The Lostine school bus with 12 children was stranded in deep snowdrifts Tuesday night on School flat in the Leap district from about 5 o’clock in the evening until 2:30 Wednesday morning when rescue crews finally bulldozed their way through several miles of five and six foot drifts to reach the half-buried vehicle. All of the children had been taken a few hours before by horseback to the A. N. McCoy place.

First news that the bus was in difficulty reached here when Mike Moffit called from Lostine about 7 o’clock. His son, Keith, who drives the bus, had not returned from his trip. George Justice, county roadmaster, and a crew consisting of Ray Applegate, Bill Parks, Ben Bacon and Kenneth Day, left immediately with a truck, bulldozer, pickup and car. They were held up for an hour at Wade’s point by a snow slide six or seven feet deep and 150 feet long. They unloaded their bulldozer and cleared out a one-way road through the snow. Clarence Booth was blocked at the scene with his ambulance and the crew’s effort enabled him to proceed on his way.

At 2:30 in the morning the men finally fought their way through the storm and snow-choked roads to reach the school bus which was about a mile from the McCoy place. They found that Wallace Terry had come upon the bus about 11 o’clock while walking in to his place and had gone to the McCoy ranch where he got two saddle horses to pick up the youngsters. Three trips were made back to the bus. In the meantime the fathers of the children had started out with a team to locate the bus. In the group were the Lathrop boys, Bob Duncan, William McCoy and Gene Gastin. Their team gave out and they switched to a tractor, arriving at the bus about 20 minutes after the county road crew got there.

Some of the children were taken back to Lostine and others to their homes. In the bus, besides the driver, were Cathy Duncan, Dick Harmon, Carol Guisinger, Judy Gastin, Gene McCoy, four of the Ronald Downs children, Shirley Bowen, Darlene Bowen and Glen Bowen. None had suffered from the experience.