Tag Archives: Crater Lake car crash

1934 Hollywood Beauty Demonstrators Crash at Crater Lake

1934 press photo of Doris Sparks and Audrea Mardelle

 

Researched by Larry and Lloyd Smith

April 12 1934 The bodies of Doris Sparks, 27, and Audrea Mardelle, 33, Hollywood beauty demonstrators are found 150 below the East Entrance Road in Sand Creek Canyon.

The two women had driven around a road-closed sign and while turning their car around in the snow, the Chevrolet car plunged through a weakened guard rail. The two women had been the object of an intense search covering the Northwest for 6 months. Their bodies and the car were found by snow blower operators as the East Road was being opened. The broken guardrail led to a further investigation and the discovery of their wrecked car.

Fearing the two had driven into the Columbia River during a heavy fog, the local sheriff drug the river in several places searching for the car. An airplane search was also conducted.

Apparently the accident happened on November 12, based on their intended travel plans. They left Spokane on the 11th of November and drove all night, planning to meet friends in Klamath Falls the next day. The two beauty experts had asked a service station operator in Crescent, Oregon about road conditions to Crater Lake. He warned them to not attempt to enter the Park because of heavy snows. The Park Service, based on this information, searched Sand Creek Canyon in November, but no trace of the car was found at that time.

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