11 Year Old Boy Drowns in Deep Pit

Fort Dodge Messenger & Chronicle, Friday June 2, 1944

Search pond in abandoned gypsum pit looking for body of Dwayne Dolder

Dwayne Dolder, 11, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Dolder, 1217 south Twenty-second street, was drowned at 7:30 o'clock last night in an abandoned gypsum pit adjoining Eno airport a mile east of the city. He was the first drowning victim of the year. The body had not been recovered at 3:30 o'clock this afternoon. Firemen dragged the pit all night and through the day and are continuing their search. The pond is more than 30 feet deep in spots. Dwayne and a friend, Robert Douglas, 13, son of Marion Douglas, 1128 south Twenty-second street, rode out to the pit on their bicycles after their evening meal last night.

WARNING - Young Douglas' father today said both boys had been repeatedly warned against swimming in the pit. He said neither he nor Dwayne's parents knew the boys had gone there. Dwayne was unable to swim, but Robert is a good swimmer.

When they arrived at the pit, Robert swam out to a raft about 20 feet from the bank, and was soon joined by the Dolder boy, who paddled out on a plank. They were on the raft several minutes, Robert later told his father. Then Dwayne started to plunge in to return to shore. Young Douglas said he warned his friend against trying to swim the 20 feet, and suggested pushing the raft to shore, but Dwayne started out anyway.

The boy had taken only a few floundering strokes when he went under, Robert told his father. Young Douglas plunged in after him, he said, and tried to get the struggling boy to the raft. He said Dwayne pulled him under, so he broke loose and grabbed the boy by the hair. He said Dolder dragged him down a second time and he again freed himself, this time almost exhausted.

Robert called for help, and Richard Ellis, a junior high school student, who was swimming in the pit with two companions, came to his help. Ellis went in after the boy, and almost succeeded in getting him to the raft when Dwayne fought out of his grasp and went under. He did not come up again. The boys ran for help then, and the fire department was called.

Fireman A. J. Ryan, Harold Cottrell and Tom Balm began dragging the spot where the boy went down with grappling hooks, and searched the area through the night, working under floodlights when darkness came. They were relieved this morning by Firemen George Truckenbrott, Roy Ackerson and E. D. Mahoney. Believing the body might have risen from the bottom during the night, the firemen decided a net might be more practical than grappling hooks, and highway patrolmen brought a state conservation department seine from Humboldt about 9:30 a.m. Assisted by Conservation Officer Paul Leaverton, they dragged the pond the remainder of the morning with the net.

The pit, located at the southwest corner of the airport, was opened several years ago by A. R. Eno for strip mining of gypsum. No rock was removed, and the pit gradually filled with water. Members of the Eno family and their friends swam there on hot days, but the pond was closed to the public. Eno said large signs forbidding trespassing stand at the approaches to the pit and that he and his employees have frequently warned persons the pond is unsafe for swimming. Dwayne is survived by his parents and two brothers, one of whom is in the service. Many spectators watched the search for the body last night and this morning. For hours last night the boy's little dog stood guard over Dwayne's clothes where he had left them on the bank when he went into the pond.

Recover Body Of Boy Frowned In Gypsum Pit

Funeral Rites for Dwayne Dolder Sunday Afternoon

Fort Dodge Messenger & Chronicle, Saturday June 3, 1944

The body of Dwayne Dolder, 11 year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Dolder, 1207 south Twenty-first street, who drowned Thursday evening in an abandoned gypsum pit near Eno airport east of the city, was recovered last night, twenty-four hours after he went down in the water. Dwayne was found by Firemen Harold Cottrell and Thomas Balm in a deep hole near the shore. The spot was across the pit from the place where the boy drowned.

Fireman, Conservation Officer Paul Levearton and several volunteer workers had searched the pit with grappling hooks and a net with halt all night and all day. George Gruell and E. W. Rogers were working with Cottrell and Balm when the body was discovered.

Funeral services for Dwayne will be at the home at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow and at 3 o'clock at Epworth Methodist church with the Rev. B. M. Watson officiating. Burial will be in North Lawn cemetery. The body will be at the G. Marshall Young funeral home until 5 p.m. today. Dwayne was born in Humboldt March 3, 1933, and came here with his parents as a small child. He had attended Carpenter and Butler schools and was a member of the Sunday school of Epworth church. He is survived by his parents, two brothers, Gene Edward Dolder, fireman second class, United States Navy, and Robert Lewis at home, and his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Thompson and Mr. and Mrs. L. E. Dolder of Humboldt.