A 'Native Son' for the Toughest Town
While fleeing to California to escape the mountain snows, a stranded couple makes history in the rough-and-tumble railway camp of Skykomish.
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.
Skykomish was profoundly stirred this week over the advent of a baby. J. W. Ball and his wife, of Lake Chelan, were on their way to California, but owing to the snow in the mountains they were delayed much longer than they anticipated. When they reached Skykomish they decided to remain there, and what was intended to be a 'native son' of the Golden State thus became the first-born of the toughest town in the West. The event created more talk and commotion than anything that has occurred there since the town was established, not excepting the attempted lynching of the 'Big Kid' last week.
“What was intended to be a 'native son' of the Golden State thus became the first-born of the toughest town in the West.”
Skykomish, once a rugged, isolated railway outpost, is now a small mountain retreat. This story captures the precarious reality of early 20th-century frontier transit, where mountain passes dictated the course of a person's life.
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