The Logging Camp Fortune at the Bottom of the Bay
A logger's clumsy slip sends a mill company's entire payroll into the deep.
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.
A singular mishap occurred at Utsalady the other day, the details of which are as follows: On Thursday night of last week the steamer Favorite came into Utsalady, having on board two sacks, containing $1,000 each, belonging to the Utsalady Mill Company and intended to be used in paying off the hands at the mill. The sacks being quite weighty, Mr. John Longfellow, a muscular logger, was asked to carry them ashore, which he attempted to do, but when about midway of the gangplank he slipped, causing him to loosen his hold on the money bags, and the two sacks dropped into the bay. Divers were at once sent for, but it was not until last Tuesday that the treasure was recovered.
“The sacks being quite weighty, Mr. John Longfellow, a muscular logger, was asked to carry them ashore, which he attempted to do, but when about midway of the gangplank he slipped.”
Longfellow's mishap highlights the precarious nature of early regional industry, where payrolls were literally carried in hand across wooden planks. Utsalady, once a bustling mill site on Camano Island, has since faded into history, leaving little trace of the company towns that once powered the regional economy.
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