During the month of August, 1924, a Mr. A. Soper became lost in the woods. He was last seen alive by Mrs. Tom Size and her children, as he rode away from their home where he had spent the night, and travelled out into a northeast direction. When his saddle horse returned home two days later with an empty saddle, police were notified and a search party organized. Fifteen men spent five days searching the area without success.
During the latter part of March, 1926, Mr. R.K. Martin was in the vicinity where the original search was conducted. He found a man's broad brimmed Stetson hat on an end of an unused beaver dam, with part of the crown and brim protruding from the snow He carefully removed the hat and hurriedly rnounted his saddle horse to follow the two moving sleighs on the Muriel Lake trail which were used to transport his family and possessions to his new school district. Since the Martin family were leaving Ferguson Flats he passed the Hat to me (Ben French) who was driving one of the teams, and requested that I report this to the police. I did as soon as possible.
In June 1926, a second search party was organized, in an effort to locate the remains of Mr. Soper. The five members, consisting of Mr. Francis, Dr. F.G. Miller, Mr. A. Bowtell, Mr. T. Allen, and Mr. Fred Martin, entrusted me to formulate the first search plan which I did on the east part of Section 24-58-5-4. Luckily my plan was correct, for about 40 feet from where the Stetson hat had been found, Mr. Soper's body was found under a thickly boughed spruce tree.
Mr. Fred Martin and Mr. A. Bowtell were the first to notice the remains.
It remains a mystery as to what really happened to this man but it is likely he became lost and died from exposure.
