Tragedy on the Columbia River
A failed rescue attempt leads to the drowning of two young men in Wenatchee.
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.
Two young men were drowned in the Columbia River about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Both were employees of the Columbia Okanogan Steamboat Company. While attempting to cross from the Alexander Griggs to the Nixon, both of which were anchored at the docks, Fred Payne fell into the water and was instantly carried downstream by the swift current. His companion, Charles Hars, was right behind him and, on beholding his friend's predicament, he rushed to the door that was about midway back on the Alexander Griggs. The Griggs had swung round till her stern was about ten feet from the shore. At the point where the young man stood, the distance to shore was about fourteen feet. The young man evidently thought to jump into the water and wade to shore and then rush down the stream and attempt to assist his companion. He could not swim a stroke. But he misjudged the depth and landed in about twenty feet of water. He sank at once and didn't rise again. His body was pulled out about half an hour afterward. Fred Payne, the one who fell in by accident, was carried down the stream about forty feet before he sunk. His body has not yet been recovered.
“The young man evidently thought to jump into the water and wade to shore and then rush down the stream and attempt to assist his companion. He could not swim a stroke.”
The Columbia River remains a powerful and dangerous force in Central Washington, even as modern infrastructure has fundamentally changed how we cross and interact with it. The tragedy highlights the constant, often perilous, nature of the maritime labor that built the region's early economy.
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