Tragedy in the Woods of Lewis County
A young girl is taken by a cougar during a brutal winter storm near Ethel.
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.
A private letter written from Ethel, Lewis County, by Miss Girard to her father, reveals that during the last snowstorm a cougar came into a camp near Kilden, in the same county, and carried away a little Indian girl, 10 years of age, and ate the entire body, with the exception of the hands and feet. The father of the girl tracked the animal into the mountains for days, but failed to find it.
“The father of the girl tracked the animal into the mountains for days, but failed to find it.”
While wildlife encounters remain a reality in the Cascades, this grim dispatch highlights the vulnerability of remote camps during the harsh winters of the late 19th century. Today, such an event would trigger immediate wildlife management protocols and extensive search efforts, whereas in 1893, the father was left to track the animal alone.
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