The Ice That Crushed a Man: A Frightful Death on White Pass
Louis Wrick was clearing ice near the summit of the White Pass when a massive block gave way, pinning him beneath tons of frozen weight. Another worker survived; Wrick did not.
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.
Frightful Death of Louis Wrick While at Work on White Pass
Another Man Suffers from Trauma. Latest Details of the Accident.
Particulars of the fatal disaster which occurred just 40 feet near the summit of the White Pass have been received in this city. The accident did not occur on the White Pass & Yukon road, as reported, but at a place about 500 yards from the track.
Three men, Louis Wrick, R. N. Steele, and John Anderson, employees of the railway company, were at work clearing away some loose fragments of ice which were overhanging the summit near the railroad. Steele and Wrick were engaged in undermining a large piece of solid ice which weighed about 25 tons, when it suddenly gave way and fell to the bottom of the cliff, carrying Wrick with it.
As it struck the ground it caught the unfortunate man underneath, doubling him up and breaking his back. Steele, who was carried along with the huge lump, lost one of his toes, while Anderson escaped with a few cuts.
The remains of Wrick were brought to Skagway, where they were buried.
This tragedy highlights the brutal, unregulated dangers of the infrastructure boom that built Seattle’s connection to the gold fields. While modern workers have safety regulations and heavy machinery, the White Pass & Yukon Route remains a testament to an era when human labor was expendable against the forces of nature and engineering ambition.
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