A Heroic Rescue on the Slough
When a 14-year-old girl suddenly lost the ability to swim in the middle of the slough, her peer's quick thinking and bravery saved her life.
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.
Bravery of 14-year-old Marian Wheeler one day last week probably saved Hazel Edwards, also 14 years old from drowning. The two girls, with Ruth Edwards, a younger sister of Hazel, were attempting to swim across the slough above the White Bluffs Water company pumping plant. When about half way across, Hazel suddenly cried out that she could not swim another stroke. Marian quickly swam to her and held her up until Robert Barrett, who was working on the island and who had also heard the scream, rushed down to the shore and rowed out to them in a boat. With a courage not less than that of her brave little rescuer, Hazel retained her presence of mind and permitted herself to be held up until she was taken into the boat, where she collapsed in a faint.
“Hazel suddenly cried out that she 'could not swim another stroke.' Marian quickly swam to her and held her up.”
This local incident highlights the daily perils of life along the Columbia River in the White Bluffs area, where the river's hydrology defined childhood play. Today, much of the landscape around the old water pumping plant site remains restricted or altered by the legacy of the Hanford Site, turning the geography of this childhood rescue into a site of restricted nuclear history.
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