Leelanau County MI Archives Photo Tombstone.....Fortine, Douglas ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/mifiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Harold & Linda Saffron lindaj50@charter.net July 13, 2006, 9:37 pm Cemetery: Maple Grove - Empire Name: Douglas Fortine Date Of Photograph: July 10, 2006 Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/leelanau/photos/tombstones/maplegroveempire/fortine52718gph.jpg Image file size: 88.8 Kb Douglas Fortine b. 1909 d. 1924 ------------------------------- TRAVERSE CITY RECORD EAGLE --- 23 Dec. 1924 – Page 1 & 7 Discover Youth Buried In Slide Believe Boy Killed Instantly When Avalanche Covered Him Holiday Tragedy Casts Gloom Over Entire Community–Searchers Labor For Five Hours The body of 14 year old Douglas Fortine, taken from beneath a snow bank at the foot of Sleeping Bear bluff by lantern light last night, lies in the front room of the Fortine home at Empire. Christmas doesn’t seem the same to Mr. and Mrs. Archie Fortine as it did before a giant snowslide carried Douglas to sudden death early Monday afternoon. Fifty men searched throughout the afternoon over every foot of snow in the vicinity of the slide and at 7 o’clock the body was revealed under five foot of snow. It was lodged in a wild grape vine, the legs upward and the head bent over the chest. Several bones had been broken in the fall. It was believed the boy died almost instantly. Douglas, the star of the Empire high school basketball team, was hunting on Sleeping Bear with Clifford Plowman, 18 year old, who also plays basketball on the Empire team. They were standing several feet apart when their footing gave way and the snow shot them downward. Clifford grabbed a tree and though he was badly bruised succeeded in saving himself. Douglas leaped for a pole protruding from the ground as he was hurtled down. The pole snapped and he carried part of it with him. When his body was found one arm was wrapped in a death grip around the pole, the other lying by his side. His companion immediately ran to the Sleeping Bear coast guard station for help and then to Glen Haven, where a sister of Douglas, Mrs. Lila Hunter, spread the alarm. Searching parties from Glen Haven and Empire were organized to follow the coast guard men. The first to join the searchers was Archie Fortine, the boy’s father. Mr. Fortine, who has lived in the vicinity for a number of years, works on the Ann Arbor carferry No. 5, and it was a mere chance that he was home Monday. The mother was persuaded to remain at home, but the boy’s sister, Catherine, a freshman in the Empire high school, ran to join the searchers. “We had worked steadily for five hours before we found him.” Louis Barr, Empire farmer, one of the two men who uncovered the body, told the Record Eagle this morning. “There were about fifty of us and we worked abreast, shoulder to shoulder, shoveling every inch of the snow. We knew that the slide covered about half an acre, but Clifford couldn’t tell us just where Douglas fell and we had to cover the ground strip by strip. At dark we sent for all the lanterns in the neighborhood and worked by that light the best we could. We didn’t stop to eat. It was just 7 o’clock when a man from the coast guard station and I stumbled over him. Douglas was resting on his shoulders, his feet were straight up and his head was doubled over his chest. The grape vine had him all tangled up and he couldn’t have gotten out if he’d tried. But I think he was dead when he struck. I don’t think he suffered any.” The father was working several feet away when the boy was found. It was 100 feet below the spot where the slide started.. By 10 o’clock the body was at the Fortine home. A new searching crew had been organized at the village to relieve the men who had been working all afternoon and was on it’s way when word came that the body was found. This morning funeral arrangements had not been made, but tentative plans were for burial the day after Christmas. Besides his sisters the boy leaves one brother, Charles, 20, who works on the Ann Arbor carferry and was away from home. There are three relatives in Traverse City, Mrs. Hans Anderson, Mrs. Thomas Sullivan and Mrs. Arthur Shea. Yesterday’s snowslide was the first that has taken a life on Sleeping Bear. It Occurred on the landward side, west of Glen Lake. About 12 years ago a mammoth landslide in midsummer carried about 5 acres of sand into Lake Michigan. ############################################################### BENZIE BANNER --- 24 Dec. 1924 – Page 1 Youth Killed By Big Snow Slide – Holiday Tragedy Casts Gloom Over Leelanau Community – Empire—Douglas Fortine, 14 year old Empire high school student, was buried alive Monday afternoon by a snow slide which slipped off Sleeping Bear Point, while fox hunting in company with Clifford Plowman. Plowman managed to save himself by clinging to a grape vine on the big slope and who immediately summoned help. Men with shovels responded at once but it was not until the next night that the body of the lad was found huddled under tons of snow and ice. Examination revealed several broken bones and it was presumed that he met death instantly. Sleeping Bear Point is about three miles north of Empire on Lake Michigan and is said to be one of the highest sand dunes on Lake Michigan. Funeral services for the young man will be held Friday afternoon at the Empire town hall. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mi/leelanau/photos/tombstones/maplegroveempire/fortine52718gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mifiles/ File size: 5.9 Kb