The Logger's Picnic Party
When a group of men looked like tramps in the Snoqualmie Valley, the locals grew suspicious—until they found out it was just a day of fishing and fun.
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.
George Bothell, the well-known logger and lumberman, addressed rumors circulating about a large party of forty or fifty men passing through Snoqualmie last Friday. Many residents suspected the group were 'tramps,' but Bothell set the record straight at the Occidental Hotel. The group was actually a picnic party organized by himself and his brother for their employees and some friends from Seattle. They traveled to the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River, where they caught over 600 fish and enjoyed a royal good time.
“We may have looked like tramps and we certainly felt as happy as tramps.”
This story highlights the perennial tension between the established townspeople and the influx of working-class men moving through the region. Even in 1893, the 'tramp' label functioned as a social shorthand for anyone whose appearance or status didn't fit the settled bourgeois ideal, much like modern NIMBYist reactions to unhoused individuals in Seattle.
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