The Brutal Winter of 1893
A historic freeze and heavy snows devastate livestock across the region, while Seattle's own marginalized residents struggle to survive the record-breaking cold.
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.
Leading cattlemen of the state estimate that the losses of cattle on the open ranges will average about 25 percent from the storms and cold weather prevailing since January 24. Wolves and coyotes, made desperate by the weather, are more ravenous than for years and have become so bold that they attack animals near ranches. In Seattle, the snow and cold of the last fifteen days have brought considerable suffering upon the Indians near Sammamish Lake. A letter from C. Schailer, who lives there, states that three Indian families, consisting of fifteen persons, have been reduced to desperate circumstances. Deprived of the ability to hunt or fish, they have lacked groceries and flour for over a week.
“Wolves and coyotes, made desperate by the weather, are more ravenous than for years.”
This account of the 1893 freeze captures the precarity of life in early Washington, where extreme weather meant immediate threats to food security. Today's Seattle struggles with similar vulnerability during 'bomb cyclones' and cold snaps, though the impact now is often felt through infrastructure failure rather than the loss of livestock on open range.
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