This 1904 account from Lake Erie describes the terrible danger faced by men who crossed the ice in winter.
Without landmarks, a traveler could lose all sense of direction and wander until exhaustion and cold overtook him. In such moments, men sometimes trusted their dogs to lead them home through the storm. But even instinct had its limits.
In this case, a fisherman and his three dogs were caught by a sudden tempest of wind and snow while making their way across the frozen lake. Visibility vanished. The dogs, frightened or confused, could no longer find the right path. Yet they stayed with him.
When searchers found the party the next day, the man had frozen to death. The dogs were still alive beside him, loyal to the end, though one had gone mad from the ordeal.
Across Lake Erie in Ice
No landmarks can be seen — there is nothing by which to direct a course on frozen Lake Erie.
A man may easily be lost and wander until overcome. Too often this happened, and hardly a winter has passed without some such disaster.
A man so lost will often trust to the instinct of the dogs to find a way home through the bewildering storm and gloom. Sometimes, however, even the animals have been at fault. In a recent case a fisherman with three dogs was overtaken on the homeward way by a sudden tempest of wind and snow.
To see even a few feet must have been impossible, and even the dogs must have been overcome with fright or found that they were unable to guide themselves in the right direction. Still, though two were loose, they did not desert the man.
When the searching parties found him on the following day he was dead, frozen to death, but the dogs with him were alive. One dog, which had not been unharnessed, was mad, however, and had to be killed at once.
Source: The Coalville Times. Coalville, Utah. December 16, 1904.
