A Heroic Rescue from the Mill Race
A local man risks his own health to save a drowning boy near the Pacific Coast elevator.
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.
With considerable damage to himself, H. H. Wheeler Tuesday afternoon rescued Paul Robards, a 7-year-old boy of North Colfax, from drowning. Mr. Wheeler was at work in the rear of his residence near the Pacific Coast elevator when he heard the boy scream at the mill race, 100 yards distant. He ran to the scene as quickly as possible, jumping a high fence on the way. The boy was found with his feet hooked over a small log and his head beneath the water, in such a position that drowning was inevitable. Mr. Wheeler arrived just in time and pulled the boy out. In a few moments the boy was able to go his way, but his rescuer had so exerted himself that his neck and shoulders were badly sprained and when he reached home it was necessary for others to help him to bed. As a consequence, he carries a very stiff neck.
“The boy was found with his feet hooked over a small log and his head beneath the water, in such a position that drowning was inevitable.”
Mill races and industrial water infrastructure were common dangers in early Colfax. Today, these sites are largely gone or reclaimed, yet the story of neighbors stepping in to save children remains a constant theme of local civic life.
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