News: Wisconsin Deer Hunting Season Fatalities - 1952

Contact: Stan

Email: :stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Waldron, Kamanski, Gordon, Tone, Hollenbacher, Cummins, Kohlman, Luostari, Levampaa, Carlson, Downs

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 12/04/1952

Final Day Toll is 11 Hunters

Death toll of Wisconsin’s 1952 deer season reached 11 Friday.

Deaths by natural causes, however, were well off the average with only two reported. Overexertion usually equals or surpasses firearms as cause of death in the deer woods. In addition, one man drowned this year.

The 1952 toll of 11 compares with 16 in 1951. Last year’s seven day total included eight gunfire victims, seven deaths due to heart attacks and one drowning.

The conservation department said Friday that the 1951 ratio of gunshot victims was 1 to 36,515 hunters. This year, on the basis of the estimate of 250,000 hunters, that ratio was 1 to 32,250. The ratio 13 years ago was 1 to 10,000, the department said.

Latest gunshot death reported was that of Raymond Waldron, 38, of Kenosha, who was killed Thursday while hunting with a party of six near Merrill. The Lincoln county sheriff’s office declined to furnish any details pending the outcome of an investigation.

Chester Kamanski, 44, East Chicago, Ind., drowned in Lake Superior Wednesday when a small boat capsized in heavy seas. Kamanski had been hunting on Basswood Island in the Apostle group. The accident happened as he and two companions rowed out to a fishing tug for the return trip to the mainland. Kamanski was swept under.

Francis Gordon of Red Cliff swam back to shore while the other companion, Arthur Tone of Ashland hung on to the overturned rowboat and was rescued.

Fred Hollenbacher, 43, Milwaukee, died Wednesday of a wound in the chest. He was shot Monday while hunting near Middle Inlet, about 25 miles northwest of Marinette. Authorities were attempting to trace the source of the bullet.

Lee Cummins, 30, of Athelstane, was wounded critically in the spine Thursday when a rifle fired as his father was taking it out of a case, Marinette County Under-sheriff Mariner Kohlman reported. The bullet also tore off the tip of the ring finger on the hand of his father, Robert Cummins, 58.

The final gunshot fatality was Eric Luostari, age 56, of Maple (Douglas county), who was killed Friday afternoon east of Superior. Authorities said he was shot accidentally by a hunting companion, John Levampaa, also of Maple.

Elmer Carlson, age 50, of Nye, Wis., died of a heart attack shortly before midnight Friday at a hunting camp two miles east of Moose Junction, in the southwest corner of Douglas county. Coroner William Downs attributed the death to overexertion due to the rigors of the hunt.