limited by the length of the air hoses, they were only able to descend 130 feet on the first dive and sent for more air hose. Later that evening, Ben Thorson, a Washington Water Power diver, arrived from Spokane with a truckload of equipment. Meantime, the weather continued hindering rescue and salvage attempts.

“On Tuesday, November 27, 1945, the O’Donnells recovered the body of Forman Ronald Ayers, age 13, and followed a trail down a rock ravine marked by scarred rocks, yellow paint scrapings and broken glass. At 200 feet, the divers came to a ledge and the visible end of the trail. It was also the limit to which they could safely descend without special equipment. Recovery efforts were temporarily abandoned and buoys were placed in the water, marking the spots where the bus disappeared and floating debris (papers, lunch boxes and clothing) had been spotted. At the request of the Washington State Patrol, the Thirteenth Naval District in Seattle agreed to take over the recovery operation and dispatched a team of diving specialists and equipment to the lake.

“On Wednesday morning, November 28, 1945, Walter McCrea, an underwater salvage expert from Seattle, and seven Navy divers from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island arrived in Chelan with helium diving equipment and a portable decompression chamber, allowing divers to descend to about 450 feet. After talking to the original divers and analyzing soundings, the Navy divers determined the bus probably landed on a shelf of rock 280 feet below the surface and about 150 yards from the spot where it went into the water. The ledge, however, ended abruptly a few yards farther out in the lake, dropping to depths over 1,400 feet. If the bus was not found on the ledge, the experts conceded there would be little chance of recovery. Only a diving bell, used by the Navy for deep salvage operations, could descend to such tremendous depths….

“The search resumed in earnest on Saturday morning, December 1, 1945. Chief Petty Officer C. E. Meyers followed the trail of debris and found the bus shortly after 10:00 a.m., resting on a ledge, upside down, 275 feet from the shore, at a depth of 210 feet. After returning to the surface, Meyers was taken to the decompression chamber to recover from his dive. He reported seeing bodies, but visibility inside the bus was poor and he was unable to provide an accurate count.

“The next diver, Walter McCrea, fastened cables around the front and rear axles; then, winches carefully hoisted the wrecked bus alongside the barge so the bodies could be removed. Divers found only five victims inside the bus, including the driver, Jack Randle. They continued searching the area around the wreck site for the nine missing children, but recovery efforts were eventually suspended when no additional bodies were found….

“On Thursday, December 20, 1945, the Washington State Patrol released the official results of their investigation into the fatal accident. Chief Herbert W. Algeo explained the accident was caused by a blinding snowstorm that obscured Jack Randle’s vision, causing him to collide with a rock outcropping along the right side of the roadway and throwing the bus off its line of travel. Apparently, Randle didn’t realize the road was bending to the right and drove diagonally across the road, over the bank into the lake. Although no mechanical defects had been found which could have contributed to the mishap, Algeo vowed to intensify the state patrol’s semiannual school-bus inspections.

“Chief Algeo went on to say that it was incumbent upon school authorities to prevent busses from operating when weather conditions were unsafe. However, parents in the community pointed out that concrete guardrails, which were supposed to have been built along the lake road, would have prevented the tragedy. Ironically, on Thanksgiving Day, November 22, 1945, a front-page story in the Chelan Valley Mirror had quoted Chelan County Commissioner Leon Cronk as saying that the South Lakeshore Road would be improved and oiled in 1946….

“The victims who died in the school bus accident were:

Lewis Asklund, age 11
Barbara J. Asklund, age 8
Forman Ronald Ayres, age 13
Anna Dam, age 10
Karl Dam, age 6
Dorothy M. Davis, age 17
Henry T. Davis, age 15
Vernard J. Gilmore, age 7
Roger Douglas Hale, age 8
Lenley Stuart Hale, age 6
Jean E. Keck, age 13
Donna A. Keck, age 7
Larry L. Miller, age 6
Bettie L. Miller, age 9
Royal J. Randle, age 24, bus driver
Ruth Hawley, age 9….”

(McClary, Daryl C. “Schoolbus plunges into Lake Chelan, killing 15 students and the driver, on November 26, 1945.” HistoryLink.org. 2-14-2006.)

Seattle Times, 2010: “Chelan — Nov. 26, 1945: For people who lived in the Lake Chelan Valley at the time, it’s one of those defining dates. Like when President Kennedy was assassinated. Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they learned that a Chelan school bus with 20 children went into the lake.

“Fifteen of the children and their young driver — just home from the war — drowned in the icy waters that snowy Monday morning, the first day back to school after Thanksgiving break.

“Five other students and a woman catching a ride to town for a dentist appointment made it to shore after escaping through a broken window as the bus sank into Lake Chelan’s deep waters.

“The tragedy touched everyone in the Lake Chelan Valley. About 700 people attended a memorial service for the victims. Students raised money for a monument with the names and ages of those who died. A small park was built, and the monument was erected at the site where the bus went into the water, about five miles up the South Lakeshore Road….” (Seattle Times, WA. “Lake Chelan school-bus tragedy still resonates.” 11-20-2010.)

