Tragedy on the Sammamish Slough
A mother survives a boat accident that claimed the life of her four-year-old son near a logging camp.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Arthur Day, four years of age, was drowned last Thursday under the following circumstances: His father works in a logging camp at Melrow, on Sammamish Slough, while the mother and the boy lived a mile farther down the stream. They got into a boat and started for the camp to see the husband and father. When at their destination, the boat in some way overturned, and the little fellow was drowned in a moment. His mother was carried against some brush, to which she held for an hour and a half, when she was discovered by one of the camp hands, who swam out to the boat and rescued the woman. Mrs. Day had well-nigh perished when help came to her. The loss of a child under such circumstances is exceedingly painful.
“The loss of a child under such circumstances is exceedingly painful.”
In 1883, the Sammamish Slough was a vital artery for logging and rural travel. Today, this landscape is unrecognizable, having been dramatically altered by the 1916 diversion of the Cedar River into Lake Washington, which permanently lowered the water levels of the slough.
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