Fatal Collapse at the Northern Pacific Rail Grade
A landslide on the Northern Pacific line construction site leaves one laborer dead and several others injured.
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.
J. F. Kounnan, contractor for building the Northern Pacific Railroad from Puyallup to Black River, brought word to the city yesterday that a serious accident occurred at a point between the Stuck and White rivers, which caused the death of one Chinaman and seriously injured others. The point is about four miles from Sumner on the line of the road. The force of Chinese graders was at work near a high bluff or embankment. The bank slipped and came down on the men, crushing one and breaking both legs of another. The largest and heaviest part of the bank came directly upon them, and in addition to the two aforesaid, several others are said to be injured.
This incident reflects the brutal conditions endured by Chinese laborers who were the primary workforce for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Their history, marked by both essential labor and systematic exclusion, remains a fundamental, if often erased, part of the infrastructure story of the Pacific Northwest.
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