A Mountain Ford, a Missing Body, and a Father’s Search
Seth Catlin crossed the Upper Cowlitz to fetch the mail and never came back. Days later, his father was still on the river with nets set for his son.
Tacoma, May 24 — Special. Further details were received today concerning the drowning of Seth Catlin, a well-known young man and son of Charles Catlin of this city, in the Upper Cowlitz river last Sunday.
The young man left his camp in the mountains at 10:30 a.m. Sunday for a fifteen-mile ride to the postoffice. Arriving at the ford of the Upper Cowlitz, he hitched his horse to a tree, entered a canoe to cross, walked two miles to the postoffice, mailed letters and received mail, and started back.
His horse was found tied to the tree, and tracks on the bank led down to where the canoe had evidently been. The body has not been recovered. This morning’s special dispatch came from Kelso.
Today Charles Catlin, father of the young man, telephoned H. H. Holt of this city to report the results of the search so far. Mr. Catlin said the drowning probably took place at a point two miles above the ford of the Upper Cowlitz river. About fifty feet below the place where the canoe struck the bank, two rocky points jut out into the river. Mr. Catlin believes the canoe struck one of these rocks before the boy could get clear. Nets have been set at various points to keep the body from drifting. Mr. Catlin left town shortly after noon today for the river to resume the search.
Seth Catlin had lived most of his life in Tacoma. He was educated at Washington College, Tacoma, and at a business college in Portland. The Catlin family for several months had been living on their ranch at Catlin, on the Cowlitz, and Seth of late had been camping with Dr. Lonman on the Upper Cowlitz.
“The body has not yet been recovered, and nets have been set at various points to keep it from drifting. Mr. Catlin left town shortly after noon today for the river to resume the search.”
In 1895 a trip to the post office could mean a fifteen-mile ride and a river crossing, and a routine errand could turn fatal in country where communications were slow. The story also shows a family depending on telegrams, neighbors and dispatch riders to conduct a search in terrain that still challenges rescue crews.
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