Quick Action Saves 2 Girls – 1937 [Missoula’s dangerous ditches]
Quick Action Saves 2 Girls
Missoula, Mont., Aug 19. (1937)
Virginia Mahan 6, and Betty Jean Mahan, 9, were rescued from drowning in an irrigation canal in south side Missoula today by Harlan Shea and W. J. Reuter.
The girls had fallen into the ditch while playing along the bank.
The life of Virginia was saved by Michael Ratigan, Missoula, who applied artificial respiration until she recovered.
Ratigan, father of Bonnie Ratigan, who was killed in an auto accident near Wilbur, Wash., Saturday, lost a small child of his own, through a similar irrigation canal drowning several years ago.
The above article appeared in the Spokesman – Review on August 20, 1937.
MISSOULA YOUTH DROWNS IN DITCH
Missoula, May 26–(AP)–Falling into the Orchard Home Irrigation ditch from a platform on which he was playing, Billy Ratigan, 7, was drowned Saturday evening. The boy was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Michael Ratigan, who farm on the outskirts of the city. His mother saw him fall from the platform, which jutted out over the stream and, though a pulmotor was brought from the city within a few minutes, efforts to revive the youngster were unsuccessful.
Billings Gazette, Billings, MT 27 May 1928