1947 Oregon Beechcraft Bonanza crash

On October 28, 1947, Oregon Governor Earl Snell, Oregon State Senate President Marshall Cornett, and Oregon Secretary of State Robert S. Farrell, Jr. were killed in a crash of a Beechcraft Bonanza in stormy weather southwest of Dog Lake in rural Lake County, Oregon. The trio died along with the aircraft's pilot, who was taking them to an isolated area to hunt Canada geese. Oregon Speaker of the House John Hubert Hall, being the remaining highest-ranking person in the line of succession, rose to the governorship.

The crash site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 18, 2018.

The incident

On October 28, 1947, a privately owned Beechcraft Bonanza airplane, piloted by veteran pilot Cliff Hogue, set out from Klamath Falls, Oregon, on a 70 mi flight to take three prominent Oregon politicians on a trip to hunt Canada geese. The small party included three of the state's top five elected officials: Governor Earl Snell; the person second in succession to the Governorship, Senate President Marshall Cornett, and Secretary of State Robert S. Farrell, Jr.

Prior to departure the top Republican elected officials had dined together at the Klamath Falls home of Marshall Cornett. Pilot Hogue had checked by telephone at that time to confirm that weather conditions had cleared up in the Adel vicinity.

The small red-and-white plane took off from the Klamath Falls Airport at 10:00 pm on the night of Tuesday, October 28, with a 30-minute flight planned to the Kittredge Ranch in the isolated Warner Valley, located about 70 miles to the east, near the town of Adel. The aircraft was slated to land at the Coleman Lake Landing Area, located about 8 miles south of the Kittredge Ranch where the party would be hunting.

The plane, owned jointly by Senator Cornett and ranch owner Oscar Kittredge, never arrived at its destination. Oscar Kittredge had remained at the landing site until midnight before returning home, and had contacted Cornett's wife early the next day, October 29, to learn if plans had for some reason been changed. It was then that it was determined that the Beechcraft Bonanza had gone missing. A search ensued.