Tell, Richard M.

Subject

BIRTH 2 Jan 1955
Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA

DEATH 10 Jun 1972 (aged 17)
Rapid City, Pennington County, South Dakota, USA

BURIAL
Fort Snelling National Cemetery
Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA

Description

Richard was born January 2, 1955 Richard Tell and Dorothy Steffans Tell in Hennepin County Minnesota.

Richard was a Junior at Grace High School in Fridley MN. He had siblings Virginia Kemp, Michael , Elizabeth Brant and Dorothy Davies.
"It was like a camping trip after graduation"; when the six friends including Richard took rooms at the Miner Motel on Battle Creek the night of the flood.

Richard was with six friends in Keystone when Battle Creek flooded. Water was coming into the cabin and the door couldn't be door opened because of the water on the other side of it.

The water was four or five feet deep. The young people all grabbed mattresses to float on but soon the cabin floated down stream and broke apart.

The three friends who survived were able to get a hold of a floating buildings to stop their free float down Battle Creek.

Three of them didn't survive. Patricia Blomlie and Thomas Doherty died with Richard Tell.

Files

Richard Tell.jpg
Richard Tell Grave.jpg

Collection

Citation

“Tell, Richard M.,” Flood of 1972, accessed March 28, 2024, https://1972flood.omeka.net/items/show/499.