Montrose Search and Rescue – The Boy Who Missed the Bus

In February 1958, 100 elementary school age inner-city kids from South Central LA boarded busses of the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) for a trip to the snow. For many of these kids, this would be their first time in the snow; for some their first time in the mountains. They were excited as they wound up Angeles Crest Highway, reaching Chilao Flats just in time for lunch. After eating and some exuberant play, roll-call was taken as the kids re-boarded the busses to head to the snow at Mt. Waterman a few miles away. Lots of snow-play, another roll-call to re-board and at dusk the busses returned to South-Central. Panic ensued when they came up one kid short, every youth worker’s nightmare. Ten-year-old Robert Douglas was missing. Another boy revealed he had playfully answered “Here” for Robert at both roll calls.

The sheriffs were called but the CYO didn’t know if Robert had been left at Chilao or Waterman. By morning the Montrose Search and Rescue team (MSAR) and the sheriff’s posse (a unit of horse-mounted deputies) were at both locations.

Robert had actually gotten separated from the group at the first stop, Chilao Flats. After finishing his lunch, he saw some flowers nearby. Hoping to pick a bouquet for his mom, the boy followed a trail of wildflowers, picking as he went. He hadn’t been paying attention to his surroundings and he suddenly realized he was completely alone.

Robert was terrified and tried to backtrack. When he realized he was truly lost, he remembered hearing someone say if lost, follow a stream. There was a stream there, which he followed in the wrong direction, taking him away from Chilao. All night the boy walked along the slippery, icy stream. He cried and prayed and was terribly cold as the temperature dipped below freezing.

The next day Robert saw a helicopter twice, but he was in too dense foliage to be seen. Another cold, desperate night was spent alone and shivering. The next day found him stumbling on his numb legs along the increasingly steepening creek-side. He finally crept out on a steep ledge above the stream and was trapped.

The search was in full swing at both Waterman and Chilao, where 50 searchers fanned out. SAR teams from both Montrose and Altadena, sheriff deputies, CYO workers and even Robert’s older brother were backed up by a sheriff helicopter that buzzed the steep terrain. The weather was deteriorating, getting colder with rising wind, and snow was in the forecast. As the second day turned to night the searchers were getting grim. Complicating matters, another rescue nearby was tightening resources.

Just as the sun was setting for the third night, a CYO worker, glassing with binoculars, spotted the boy far off on a cliff side. He radioed in and search teams converged on his approximate location in the dark. Four hours later (after rescuing some CYO workers trapped on a ledge), they heard the faint cries of the boy in the darkness.

It was too dark to take Robert off the slippery ledge, so the 13 rescuers bundled the hungry, exhausted boy in blankets, fed him his first food in two days and built a roaring fire. They settled in for the night in the freezing weather. In the morning, the rescue copter came in and spotted a likely landing spot some ways down from the rescue party. The copter roped a deputy with an axe down to the landing zone and he cleared the area of trees and bushes so the copter could land safely. The MSAR team carried the boy down from the ledge as his legs and hands were swollen and useless from frostbite. Despite his exhaustion, Robert grinned ear-to-ear as he was loaded into the rescue chopper for his first helicopter ride.

He was taken to a Glendale hospital where his frostbitten legs were saved after six days of work by doctors. One of the doctors remarked on the boy’s ordeal. “It’s hard to believe a human body could endure such torture.” Another successful rescue by the Montrose SAR.

  mike lawler