On July 25, 1877, in four simple declarative sentences, the Deseret News summed up a man's life under a “Drowned” heading in the “Local and Other Matters” section of the paper, sandwiched in-between notices of a horse that had to be put down and a meeting of the Twenty-first Ward. “On June 20th,” it reported, “at Coe and Carter's tie camp, Weber Cañon, George Carter was accidentally drowned, in the Weber River. An inquest was held over the remains, by a jury, before Mr. James McCormick, Coroner of Summit County. The verdict was that deceased was accidentally drowned while attempting to wade the Weber. From papers found among his effects it appears that Carter was formerly of Montreal, Canada.”1
George Carter was a “river hog” in territorial Utah's important but often overlooked tie and log driving industry, and on that day his life likely hinged on a single decision...
