Betty Sigler of Pendleton laid out a copy of the Saturday Evening Post, an assortment of pictures, and a collection of faded news clippings on the table, and then began to share the details of a chilling plane crash ten miles outside of Dayville that could easily have ended in tragedy 50 years ago.

Sigler, who recently moved with her husband to Pendleton from Woodburn and built a home near BMCC, was a student at the University of Oregon at the time the crash occurred. But her mother, her brother, and the family’s Black Canyon Ranch were all very much a part of the dramatic saga.

When the crash was mentioned in the “Days Gone By” section of the East Oregonian a month or so ago, she immediately started sorting through her mother’s belongings in search of the memorabilia.

Bruce Davis, a Fresno band leader and his wife Patty, were enroute from their home in California to visit his parents in Spokane on April 21, 1958, when they ran into foul weather and crashed their single-engine Cessna on top of 6988 foot, snow-covered Mt. Aldrich.

Patty, with a broken pelvis, was in no shape to travel. Bruce left most of his clothes behind to help keep his wife warm, created a shelter near the plane and that night left the crash site in tennis shorts and oxfords and trudged through four to six feet of snow in search of help.

The crash occurred within a quarter mile of a fully-stocked ranger cabin but Bruce had no way of knowing that, so, unfamiliar with the area, he went the other direction and wandered for 34 miles before sighting the ranch house belonging to Sigler’s parents. Sigler’s father, Doc, had just passed away and his widow, Mildred, had closed up the house and moved to town.

Davis couldn’t cross the swollen South Fork John Day so he continued on his long trek. About a mile later he found a bridge and doubled back to the ranch house. It was locked but he was able to pry his way in where all he could find was part of a box of rice and some firewood.

He built a fire, ate the rice, and then rested before continuing in search of help. He found another ranch house, this one occupied, but the owner, also a widow, was frightened by his appearance. Davis had found an old wool coat belonging to Doc Wyllie, a pair of heavy overshoes, and a fishing hat belonging to Mildred Wyllie which he was then wearing. The widow did tell him there was another ranch about a mile further along.

It was at the Robertson Ranch that he found help and the authorities were notified. An estimated 27 planes from five towns were involved in an aerial search for the crash site. The searchers also wanted to use a helicopter early on but the area was socked in and the searchers were continually hampered by bad weather.

By the time Davis had gotten to the Robertson Ranch, it was 6 a.m. on Thursday, April 24. Patty Davis had been lying on Aldrich Mountain since Monday afternoon.

Mildred Wyllie and her son, J., heard that Davis was at the Robertson ranch and drove up to talk to him.

A doctor came out from John Day and became frustrated with what she perceived to be the disorganization of the search. She said she didn’t think Patty Davis could survive yet another night on the frigid mountain top and suggested that locals who knew the area should be dispatched to find her.

J. Wyllie, who is Betty Sigler’s brother, Elmo Ridgeway, and Swede Carr headed out with just a few hours of daylight to find Patty Davis. They were within a quarter mile of the plane when a helicopter came overhead and signalled that they had rescued Patty from the scene of the crash.

It was 4:30 p. m. on Thursday, April 24, when the crew of the military helicopter found her in the snow and carried her to safety. The helicopter had been led to the crash site by a Cessna 170 in which Bruce Davis was a passenger. As Bruce Davis looked down on the crash scene, he didn’t know if his wife was dead or alive.

Patty Davis was taken to the hospital in John Day where her husband had already been admitted. She had been found only an hour before the air search would have to be called off because of darkness. The doctors who treated her in John Day said she could not have survived another night on the mountain.

As Bruce Davis lay in his hospital bed looking out the window just hours after the rescue, snow began to fall outside. It was the first time snow had fallen since the crash on Monday.

Ironically, Mildred Wyllie, who owned the ranch house that probably saved the life of Bruce Davis and ultimately that of Patty, had taken a job as an aide at the hospital and attended to Patty Davis for the next three months.

Patty Davis lost her right foot and part of her left but otherwise made a full recovery.

After Bruce and Patty Davis finally were able to return home, they invited Mildred Wyllie to Fresno so that they could entertain her. She was introduced on stage complete with a spotlight and referred to as the “Elsa Maxwell of Eastern Oregon” for having “opened her home so graciously” to Bruce Davis when he stumbled onto her Black Canyon Ranch.

After coming back to John Day, she continued to keep in touch with the Davis family.

Mildred Wyllie died in 2004.

George Murdock is editor & publisher of the East Oregonian. He can be reached at 278-2671 or gmurdock@eastoregonian.com.