This day in history: Teen’s remains found in Pettit Lake area one year after disappearance; Prisoners, with armed guard at watch, work to clean up Trent Road

From 1975: Searchers were combing the Pettit Lake area north of Newport, Washington, hoping to find Steve “Buzz” Martin, 15, who disappeared from a high school cross-country running camp.

The boy was “believed to have been running alone or picking huckleberries when he became lost.” He was a member of the North Central High School cross country team.

A 30-person search party and an Air Force helicopter were assisting in the search.

The search, as it turned out, would be in vain.

His remains would be found nearly a year later. The Pend Oreille County Sheriff believed he died of hypothermia after he lost his way in the forest. A later investigation indicated he might have been injured in a fall.

From 1925: A front page photo in the Spokane Daily Chronicle showed Spokane County Jail prisoners clearing weeds and brush on Trent Road.

For the first time in several years, prisoners had been put to work on road gangs in an attempt to make a stay in jail less attractive to vagrants. An armed guard watched over the men.

One prisoner was absent. Oscar Turner, told officers that “he and work had nothing in common” and he emphatically refused to go.

“To the dark cell with him,” the sheriff said. “And a diet of bread and water.”