Newspapers

Nov 28: “…a school bus crashed into Lake Chelan after hitting a rock in a blinding snowstorm. The bus driver and 15 children were lost. One woman and four children survived.”

Nov 29, AP: “Chelan, Nov. 29 – (AP) – A floating buoy about 400 feet off shore marked the spot on Lake Chelan today where the school bus which carried 15 school children and their driver to their deaths Monday was believed to rest at an unknown depth. Bud O’Donnell, reclamation service diver, descended close to 200 feet yesterday and said on coming to the surface he could follow the bus course down the lake bottom through yellow paint scrapped off on the rocks. His equipment would not enable him to go deeper.

“The arrival of Walter McCray, Seattle diver, was delayed, but several navy men from the Whidbey island naval station on Puget Sound got here last night, with special deep diving equipment…” (Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “16 Missing…School Bus…Lake Chelan.” 11-28-1945, p. 1.)

Nov 29, AP: “Chelan, Nov. 29. – (AP) – The school children of Chelan, their young lips grim with grief over the loss of 15 comrades in Monday’s tragic plunge of a school bus into Lake Chelan, dipped into Christmas savings today to buy a memorial for their dead friends….as divers prepared for what might be the last attempt to locate the bus in 400 feet or more of water…” (Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “Chelan Plans for Memorial.” 11-29-1945, p. 1.)

Nov 29: “Bob Watson, 8, displays the heavy clothes he ware and swam in after the school bus carrying him and many school chums went off the road in a snowstorm near Chelan, Wash. The bus driver and 15 children drowned.” (San Mateo Times, CA. “Survived Tragic School Bus Crash [photo title].” 11-29-1945, p. 1.)

Nov 30: “Chelan – (AP) — Walter McCray, Seattle diver, descended 248 feet into the crystal depths of Lake Chelan Friday and discovered no trace of the school bus which carried the driver and 15 persons to their deaths nine miles north of here last Monday morning. State foresters dragged a powerful magnet in the lake, hoping to locate the bus….

“…one or two of the [surviving five] children today had returned to school from the 25 mile creek district where all the party resided. City and county school superintendents said no plans have been made for another school bus to transport the community’s remaining children, but they will meet with the parents on that subject soon. Parents may take turns transporting the children for the rest of the school year.

“Meanwhile in Wenatchee, Chelan county seat, county commissioners urged the state government to allocate $300,000 to install guard rails and straighten the road along the lake. Copies of their resolution went to Gov. Mon C. Wallgren and state legislators….” (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Diver Fails to Find Bus at 248 Feet.” 11-30-1945, p. 1.)

Dec 1: “First Creek, Wash. (UP) – Recovery of a school bus and its driver and 15 children was believed near today with the discovery of the vehicle’s motor hood under 170 feet of water in Lake Chelan. Navy Lt. L. P. Ross, working in relays with five other divers, found the hood late yesterday, leading anxious relatives of the victims to believe the big school bus had been located.

“The bus careened into the deep glacial lake from a narrow mountain road last Monday during the height of a snowstorm, carrying 15 children and the bus driver to their deaths. An examination paper signed by Louis Acklund, 11, one of the tragedy’s victims, was found on the sloping bottom at 150 feet by Diver J. C. Hannah. Walter Arthur McCray, commercial diver from Seattle, went down 265 feet in the deepest plunge of the day.” (Times Record, Troy, NY. “Bus Motor Hood in Lake Chelan Tragedy Found 170 Feet Down.” 12-1-1945, p. 1.)

Dec 1: “First Creek, Wash., Dec. 1. – (UP) — The body of Jack Randle, 24, driver of the school bus that Monday carried him and 15 students to their death in a plunge into Lake Chelan, was among five recovered from the school bus tonight by a diver. The bus was found under 210 feet of water earlier today by a Navy diver, C. E Meyer. He telephoned his discovery from the depths of the lake, stating that he had found the bus lying on its back, headed toward shore on a 65-degree slope.

“An earlier plan of towing the bus underwater to Lakeside, Wash., nine miles toward the outlet of the lake, was changed when it was found possible to pry open the jammed door of the bus.” (Hammond Times, IN. “Navy Diver Finds Death-Trap Bus in Watery Grave.” 12-2-1945, p. 2.)

Dec 3: “Chelan, Wash., Dec. 3. – The saddened community of Chelan, Wash., abandoned the bodies of nine children to the icy waters of Lake Chelan today, while a group funeral was planned for others in last week’s school bus disaster. Four dead children, aged 6 to 16, will be buried Wednesday while memorial services are held at the lake’s edge where their bus plunged off a road during a snow storm. Stores and schools will close.

