A Terrifying Two-Mile Stalk in Snohomish
After an unarmed rancher was cornered by a massive cougar, a dramatic rescue mission ensued to drive the beast back into the brush.
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.
David Montgomery, of Short precinct, relates a somewhat thrilling experience and narrow escape from a monster cougar near Snohomish last Saturday. A rancher named Nesbett, living at Chain Lake, was returning home from Machias when he encountered the animal. Being unarmed, he snatched up the nearest club to defend himself with, at the same time crying loudly for help. Fortunately, Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Hasler, who were going in the opposite direction, heard Nesbett's cries, and coming to his assistance with clubs and stones, they together made a gallant charge upon the cougar, who took to the brush. No sooner had they passed on, however, than the beast returned to the trail and followed them close behind for a distance of two miles to the Pilchuck Road. The men speak of it as rather a close call and calculated to make each individual's hair stand straight up. We have Mr. Montgomery's word for it that the animal measured seven feet from tip to tip.
“The men speak of it as rather a close call and calculated to make each individual's hair stand straight up.”
Cougar sightings in the rural fringes of Snohomish County remain a recurring reality, though encounters on the scale of this 1892 narrative are rare today. The story reflects the precarious balance between settlement and wilderness that defined the late 19th-century Washington frontier.
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