Tragedy at the Swimming Hole
Two young brothers perish in a pool near Nooksack after one suffers cramps.
Two brothers aged 12 and 15, Fred and Meyer Knuteson, were drowned while in swimming in a pool near their home, three miles east of Nooksack last Saturday. They had been missing from the house only a few moments when their bodies were found locked in embrace in about four feet of water. They had often been in swimming in the water and the only supposition is that one of them had been taken with cramps and that the other went to his rescue.
“They had been missing from the house only a few moments when their bodies were found locked in embrace in about four feet of water.”
Accidental drownings remain a tragic reality in Washington’s rivers and lakes, particularly as summer heat draws residents to unsupervised natural swimming holes. This 1910 account of a rescue attempt between brothers captures the enduring fragility of life in rural Whatcom County.
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