Survival in the Flooded Cascades
Two miners emerge from the mountains after fifty-two hours without food, describing a desperate retreat from a flooded mining camp.
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.
SNOHOMISH, Nov. 23.—A startling story of starvation among the miners in the mountains east of here reached Snohomish tonight. The report was brought by two miners named J. Keit and Fritz Ellington, who arrived in town at 5 p.m., after having been fifty-two hours without a morsel of food. Rains in all the mountain streams and adjacent rivers had hemmed the miners in on all sides, and their rations ran low and were exhausted. Reports of suffering in the district south of Monte Cristo have rapidly spread, and Keit and Ellington are the only ones out of fifty miners who started for this city three days ago who have reached here, the others dropping off along the road, famished and too weak to longer continue. Keit and Ellington say the men were lost in the hills far from civilization. Keit and Ellington are much emaciated and had scarcely any clothing. The true state of affairs was not known until our messengers, who had started for supplies, returned with the report that the lowlands were flooded. The food condition in the camps was now alarming, and a panic ensued. Pick and shovel were dropped, and for three days the miners sought new avenues of escape. Many lost their directions entirely, and their hunger increased to starvation. All burdens, such as bedding and firearms, were thrown away. Only after a severe life struggle did we reach town. Since our arrival, we have hurried back scouts with food, if possible to find and relieve the others.
“All burdens, such as bedding, firearms and so forth, were thrown away, and the desperate struggle to get out of the wilderness continued.”
The precarious nature of life in the Cascade backcountry has remained a constant throughout Washington's history. While today's mountain emergencies often involve hikers or climbers, this 1892 report highlights the extreme isolation faced by prospectors and laborers in the rugged mining districts east of the Snohomish valley.
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