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In December 1923, fur
trappers Roy Wilson and Dewey Morris left their camp at Little Lava Lake and came home to Bend to spend the Christmas holidays. Before returning to the remote cabin on New Years Day, they told their friends and relatives they would probably return to Bend in February. However, the holiday visit was to be the last time their families would ever see them alive. The two men were based at Ed Logan's cabin at Little Lava Lake. Ed was raising some rather valuable foxes for the fur trade and had hired Ed Nichols to stay at the cabin and care for the five animals. It was lonely out there in the wintertime, and Nichols was glad to have Roy and Dewey for company. The two trappers helped Ed a bit with the foxes and also ran extensive trap lines for martin, fox, and other fur bearing animals. |
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On January 15, 1924, Allen Willcoxen was making his way through the snow on a periodic inspection trip to the Elk Lake Resort, which he owned. He stopped at the trappers' cabin at Little Lava and, since the hour was growing late, decided to spend the night there and continue on to Elk Lake the following day. The four men got little sleep as they sat up most of the night swapping tales and maybe taking a little nip of moonshine now and then. Willcoxen left the next morning, and he was the last person from Bend to see these men alive. February came and passed, as did March and almost half of April. No one in Bend could figure out why the trappers had not returned. On April 13, two relatives set out to see what happened. One was H.D. Innes, a |
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brother-in-law of Roy
Wilson, and Owen Morris, brother of Dewey Morris. What they found when they
arrived at the Little Lava Lake cabin was disturbing.
An emaciated cat bolted out the door when it was opened. The breakfast table was set and food was on the stove. The calendar was still turned to January. Outdoor hats and coats were still in the cabin, and guns and traps did not appear to have been disturbed. But, the five valuable foxes were missing from the pens. This was ominous, indeed, and the men returned to Bend that evening. On April 14, Pearl Lynes returned to the lake with Innes and Morris to help in the search, and on the 15th Donald and Ben Morris and Redmond sheriff deputy Clarence A. Adams joined the searchers. For some reason unknown, Sheriff Samuel E. ("Bert") Roberts declined to visit the scene. However, Adams was reputed to be quite familiar with ...
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