Canoe Capsizes on the Snoqualmie River
A fishing trip near the Hop Ranch ends in a soaked scramble for survival.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
H. A. Schroeder, of this city, and two companions had a dicker in the Snoqualmie river Saturday. While fishing from a canoe near the Hop Ranch, the party engaged an Indian, as yet unnamed, to take his canoe down the river eight miles, and the next morning at 6 o'clock set out to find him. They all got into the canoe, and the Indian began guiding the craft down the crooked stream. The party fished, and were meeting with great success. They had taken about twenty trout, when suddenly Mr. Schroeder hooked a very large fish, and in his eagerness to land him leaned over, and the canoe dipped water. Instantly every one flung himself to the opposite side, with the result that the craft rolled back and entirely over, throwing the occupants into the water. One of the party swam ashore, while the rest clung to the boat as it ticked themselves to land. The old Indian was the maddest member of the whole party. The fishers lost everything—fish, lunch, tackle and almost their lives. They tramped to the Hop Ranch hotel, where they arrived as wet as half-drowned rats.
“They tramped to the Hop Ranch hotel, where they arrived as wet as half-drowned rats.”
Recreational fishing remains a defining feature of life on the Snoqualmie River, though modern anglers are significantly more likely to prioritize safety gear over the advice of disgruntled local boatmen. The Hop Ranch referenced here was a notable agricultural fixture of the Snoqualmie Valley during the late 19th-century hop-growing boom.
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