On a very hot summer day in eastern Iowa , two boy's on summer vacation went fishing on the Iowa river , like they had done dozen's of times before.

They were 11 and 12 years old,the best of friends and both were thought very well of by their parents.

They had the lunch that Mike's mom had put together, 25 minutes with out a bite, they had tried chicken livers , and dough balls .

They didn't want to go home because it was 15 degrees cooler by the river, this was before air conditioning was in every single home.

They never swam in the river, they would rather go to the City Park pool , It was the first summer that Freddy demanded that no one call him Freddy, He was too old for that now.
So Now it was "Fred".

Too bored to continue fishing they pulled in their lines and went up to sit on Doc Kehoe's wooden dock in the shade of a giant elm tree.

Doc's canoe was in the water, that was odd, it was always up on the bank and upside down.

They had been out in a Jon boat on a couple of occasions but that had oar locks and was easy to power and steer.

well, one boat length from the dock, they both put on the life jackets to be safe getting the canoe to go straight was a chore in the river currant , and working together to steer was a brand new to both of them .

now they were 600 feet from the dock , down river. they could go forward very slowly , but going up river was not in their skill set.

"Get to the bank " said Mike
We'll carry it back up , "PADDLE !"

the currant had pushed them to the middle of the river, the river was a foot low and very slow moving this time of year.

They both knew that they were in trouble, they both knew that around the bend was an electric roller dam , they both knew that neither of them had an answer to this situation.

Ditch the boat and swimming for it was not a possibility ,

turn in to the dam
well just ride right over it like a big wave !
hit it head on !

100 feet from the dam they got it pointed straight and paddled like the devil himself was chasing them .

four people on the bank were shouting stuff at them and waving them off.

Had the flood waters
of spring been flying across the top of the dam , their plan had a 30% chance of working.

Fred was in the front and the first one out of the boat, when Mike saw him go out , his legs made him jump twords Fred.

Mikes hand actually touched Fred's life jacket ,
as he passed him in the flight.

The four people on the bank were running now.

Mike tried to swim to Fred but he went down in the turbulent rollers, sucking him back to the dam.
15 seconds went by and Mike was 40 feet from the dam, Fred popped up once, then twice and got kicked loose from the dams torturous grip

Mike screamed hoping to wake up Fred, they were 100 feet apart now.

five hundred feet down stream Mike made it to the cut out bank , He'd stay there for 20 minutes until he saw a boat speeding up river from the park.

He had lost Fred while swimming in the other direction. but was waiting for him to float past, what could go wrong? he had his life jacket on.

then he remembered that Fred was not swimming when he saw him last.

Just as the Fire dept boat was getting to him he saw a second boat going to the other shore, 450 feet away.

An Eddy is a cut out , circular portion of the shore line, sometimes its because of a change in soil , sometimes a giant tree will fall over and
the currant just eats away at the roots.

An arm yanked Mike up and in too the boat, then headed for the park down stream ,go get
Fred, he screamed.

Fred's lifeless body was caught in the circular motion ,propelled by the currant.

Mike's life changed forever that day.

and 55 years later , the people who went through
that ordeal still know it as Fred's resting place.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bendable,