Tragic Drowning on Wenas Creek
While parents worked nearby, a young child wandered into the treacherous, swollen waters of Wenas Creek.
Early Wednesday morning Letha, aged 4 years, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Davie, was drowned in the Wenas creek. Mr. Davie, who was until recently the manager of Mrs. Boyers’ grocery store, had just moved to the McGlothlen ranch on the Wenas, and while he and his wife were busy in the house the little girl wandered towards the swollen and turbulent creek and was in some way engulfed in its waters. Every endeavor was made to find the body of the child but up to the time The Herald was ready for the press the efforts were unsuccessful. It is now proposed to turn the waters of the Wenas into an old channel in hopes of thus recovering the body. Much sympathy is felt for the bereaved parents, who were bound up in their bright little daughter.
“Much sympathy is felt for the bereaved parents, who were bound up in their bright little daughter.”
Tragedies involving children and irrigation infrastructure or natural waterways remain a painful recurring theme in the history of Yakima Valley agriculture. The community response to such losses, then as now, highlights the deep-seated empathy within the local rural fabric.
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