You may recall the three hikers who foolishly decided to wade in the swift waters above Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park and found out to their fatal dismay that it really was a pretty bad idea? Well, they were just the latest in a string of fatalities that leads back to the star of…
Today’s Plummeting Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
The first recorded death at Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park was 16-year-old Lucille Duling, who stepped into the abyss on August 22, 1924. Lucille was enjoying her vacation at Yosemite, a giant change of scenery from that of her life in Hollywood, which was then a dusty town of orchards mixed with the emerging film industry. After a grueling climb to the head of Vernal Fall, Lucille, along with her father and her friend Riva Straub, stopped to admire the magnificent waterfall that plunges 317 feet out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The teenagers posed for photos by the guardrail, but the girls thought that they could get a more dramatic photo if they were on the other side of the River of Our Lady of Mercy. Being late summer, the river was running deceptively low and the girls had no difficulty getting across the river for their photos. Riva crossed the river without a problem, while Lucille’s father changed the film in his camera. Lucille took a different route than Riva and started to jump from rock to rock. Perhaps she slipped on the algae-covered smooth river rocks or maybe the ice-cold water numbed her feet too much; whatever the case, the teenage girl fell into the river and disappeared, only to surface in time to scream as she plummeted over the ledge to her death. The panic-stricken father ran down the trail to the base of the falls, while Riva ran to get a ranger. Lucille’s lifeless body bobbed violently around in the pool, as her father tried desperately to swim out to his daughter. They retrieved her later with a rope.
Culled from: Death In California
You picked a fine time to leave us, Lucille…