The Tragedy of Tommy Lake
A young boy drowns in the tide-swept mudflats of Ballard, marking a devastating loss for a local family.
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.
BALLARD, Feb. 15.—Five-year-old Tommy Lake of Ballard was drowned in the mud of Salmon Bay, near the foot of Sixth Avenue, Saturday. The dead body of the child was found Saturday night sticking straight up in the mud. The substance left at the bottom of the stream after the tide had gone out was firm, and in the opinion of observers, the little fellow's legs were as tight as if they had been tied. The child died standing. He drowned by inches. The receding tide carried away the water that covered him and sapped out his little life and left him upright as if he had just stepped into the land. Tommy Lake was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lake, among the best known citizens in Ballard. The father runs a boathouse at the foot of Sixth Avenue. Saturday morning he took his little son to the boathouse. The child was playing about the boats while the father was busy looking after his work. Later the child was missed and a search failed to reveal his whereabouts until the body was found in the mud.
“The child died standing. He drowned by inches.”
This heartbreaking event highlights the precarious nature of life on the waterfront in early 20th-century Puget Sound. While the industrial mudflats of old Ballard have since been significantly altered and industrialized, the story remains a stark reminder of the dangers inherent in the region's rapidly transforming shorelines.
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