On the afternoon of September 4th, 58-year-old Daniel Zeigler of Snohomish was being towed on a tube about 60 feet behind a rental houseboat. The tube started plowing under water and Zeigler was pulled under with it. After holding on for a few seconds, he started to panic and signaled to the boat. It took a minute or two to turn the houseboat around, though, and by the time those on board reached him he was unresponsive. They pulled him into the houseboat and immediately began CPR. Shortly thereafter, Lincoln County dispatch notified ranger Adam Kelsey of a “man overboard” near Keller Ferry, adding that CPR was in progress. Kelsey, marina employee Patrick Schluter and ambulance crew member Eric Cassidy responded on a marina vessel. They found the houseboat in the middle of the lake near Sterling Point. CPR was continued with the aid of a bag valve mask and an AED, but Ziegler could not be revived. He was taken to the Lincoln Mill boat launch, where an ambulance crew continued CPR. A Med Star helicopter arrived on scene and the crew provided advanced life support care. Efforts to revive Ziegler were suspended following consultation with medical control, and his body was taken to a funeral home. This was the park’s second boating fatality this season.
