An eighteen-year-old freshman drowned Thursday evening in Fall Creek Gorge, near the suspension bridge. Douglas Lowe ’11 of Shelton, Connecticut, was a student in the ILR school.
It took state police divers two hours to recover Lowe’s body from a 20-foot hole at the base of the waterfall. It is a hazardous place for swimmers, especially ones who are unfamiliar with the area. Overhanging underwater ledges, carved by centuries of erosion, can trap swimmers, and treacherous currents in the fast-moving water go in all directions, including up and down, according to an Ithaca Journal report.
Lowe was one of some dozen people swimming in the gorge, which is accessible from a stone staircase at the Phi Gamma Delta parking lot off McGraw Place. That section of the gorge has a tragic history of drownings, including Sabartomo "Danny" Sastrowardoyo ’87 in 1986 and visiting student Navin Parthasarathy in 2007.