After two days of false starts and dashed hopes, divers recovered a portion of the station wagon they believe carried the Martin family of Portland on their ill-fated journey through the Columbia River Gorge decades ago.
Deputy Pete Hughes of the Hood River County Sheriff’s Office said the salvage crew working near the Cascade Locks Marine Park believes the chassis and motor they pulled from the Columbia River around 3:45 p.m. did, in fact, belong to the Martin family.
Officials won’t be able to confirm that it’s the car, which fell apart as they were recovering it, until they check the VIN number stamped on the engine. The car was full of rocks, Hughes said.
No human remains were recovered or seen as part of the process, which started Thursday but had to be postponed due to “significant debris” in the Columbia.
The Martin family vanished in December 1958 after driving to the gorge for Christmas greenery. Not a trace of them was found until the following May, when the two youngest daughters, dead, floated down the Columbia River.
Authorities searched the bottom of the river near Cascade Locks, but turned up nothing.
The disappearance fueled decades of speculation, with some coming to believe that evidence pointed to foul play. In 2018, Archer Mayo, a White Salmon diver, became interested in the case and started to do exploratory dives in the Columbia River.
On his dives in the Cascade Locks canal, he saw a wide swath of river bottom that was full of debris. Inspecting the original photos of the canal’s construction, he discovered the canal contained a massive “pit” that he concluded would almost certainly still have anything — including a car — that sank in it.
By all accounts, Mayo was right. He spent hours dredging the debris that had accumulated in the pit until one wheel revealed itself, and then another. Certain car features matched the 1954 station wagon model that had disappeared. Mayo alerted authorities to his find in February and, about a month later, officials organized an operation to retrieve the car.
News of the discovery drew onlookers to Cascade Locks on Friday, including Will and Leah McKee, who drove from Washougal to catch a glimpse of the recovery.
The pair learned of the Martin family’s disappearance a couple months ago. “We caught it on YouTube as a cold case,” Will McKee said.
On Thursday night, they went on YouTube again and learned the station wagon had been found. “It’s super interesting just that it could be solved and bring closure,” he said.
Next steps are unclear, given the authorities will presumably need to locate and attempt to retrieve whatever is left of the car underwater and human remains, if any.
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