Body of Harold Lyttle Found Near Vantage
A young boy's life is lost in a ferry accident, highlighting the dangers of river travel.
The body of Harold Lyttle, the 11-year-old boy who was drowned when he fell off the Vantage ferry about 8 miles above Beverly on May 20th, was found last Saturday morning on a bar near the Von Herberg ranch at Vermita. The body had been lodged on that point by the receding waters of the river. Sheriff James Shepherd and William Guernsey, undertaker, took the body to Prosser to prepare it for burial. The tragedy occurred on the afternoon of May 20th, when the little boy, who was playing on the ferry, attempted to push a log away from the ferry with an oar. The log turned over, causing him to lose his balance and he fell into the river. His father and the ferryman attempted to rescue him, but were unable to reach him in time.
“When he came up the last time they were close enough to get a pole under him but as there was no hook on the pole he slipped off and sunk from sight for the last time.”
Accidents involving ferries and river crossings were a common, perilous reality for residents of the Columbia Basin before the era of modern highway bridges. Today, the Vantage area is defined by the massive I-90 bridge, a permanent connection that replaced the dangerous river crossings of the early 20th century.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.