The Gail Vanishes: A Launch Stolen From a Private Landing in the Night
R. L. Banta's gasoline launch disappears from his own riverfront landing. A steamboat captain half-remembers seeing her; a search up the Snake comes back empty.
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.
R. L. Banta's launch "The Gail" was stolen from the private landing at the Banta home a week ago last Friday night. Although a number of clues have been run down by Mr. Banta and the authorities, no trace of the missing craft has been found.
Captain Arthur Riggs, of the J. N. Teal, is certain that he saw the boat somewhere last Tuesday but as he took but little notice of it he doesn't remember just where. Mr. Banta and Sheriff C. E. Duffy returned last night from a futile search up the Snake river.
“"Although a number of clues have been run down by Mr. Banta and the authorities, no trace of the missing craft has been found."”
In a river town, a stolen boat was a stolen livelihood, and the search ranged up the Snake with a sheriff aboard—yet the launch was never recovered. The Columbia and Snake remain a maze of private docks and unmarked sloughs where a craft can simply evaporate, and 1915's dead-end manhunt would look much the same today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.