The Illegal Slaughter of Cedar River Trout
Industrial laborers are accused of using giant powder to decimate local fish stocks, threatening the future of Seattle's most accessible sport fishing stream.
The story, cleaned up
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A large number of Chinese are at work grading on the Green river branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad at a point about three miles from Renton up the Cedar river. It is the habit of these laborers to procure their supplies of trout from that beautiful stream by exploding giant powder cartridges in the deep pools where the fish congregate and gathering them up while dead or stunned. After one of these cartridges has been exploded, the surface of the water is covered with fish of all sizes, from trout large enough for use down to the smallest fry. This wholesale slaughter is barbarous and illegal. Cedar river is the only trout stream which is easily accessible to sportsmen from Seattle. It need not be said that the destruction of trout fry by giant powder will in a year or two result in their utter extinction in Cedar river.
“This wholesale slaughter is barbarous and illegal, and the attention of our county authorities should at once be turned in that direction.”
The Cedar River remains a primary water source for modern Seattle, though today’s conservation concerns center on salmon recovery rather than trout poaching. The 1883 incident highlights a period where industrial expansion and transient labor camps frequently clashed with local natural resources.
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