When I published the article “The Forgotten Scouts Drowned in Magician Lake“, I had several readers ask for more information on the three men and five boys lost on Magician Lake in 1922. I promised them I would collect the resources I had and promptly send them over. Then I disappeared for a week…
Forgive my absence, but Facebook sentenced me to a weeklong blackout for using a colorful idiom with a social media troll. I have learned my lesson and will say “poopy face” from now on.
I found the outpouring of shock and sympathy from readers touching. A dozen or so actually lived on or near the lake and mentioned hearing of a Scout Island without knowing why it had earned that name. I even heard from the great-niece of one of Scouts lost in that sudden, tragic accident.
The most upsetting discovery is that no memorial or marker marks the site of this tragedy, either at Magician Lake or anywhere. A century is a long time. Even the worst wounds heal and fade in 99 years, but I was sure there would be something more permanent than 10 MBs of scanned newspaper articles and a few weathered tombstones.
