Show Than Fiction families retrieved from river shack by the Sheriff NOTE The rS recounts a PJ Than title to his replete with a experience by and whom US to assist him in t families who had poles on a raft of We enjoy this the of the return by these STRANGER THAN FICTION i George Shiff 1 ol Duchesne County information from City Marshall that Leland Hadden to the old Ray lv In ranch on the Green Pit he is now running Sand had found that some-hid taken his poles and which he had put there a he course of trying to lout where they had Hadden found a car bearing Oregon license plate and rental trailer aban-Tta U- a the river bank close by He could tell by some C contents of the car that were small children tn-Lj and he figured that they ade a raft with the poles l posts and gone down the tree days later when he I back the car was i and there was no He then reported incident to the Myton City lahall he next It took and my and we picked Chuck Sands from Myton went down to determined from hi the car that it was to an Alvin Lynch of and from there was an-er man involved by the name Robert Sharp We called I information out to the Patrol radio station had them run a check on k two Sands suggested that go down the river twelve les to where the old Sand a ferry used to We had I back track up over the iches and go down Sand ish in order to get ci the old ferry it would be Biles into When we jived at the old ferry about we found that the people D had left the car were in old cabin at the ferry buck Sands owned and rated the ferry for a num-of and had also built cabin which is still h found that one occupant I Alvin and with him I his and his I daughters one years i and one about 3 years old I other occupant was Robert and with him were his I and his three-Ith-old baby They all staying in the told us they had left the 1 on and it had n them two days on their I to get down to the I because of stormy weather up these since Wednes-f. we asked them where they said that y had read in a magazine W the old McPherson ranch I what a nice place it had ld that it had been aban-H and they didn't think J Would care if they went I Jo This ranch was an inaccessible location Everything had to be PJ m on horses for In some of the history that Vern Muse has written about this he states that when the ranch was in its it had what was considered one of the nicest homes in this part of the It was also modem to the extent of having a bath a Home Comfort and an There was also an where they grew plenty of delicious including The supplies that these people had with them on their rafe with which to start out their new venture consisted of the their pots and an a small water some fishing some a few some garden and two tennis When Chuck told them how dangerous the river was and that it was 60 miles yet to the old ranch and that they had two dangerous rapids to go they decided they had better go back to We didn't have room to bring them out that and their car was twelve miles up out of so we gave them about four gallons in a can and told thorn they could walk up and get the car and go into Myton and get more gas and I and come out and pick up their During the it snowed and and we knew that it would be impossible for them to get out and also that it would be impossible for them to find their way on the road they would have to take to get back to where they had left their So early-Saturday morning I called the commander of our newly organized jeep Rudy and told him I needed some Wc took two four-wheel drive units and plenty of gas and went back to the cabin at the old When we arrived the men had gone up the river where their car had been so we took the women and kids and their supplies and went back to the forks of the road where we would have to turn off to go down to the old Thompson cabin where the car had been We left the women at the forks of the road and we took Rudy's jeep down where the men and their car was and brought them After we had picked up the women and started out I was questioning Kathryn Sharp who seemed to do most of the talking for the and I asked her if she was accustomed to going on this type of She sort I have explored in New You name and I've been When we got them out to the highway they thanked and I told them that if they ever decided to go on any more of these expeditions not to come to Duchesne THEIR TRANSPORTATION Two eight members In improvised this raft from old logs and rusty wire as a means of transportation down the Green River in search of an abandoned ranch they had hoped to Discovered at the Old Sand Wash Ferry the families were brought back to civilization by the county sheriff and It had taken them two days on the raft to make the |