April 18, 1902 Published on Fridays of each week
April 26, 1901 Editor's Note. The Resort became 12 years old last week and with this issue begins the thirteenth volume.
Man Drowned in Wall Lake (Blackhawk Lake)
The train arrived here at 10:30 a.m., and fully 1,000 people stepped from the cars and went direct to the boat landing. The Wall Lake Boat Company conveyed the crowd to the park in their steamers, but few preferred a sail or row boat as the day was exceedingly hot, being one of the hottest days of the present month.
The crowd that came on the train was augmented by a large accession that came by team from near towns and the country around here, till the crowd at Lakewood Park became larger than which assembled there on the 4th of July to celebrate Independence Day.
This pleasure excursion to Lakewood differed but little from other excursions here, except from the fact that the days' pleasure was marred by the death by drowning of one of the excursionists, the particulars of which have been wrongly reported to the daily papers.
It seems that in the afternoon about 3 p.m. a party of four from Audubon decided to cross the lake from Lakewood Hotel to the shore on the south of the lake to take a bath on a secluded place.
Jens. Christiansen, who runs a hotel and feed barn in Audubon hired a row boat with his eight year old son started to row across the lake, while other parties, three in number, Nels Sorenson, who has for the past four years worked for Mr. Christiansen in his hotel and feed barn, R. Rasmussen, a blacksmith, and Jens Kilgore, a shoe maker of Audubon, hired a row boat and started across the lake to a point agreed upon to take a bath.
When about half way across to the opposite shore which is near a quarter of a mile the row boat containing Sorenson and party upset. The water at this point is about eight feet deep.
Rasmussen thought himself a good swimmer and undertook to swim to shore. Kilgore hung to the boat, while Sorenson, who could not swim, perished in the water. The steamboat, "Lakewood" saw the men in peril and went to their rescue, but Sorenson was drowned. His lifeless body was recovered three hours later and brought to the undertaker, A. E. Forsyth, in Lake View.
The coroner of Sac County, Dr. Farquhar, of Early, was notified who came the next morning but an inquest was deemed not necessary. The remains were placed in a suitable casket and shipped on the noon train to Audubon where interment was made Tuesday.
Sorenson was an unmarried man, a Dane by birth and 36 years old. He had no relatives in this country, and left no property except two horses and $10.05 in silver, which was found on his person.