The Ghost of the Eagle Gorge Landslide
Months after a devastating slide on the Green River, a deputy coroner uncovers the remains of a laborer buried by the earth.
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.
Deputy Coroner Frank Carroll returned yesterday from Eagle Gorge, where he had been to investigate the report that a skeleton had been found near the banks of the Green River some distance below where the disastrous landslide occurred last spring. The bones lay close to a log and near where three other skeletons have been found at different times, and in Mr. Carroll's opinion there is no doubt that they are the remains of one of the unfortunate laborers who were never accounted for. There was not the slightest clue to the identity of the person, and only a small piece of a red woolen shirt marked the identity of his wearing apparel. The skull was devoid of flesh and had been rolled about by the waters and polished by the sand. One thing gave the evidence that the victim was a laborer, and that was a shoe clinging to a bony foot. The leather was coarse and the sole was nailed with rough nails such as are used in miners' and prospectors' shoes. Measurement of the thigh bone indicated that the man was about 5 feet 3 inches tall. Before coming away, Mr. Carroll interred the remains in the Canton cemetery, marking the spot where lie four unknown men, once buried beneath the Eagle Gorge landslide.
“The skull was devoid of flesh and had been rolled about by the waters and polished by the sand until it was a polished grinning skeleton.”
Landslides remain a recurring and lethal reality in the Pacific Northwest, where geography and heavy rains often conflict with industrial development. The 'Eagle Gorge' victim serves as a somber reminder of the hidden human costs of building the infrastructure that carved out the state's early economy.
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