Tragedy at Long Lake
A duck hunting excursion ends in a desperate, failed struggle against freezing waters.
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.
The Grant County coroner was notified recently that Fred Molander, a forty-year-old rancher from near Adrian, had drowned in Long Lake while hunting. Molander, along with Frank Molander and J. Metcalf, went hunting for ducks; Fred ventured out into the water in a boat while the others hunted along the shore. Fred was about 200 yards out when his boat capsized after he fired a shot at a bird. None of the men could swim, but Molander attempted to paddle the upturned boat toward safety for half the distance. Overcome by the weight of his clothing, the intense cold, and sheer fatigue, he called out to his companions, 'Boys, I can't make it,' and sank. The body was later recovered with grappling hooks.
“Boys, I can't make it.”
Long Lake, located in the reservoir chain of the Columbia Basin Project, remains a popular recreation spot. This account highlights the stark hazards faced by early-twentieth-century rural residents who worked or played near water without the benefit of modern personal flotation devices or rapid emergency response.
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