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Thread: The Temiskaming Tragedy

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    The Temiskaming Tragedy

    This month marks the 30 anniversary of the Temiskaming canoeing tragedy. A group of boys and teachers from St. John's Anglican School set off from the shore of Lake Temiskaming for a long canoe trip to James Bay. Within a couple of hours, all four canoes had overturned, and - although all were wearing life jackets - 12 boys and 1 teacher were dead. Panic, waves and the freezing cold water killed them; Some of the bodies were found floating face up, arms outstretched, miles away, the next day. Others were found floating face down. Their hair had dried in the sun. Other boys made it the hundred or so feet to shore, only to die of exposure and exhaustion on the rocks. This link has a couple of photos and a review of a GREAT book about the tragedy called Deep Waters, which I read a long time ago. http://ottertooth.net/che-mun/109/109-9.htm
    Anyway, I remember lots about this because it happened a week or so before I was to go on a canoe trip and I was worried my dad would make us cancel. (Instead, he just pulled me aside and said "Do you know what happened on Temiskaming?" I said yes, and he just nodded and never mentioned it again. Our trip was great...)
    Last edited by duster; 06-02-2008 at 02:00 PM.

  2. #2
    Lisamarie Guest
    man that just awful!!!

  3. #3
    Guest Guest
    that would make a great movie........ how sad though.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Those little sneakered feel sticking out from under the tarp is just plain creepy

  5. #5
    Guest Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by duster View Post
    Those little sneakered feel sticking out from under the tarp is just plain creepy

    Oh man.... I didn't see that pic until now... I'm going to think about that whenever I see my sons shoes

  6. #6
    ApricotRoses Guest
    That's just horrible, I had not heard of it.

    When I was living in Vermont, one of the girls I worked with had a hubby that was a State Trooper. One day, some kids went missing in this gorge, where they WEREN'T supposed to be swimming.

    So, he was one of the divers that went in to look for them. It was a very dangerous gorge, people had drowned there before. Something went horribly wrong, and I can't believe this, but right on the front page of the local paper, they showed a picture of just his hand sticking up out of the water...... he drowned. That majorly sucked and was soooooo sad. They had just had a baby.

  7. #7
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by ApricotRoses View Post
    Something went horribly wrong, and I can't believe this, but right on the front page of the local paper, they showed a picture of just his hand sticking up out of the water...... he drowned.
    Ew.

    We had an example of the worst possible death (to me) up here a few years back. Some kids were swimming near a small dam, and somehow, one of the kids got trapped in a long, narrow tunnel-sort-of-deal at the base of the dam, under the water. The kid was obviously dead. One of the police divers volunteered to go into this narrow, claustrophobic underwater tunnel to recover the body. He got his hand on the kid's ankle - then he too became jammed. I'll never forget this. The diver slowly ran out of air and died even though the rest of the cops did everything they could to get a rope around him. They eventually got the bodies out - the cop still hanging onto the kid's ankle.

  8. #8
    lab_rat Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by ApricotRoses View Post
    That's just horrible, I had not heard of it.

    When I was living in Vermont, one of the girls I worked with had a hubby that was a State Trooper. One day, some kids went missing in this gorge, where they WEREN'T supposed to be swimming.

    So, he was one of the divers that went in to look for them. It was a very dangerous gorge, people had drowned there before. Something went horribly wrong, and I can't believe this, but right on the front page of the local paper, they showed a picture of just his hand sticking up out of the water...... he drowned. That majorly sucked and was soooooo sad. They had just had a baby.
    Gary Gaboury? I seem to remember that the picture showed more than a hand. I do remember for sure how horrific it was.
    Last edited by lab_rat; 06-02-2008 at 02:59 PM.

  9. #9
    #1 Death Hag Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by duster View Post
    Ew.

    We had an example of the worst possible death (to me) up here a few years back. Some kids were swimming near a small dam, and somehow, one of the kids got trapped in a long, narrow tunnel-sort-of-deal at the base of the dam, under the water. The kid was obviously dead. One of the police divers volunteered to go into this narrow, claustrophobic underwater tunnel to recover the body. He got his hand on the kid's ankle - then he too became jammed. I'll never forget this. The diver slowly ran out of air and died even though the rest of the cops did everything they could to get a rope around him. They eventually got the bodies out - the cop still hanging onto the kid's ankle.
    Oh my god thats so sad. And seeing that picture in the news paper with the troopers hand sticking out of the water must have been harrowing for his wife.

  10. #10
    ceege Guest
    That is an especially horrific way to die.

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