A Governor's Buggy Ride Through a Wall of Fire
Gov. Newell and Rev. J. K. Thompson returned to Olympia after a forest fire closed in on both sides of the road, scorching their faces and nearly dropping a tree across their path.
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.
Gov. Newell and Rev. J. K. Thompson returned to Olympia by buggy Wednesday afternoon, having passed through dangerous fires by the way. In one place a wall of fire extended on both sides of the road, with smoke so thick as to almost blind their eyes, and heat so intense that their faces were scorched. They came through this furnace with the horse on the run, just escaping the falling of a tree across the road, which stopped the stage a short distance behind them.
“In one place a wall of fire extended on both sides of the road, with smoke so thick as to almost blind their eyes, and heat so intense that their faces were scorched.”
In 1883, wildfire was already a deadly hazard on the roads around Puget Sound. As Washington's fire seasons grow longer and hotter, the governor's dash through a burning corridor reads less like a relic than a preview.
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