Arthur V. Dean (1899-1920)

Biography 

Arthur Vincent Dean was born on October 20, 1899, in Colorado. His father immigrated from Sweden to work as an engineer in the stationary industry, and Dean was raised in Leadville, Colorado, alongside his two siblings: Andree and Arlene. Before beginning to work with the Bureau of Fisheries (Bureau) of the U.S. Department of Commerce, one of the predecessor agencies of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Dean worked as a miner in Leadville’s Greenback Mine. In July 1919, the Bureau appointed Dean as an apprentice fish-culturist at Leadville National Fish Hatchery in Colorado. In this role, he served as one of the Bureau members in charge of the station established to collect the eggs of rainbow and black-spotted trout.  

Cause of Death 

On May 23, 1920, Dean and William Lavery, another Bureau employee, drowned in Antero Reservoir in Park County, Colorado. On the day of the incident, Dean and Lavery left the Bureau’s camp to obtain supplies from the superintendent of the reservoir. After reaching the dam and obtaining supplies, Dean and Lavery began their return trip to their camp at 5:30 p.m. When the superintendent of the reservoir visited the camp with mail on May 27, he found the two men missing and instituted a search. Bureau members found the men’s boat approximately 200 yards from the shore stuck in the mud at the bottom of the reservoir. They found Lavery’s body fastened to the boat’s painter, which is a rope attached to the front of the boat for tying up and towing. The following morning, they recovered Dean’s body via grappling. 

Sources: 

“Arthur Vincent Dean.” Find A Grave, www.findagrave.com/memorial/133907181/arthur-vincent-dean.  

Bureau of Fisheries. “Changes in Personnel Appointments.” Fisheries Service Bulletin, no. 50, July 1919. 

Bureau of Fisheries. “Drowning of Fish-Culturists in Colorado.” Fisheries Service Bulletin, no. 61, June 1920. 

Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. “Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Population.” National Archives, 1910. 

“History of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, www.fws.gov/history-of-fws.  

Selective Service System. “Arthur Vincent Dean.” World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, National Archives.