The River Would Not Give Seth Catlin Back
After Seth Catlin drowned, his father and a crew of searchers fought an eight-mile-an-hour current with fish nets and telegraph wire.
Tacoma, May 31.—Special.—H. H. Holt today received information from Napavine that the body of Seth Catlin has not yet been recovered from the Cowlitz River. The fish nets that were set to catch the body have proven too weak for the current that runs at the rate of eight miles an hour, and have been torn to shreds. Monday a net was made of telegraph wire and placed in the river three miles below the point where Catlin was drowned. Another telegraph-wire net is being made and will be placed tomorrow in the river several miles farther down. Charles Catlin, father of the deceased, with a force of fifteen hired men and a large number of Indians, patrols the river constantly, on the watch for the body. The news came in a letter from Dr. Redpath of the Steilacoom asylum, a nephew of Mrs. Charles Catlin. He is assisting in the search.
“The fish nets that were set to catch the body have proven too weak for the current that runs at the rate of eight miles an hour, and have been torn to shreds.”
Before sonar and modern search-and-rescue teams, recovering a body from a fast Northwest river depended on homemade nets, hired hands and community vigilance. The Cowlitz's current remains powerful enough to make such searches dangerous today.
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