While much of the nation has been buried in snow and all-around bad weather for the last couple of months, Tucson has weather worth gloating about, even though we've had quite a bit of rain. But we have one snow story that will never be forgotten.
On Saturday, Nov. 15, 1958, six boy scouts began a hike to the top of Mt. Baldy. Only three survived to tell the tale and they owed their survival to the fact that two of them got tired and turned back with a third.
The survivors — Louis Burgess, Ronny Sepulveda and Ralph Coltrin Jr. — told their story the evening of Nov. 17, 1958. They said the other three boys — Mike Early, David Greenberg and Michael La Noue — wanted to continue because they were so near their goal. Having turned back, Louis, Ralph and Ronny reached their camp just before nightfall.
From the Arizona Daily Star Tuesday, Nov. 18, 1958:
The three quickly erected their tents and crawled into their sleeping bags. They had cached their equipment under picnic tables that morning.
It started raining at dusk and at midnight the rain turned to snow. During the night Ronny got up and lost his shoes in the darkness.
The snow buried them and the boys were unable to find them in the morning. Ronny is a Tenderfoot scout; the others are Second Class scouts.
(John) Early (father of Mike Early), who had made arrangements to pick up the boys Sunday morning, met Louis on the trail as the boy trudged for help. The two returned and escorted Ralph and Ronny to the Santa Rita Lodge, a mile and a half down the road.
Ronny — in bare feet — ran ahead and got to the lodge first. He was in tears and hysterical from the cold. His feet were slightly frostbitten.
The others arrived soon after.
Behind them they left silence and three boys.
A massive search was launched for the three missing boys. As many as 700 volunteers combed the area for days or supported the search effort.
A week later, on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 23, 1958, the sheriff called off the bulk of the hunt. However, people still continued to search, though there was little hope the boys would have survived this long.
On Dec.4, what was intended to be the last day of the search, Patagonia rancher Mike Knagge signaled that he had found the bodies of the boys. They were carried out of the mountains by 10 Ft. Huachuca soldiers.
They were found within a mile of Josephine Saddle, an area that had been searched previously, but the bodies had been covered before by at least two feet of snow.
A group of signs can be found at the site now as a sort of shrine in remembrance of the boys.
