The search for Gene Bailey, Arbon Valley, 1954–1955

In May 1954 seventeen-year-old Gene Bailey left his family's ranch home in Arbon Valley and walked toward the mountains. His family, their neighbors and then the Power County sheriff searched for him. He was not found until September 27, 1955, when a valley rancher riding through the hills came upon his body.

Gene was the son of Leland F. and Fay Bird Bailey. The family lived in Pocatello, where he went to Pocatello High School and belonged to the teachers quorum of the Ninth Ward, a Latter-day Saint congregation there. In the summers he lived at the family home in Arbon Valley; when the census was taken in April 1950, Leland's house there stood empty. His father was a son of Lorenzo and Chloa Bailey, whose story is told in the Lorenzo H. Bailey account on this site. In that account Leland's sisters remember that he was in charge of many of the dances at the Green Top school and was the valley's barber for quite a few years. Gene's mother, named Fay in the obituaries, was Dartha Fae "Dottie" Bird. She was "of Buist" when she married Leland in 1934, as the Bailey family history records. Her father, Henry Bird, had homesteaded at Buist, at the valley's south end, and by 1955 he lived at Brigham City, Utah.

Missing, May 1954

The earliest reports found came from American Falls, the Power County seat, by way of the United Press. They give May 9, 1954, as the day Gene left home. According to Sheriff Rulon Neal, he drove about half a mile from the ranch house, left his car, and was seen walking toward the mountains carrying a .22 caliber pistol. A report printed in 1955 put the car about a mile from the house. His parents, relatives and neighbors searched on their own, and they notified the sheriff when they could find no trace of him. One account says they called the sheriff on Friday, May 14. Another, printed in 1955, says they searched for eight days first.

On Monday, May 17, a United Press report said a full-scale search had been launched near Arbon Valley that day; the Twin Falls Times-News reported that the search was continuing. The sheriff said there was evidence that Gene had food with him and had warmed canned soup over a small fire. By the next day Neal had called off the search "until further notice." The report said Gene was believed to be in Utah, visiting relatives. The reports do not say what that belief rested on.

The Box Elder Journal later added one more detail. Its obituary says Gene had left his parents a note in May 1954, telling them he was leaving home. He had not been heard from since.

Found, September 1955

No further report of Gene has been found before the end of September 1955. On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 27, A. M. Anderson, whom the papers called an Arbon Valley rancher, was riding horseback through the hill country of southeastern Power County. He saw a body on a hillside, "all but hidden deep in a thicket." That night Power County officers went to the place with friends and relatives of the family, and made a positive identification. A .22 caliber pistol lay near the body, and he had been killed by a .22 bullet. The reports describe the place only as remote hill country in the southeastern part of the county, which includes Arbon Valley. They do not say how far it was from the Bailey ranch.

Power County's coroner, H. L. Davis, studied a pathologist's report and conferred with other county officers. He then announced that there would be no inquest. He said the wound was probably self-inflicted. With that, the United Press reported, the authorities closed their records on the disappearance.

His funeral was set for Monday, October 3, in the Ninth Ward chapel in Pocatello, with Bishop George E. McOmber officiating. He was buried in Mountain View Cemetery in Pocatello. The obituaries list his parents; two sisters, Mrs. Leola Daniels and Ila Gay Bailey, both of Pocatello; his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Bailey of Arbon; and Henry Bird of Brigham City (the Tribune adds Mrs. Bird).

What the record leaves open

The accounts differ in places. The Salt Lake Tribune gives Gene's birth as September 11, 1936, and the Box Elder Journal gives September 11, 1938. The 1936 date fits his age of seventeen in 1954 and matches his memorial on Find a Grave, where he is named Gene Le Roy Bailey. That memorial gives his death as May 5, 1954, four days before the date the papers gave for his leaving home. One paper set the funeral for 1 p.m., the other for 2 p.m. The rancher who found him appears only as A. M. Anderson, and he has not been identified with any family on this site. The Pocatello and American Falls papers of those months were not available for this post, so this story rests on the wire reports and on two Utah obituaries.

The story as reported

Provo Daily Herald, May 17, 1954, page 12. The original article is under copyright; this is our own report of what it said.

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho — Monday, May 17, 1954, brought a full-scale hunt in the country near Arbon Valley for Gene Bailey, 17. Nobody had seen him since May 9.

His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Leland Bailey, made their home in Arbon Valley. Sheriff Rulon Neal of Power County gave this account: Gene drove off from the family's ranch home, stopped about half a mile away and left the car there. Afterward he was spotted on foot, bound for the mountains, with a .22 caliber pistol along.

The Bailey family and their neighbors had hunted for the boy by themselves at first. Only when they came up empty did they bring in the sheriff's office.

Gene appears to have been carrying provisions, according to Neal. He also seems to have warmed some canned soup on a small campfire, the sheriff said.

On this site: the Bailey family, the Lorenzo H. Bailey account, the Buist area history and the valley's tragedies and hard times.

The search for Gene Bailey, Arbon Valley, 1954–1955

Missing, May 1954

Found, September 1955

What the record leaves open

The story as reported

Sources

Connected histories

Buist