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This day in history: WSU student was missing after Hayden Lake scuba accident. Chamber boosted promotion of Grand Coulee and Dry Falls

Steve Ryan, a Washington State University student who was the son of a WSU professor, was missing and presumed drowned in a scuba diving accident at Hayden Lake, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on April 19, 1976. (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1976: Steve Ryan, 20, a Washington State University student, was missing and presumed drowned in a scuba diving accident at Hayden Lake.

Ryan was taking an advanced scuba diving class, offered by WSU, when a pair of student divers descended 100 feet. One of the regulators malfunctioned, and the two divers began “buddy breathing” – sharing breaths from Ryan’s tank.

After a few breaths, the other diver decided to make a “free ascent.” When he reached the surface, he reported that Ryan was “in perfect control.” Yet Ryan never returned to the surface and other divers were unable to locate him.

The search continued.

From 1926: A Spokane Chamber of Commerce caravan of 200 people marveled at one of the “greatest and most unusual scenic and geological areas”: the Grand Coulee.

“The Grand Coulee will probe a counter American attraction to the great wonders of Europe,” said Edison Worthington, the guide for the trip.

The Spokane Chamber of Commerce led a caravan of 200 to visit Grand Coulee and Dry Falls, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on April 19, 2026. The newspaper also ran a picture of Boy Scout Hubert Biggs, 14, posting a sticker on a car at a gas station at Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street. The Boy Scouts were out at gas stations in Spokane posting stickers on cars provided by the U.S. Forest Service that said: “I put out my campfire. Did you?” (Spokesman-Review archives)
The Spokane Chamber of Commerce led a caravan of 200 to visit Grand Coulee and Dry Falls, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on April 19, 2026. The newspaper also ran a picture of Boy Scout Hubert Biggs, 14, posting a sticker on a car at a gas station at Riverside Avenue and Monroe Street. The Boy Scouts were out at gas stations in Spokane posting stickers on cars provided by the U.S. Forest Service that said: “I put out my campfire. Did you?” (Spokesman-Review archives)

They gathered at the rim of the coulee – years before it was dammed and flooded – while a geologist explained some theories about how it was formed.

“The crowd listened attentively, some perched precariously on the edge of the 700-foot cliff,” said a correspondent.

Then the caravan visited nearby fossil beds.

“I’ll stay here till I find one of those five-fingered horses the size of a fox,” said one man.

Then they went to the “famous Dry Falls,” where groups of small boys “kept their parents frantically calling them from the edge of the precipice, where they tried to throw stones into the lake below.”