“The cause of the deaths of 16 victims remained unknown as the dripping bus, raised from 210 feet of water, revealed no mechanical defects to the eyes of state patrol examiners. Brakes and tires were sound except for a smooth left front tire. The emergency brake had not been applied. The five survivors stated the bus had turned slowly sideways before plummeting off the narrow road.” (Marysville Tribune, OH. “Abandon Search in Lake for Bodies of Children.” 12-3-1945.)

Dec 4: “Divers raise the body of Jack Randle…driver of a school bus which plunged into Lake Chelan near Chelan, Wash., November 26, carrying him and 15 children to death. The divers found the bus in more than 200 feet of water, raised it near the surface and removed several bodies.” (Kingsport News, TN. “Body of School Bus Driver Recovered From Lake.” 12-4-1945, 1.)

Dec 5, AP: “Chelan, Wash., Dec 5 (UP) — Sorrowful friends and relatives today thronged Chelan’s Masonic, temple ,as this little Washington community paid tribute to the 16 victims drowned when a school bus…[unclear, looks like “slid”] into Lake Chelan in a snow storm.

“Five small silver caskets were lined up, side by side and the public was invited to visit the auditorium. Three of the caskets were opened before the afternoon funeral services.

“Families of three of the children visited the funeral home last night to view the bodies. The parents and five remaining school children in the little community of Twenty-Five-Mile Creek drove to Chelan on the winding mountain road from which the big yellow bus hurtled from a cliff a week ago Monday morning. Still in the icy lake were the bodies of nine victims and lakeside services were planned later today.” (Twin Falls Times News, ID. “Rites Conducted for Victims of Tragic Bus Ride.” 12-5-1945, p. 1.)

Dec 6: “Chelan, Dec. 6. – (AP) – ‘Happy birthday to you,’ the man and woman sang as they knelt in the chill twilight on the shore of Lake Chelan, in front of them a cake whose seven candles tried hard to push back the coming darkness. On the cake’s icing was the message “Stewart, 7,” for Stewart Hale, who had no birthday party yesterday because he was one of the children in the school bus that recently plunged into the deep lake.

“His brother, Douglas, 8, also died in the tragedy. Mr. and Mrs. Roger Hale, the parents, couldn’t quite get through the song, and when they could not continue, slowly rose ‘and walked from the tiny circle of light.” (Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “Unhappy Birthday.” 12-6-1945.)

Dec 25: “First Creek, Wash., Dec. 25. (UP) – The spirit of Christmas was dead here today. It died one month ago when a school bus plunged into the icy waters of Lake Chelan, taking with it the lives of the driver and 15 of this rural community’s children. There could be no thought of a joyful holiday as somber parents found only remorse in the realization that six of their children were lying in snow-covered graves and nine others remained imprisoned in the lake’s depths.

“Visiting the tiny row of houses on this gray Christmas morning was a depressing experience. Parents made little pretense at forgetting their loss.

“Mrs. Glenna Brown, the heroine of the tragedy who helped several other youthful bus passengers to safety, spoke for the villagers. “I can still hear the helpless cries and screaming of those children,” she reflected. “I can imagine how it must be for the Davis’s, the Millers, the Kecks, the Dams, the Asklands, the Hales, and all the others’.” (Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. “Small Community Mourns Today Death of 15 Children.” 12-25-1945, 5.)

Sources

Cornell, James. The Great International Disaster Book (Third Edition). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1982.

Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “16 Missing After School Bus Plunges into Lake Chelan.” 11-28-1945, 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=79540917

Daily Chronicle, Centralia, WA. “Chelan Plans for Memorial [School Bus/Lake Chelan Disaster].”11-29-1945, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=79540923

Hammond Times, IN. “Navy Diver Finds Death-Trap Bus in Watery Grave.” 12-2-1945, p. 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=36671245

Kingsport News, TN. “Body of School Bus Driver Recovered From Lake.” 12-4-1945, 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=49016502

Marysville Tribune, OH. “Abandon Search in Lake for Bodies of Children.” 12-3-1945, 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=114364515

McClary, Daryl C. “Schoolbus plunges into Lake Chelan, killing 15 students and the driver, on November 26, 1945.” HistoryLink.org. 2-14-2006. Accessed 12-19-2011 at: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7645

San Mateo Times, CA. “Survived Tragic School Bus Crash [photo title].” 11-29-1945, p. 1. Accessed 7-24-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/san-mateo-times-nov-29-1945-p-4/

Seattle Times, WA. “Lake Chelan school-bus tragedy still resonates.” 11-20-2010. Accessed at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013485163_chelantragedy21.html

Times Record, Troy, NY. “Bus Motor Hood in Lake Chelan Tragedy Found 170 Feet Down.” 12-1-1945, p. 1. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=40316832

Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. “Small Community Mourns Today Death of 15 Children.” 12-25-1945, 5. At: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=91928116

Twin Falls Times News, ID. “Rites Conducted for Victims of Tragic Bus Ride.” 12-5-1945, 1. http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=169426378

Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, WA. “Diver Fails to Find Bus at 248 Feet.” 11-30-1945, 1. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=19272549