Mystery Surrounds 90-Year-Old Car Wreck on Casper Mountain
A mangled car wreck, a familiar landmark below the Bridle Trail on Casper Mountain, has been the subject of local lore for decades, with many believing it to be the vehicle from a fatal 1937 crash. On July 25, 1937, a car carrying four young Casper residents, including 18-year-old Martha Shelby Park who was killed, plunged off Lookout Point. Newspaper reports from the time described the car as a 'grim monument' to the first traffic fatality on Casper Mountain Road. However, recent investigations, including one by Hanz Olson, librarian and archivist for the Western History Center at Casper College, and a theory from Casper resident Paul Ferguson, suggest the wreck currently visible might not be the same car from the 1937 incident. A casting number on the engine of the current wreck indicates it's a Dodge 218-cubic-inch flathead-six cylinder head, used from the 1940s onwards, making it too new for the 1937 crash. The car remains on private property, and Natrona County Parks and Recreation has no intention of...
