The Treacherous Waters of the Columbia
The dangerous rapids near Waneta Landing claim two more lives as travelers attempt a perilous river crossing.
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 treacherous waters of the Columbia claimed two more victims on June 7 at Waneta Landing. The son of Louis Adams, formerly a resident of this place, was drowned with a Mr. Kline while crossing at the mouth of the Pend d'Oreille and nearly at the spot where J. Anderson and J. McCrea lost their lives five days previous, and where A. A. Bebee, one of the owners of the placer mines of Waneta, was drowned last September. The Pend d'Oreille has two high falls a few miles above Waneta, then a succession of lesser falls and rapids, causing a powerful current which sweeps nearly across the Columbia, and to cross the Pend d'Oreille it is necessary to row across the Columbia and it was in making this effort that these lives were lost.
“The treacherous waters of the Columbia claimed two more victims.”
The Waneta area, now a site of hydroelectric development and border crossings, remains a poignant example of how the geography of the Pacific Northwest dictated life and death for early settlers. The cycle of drownings at this specific confluence highlights the extreme hazards of frontier travel before standardized bridge infrastructure.
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