100 years ago in Spokane: Minnesota man’s memory restored after 13-year absence

The story of Warren McLean’s lost identity – and miraculous recovery – was, in the words of The Spokesman-Review, “stranger than a moving picture scenario.”

It began 13 years previously, when McLean walked out of his home in Minnesota, telling his wife and family that he would be back the next evening.

He failed to return. The family searched all over Minnesota, in vain. “Finally, all trace was lost, and we gave him up for dead.”

About 13 years later, a tree fell near Rose Lake, Idaho, and hit a man named Warren McLean, 80. He had been homesteading near Rose Lake for many years and had told his neighbors that he had come west after the death of his wife.

When the tree hit him, he lost all recollection of his Idaho life. However, it immediately restored his memories of his Minnesota life. He said he had a faint recollection of being “hurt by a horse,” but did not know where or when.

He believed he was back home in Minnesota, although he was actually in the county infirmary at Rathdrum.

Word was sent to his family, and his daughter came out immediately. McLean recognized her right away.

“Tonight he is as happy as a boy and imagines he is in the hotel at Crookston, the county seat near our old home town,” said his daughter. “He looks out of the Davenport Hotel window and comments on the great change that has come over Crookston. … Apparently, he has not the slightest idea that he has ever been west.”

She was preparing to take him home.