The Cougars of Spangle
Predators roam the countryside, prompting fears for the safety of children and local livestock.
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.
The cougars are becoming too plentiful for comfort. One of these animals visited the place of Mr. August Ysager, who lives three miles west of Spangle, three nights last week and created a panic among the stock, and he now has to keep his stock guarded. They tracked the cougar in the snow and say his tracks are as large as those of a horse, and had blood in them, which shows that the animal is not going hungry. These animals have been seen in this neighborhood several times of late, and it is not safe for children to travel through the country while they are at large. Mr. Joseph Lucas and son William met a cougar in the road west of town in October, and the animal was in no hurry to give the road or make his escape. They thought they might tree the animal, and then send for a gun and kill it. They started for it and it trotted off very leisurely, looking back over its shoulder every few seconds, like a cat. It finally disappeared in a patch of brush on Mr. Lucas's ranch and they were unable to find it, although they rode all through the brush patch.
“The men were armed with pitchforks and were on their way to the hayfield. They thought they might tree the animal.”
While Washington's cougar population has long been managed, the tension between rural settlement and large predators remains a flashpoint for modern debates regarding wildlife management and the encroaching suburban-rural interface.
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