It was 80 years ago today that Christina Peterson sat somewhere in the Great North Woods, presumably near a fire, sipping tea or coffee or whiskey and wrapped in a scratchy Hudson Bay blanket, and told the details of the previous night's sudden storm and how it had swamped the small boat travelling between the Camp and town. She would tell of the bravery of her husband as he clung to one of their daughters or Chabot as he helped her to shore. She shared the horror of watching her husband, Eyner, lose his grip on the capsized remnants of their boat and sink into the murky water and her two daughters disappear into the stormy night. She spoke, no doubt, of her night alone, huddled on a small rocky island, seeking the shelter of bushy evergreens and how she breathed into the collar of her bulky fur coat, trying to keep warm.
Word spread throughout the North Woods, to Chicago where Chabot had a residence, through the fledgling Vaudeville family of entertainers and eventually to the offices of the Izaak Walton League, of which both men were early members. Their deaths would be reported in the Winter issue in January 1933.
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