Friday, March 16, 1951

LONG VALLEY --- The Jepson girls and Nancy Turner were lost in the hills about twenty hours before we found them yesterday. By that time a hundred men were searching on foot and the Boy Scouts had been let out of school to help. With the horses, we got to them first.

The girls were in trouble, sure enough, but it wasn’t serious. Barbara Jepson was hopping down Rimrock Canyon on a twisted ankle with Nancy and Darlene, the eight-year old Jepson girl, half carrying her along.

Barbara and Nancy said they’d gone up[ the canyon to look for crocuses and wild violets and little Darlene tagged after them. They were only a couple of miles from home when Barbara slipped and hurt her ankle. But it was already sundown and the other girls couldn’t go for help because Barbara was the only one who knew the way back after dark. So they huddled together between a bid boulder and the canyon wall, trying to keep each other warm during the night.

Of course they didn’t find any spring wildflowers --- there’s still snow on the ground inmost of the canyon, and older folks wouldn’t hunt crocuses there for another few weeks. But I guess spring always comes a little earlier for girls when they’re thirteen.