A Bear Hunt in a Hollow Tree
Two Snoqualmie settlers trap and kill a furious bear after an intense standoff inside a tree.
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.
Louis Gore and James Carroll killed a large bear in a hollow tree near their cabins at Snoqualmie last week. The men were walking through the woods when they heard something sniffing the air. Discovering the bear inside a hollow tree, Gore advanced with a small ax and struck the animal, wounding its nose. The bear retreated into the tree, and the men barred the opening to trap him while they secured a gun. When the bear tried to force his way out, Gore struck him again with the ax, keeping him pinned inside until Carroll returned with a rifle to dispatch the beast. After three shots, the bear was killed and dragged from the tree.
“With a growl of rage the bear withdrew his wounded proboscis and began rapidly to climb the tree.”
While wildlife encounters are still a part of life in the Snoqualmie Valley, this story highlights a time when the wilderness was significantly closer to the doorstep of local residents. It captures the rugged, often dangerous, reality of pioneer life in the Cascades foothills before modern sprawl took hold.
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