The weather changed dramatically when snow began to fall then increased in intensity. The teachers assigned to the two school buildings insisted that the children be taken home. Now facing blizzard conditions and despite his objections, driver Carl Miller loaded up the twenty youngsters and headed out. Unfortunately, the bus slid into a roadside ditch. It was an improvised rig: a bus body attached to a 1929 Chevrolet truck chassis with no heater or emergency provisions and two broken out windows covered by cardboard. Miller had the riders jump in place to stay warm; tried to create warmth by burning schoolbooks, resulting in only smoke and no heat. The children’s metal lunch boxes were frozen shut. Miller sent two older children into the breach to see if they could find help, but the severe conditions sent them right back to the bus. Miller left next.

Eventually the inevitable began to happen. Thirteen-year-old Mary Louise Stonebraker died. The children moved her body to the back of the bus. In the meantime, two fathers set out in a wagon searching for any clues as to the fate of the students. After not finding the children at the schools, they continued searching, eventually discovering the bus, and finding seventeen surviving youngsters there. Two more had died, including Miller’s eight-year-old daughter. The surviving children were put into the wagon and taken to a farmhouse. By that time, they had been in the bus for 30 hours. Mr. Miller’s remains were found 4.5 miles from the bus on March 28.

The press had a field day. The publisher of the Denver Post, Frederic Bonfils, arranged for an airplane to fly the children to a hospital in Lamar. He then focused on young Bryan Untiedt labeling him as the hero of the disaster. This publicity resulted in President Herbert Hoover inviting the lad to the White House. The tragedy ultimately led to reforms and establishment of standards for school buses nationwide. A monument to the six lost lives was erected near the location of the now long-gone Pleasant Hill school houses so as not to forget the heartbreaking event that happened there over 90 years ago.