The Ambush on Black River
A quiet evening walk turns into a violent confrontation as a local man narrowly escapes a pair of disguised highwaymen.
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.
On Monday last, Mr. Henry Shotwell, living about twelve miles southwest of Olympia on Black River, was returning home from work in the evening when he was suddenly pounced upon by two men in disguise. He managed to rid himself from the grasp of one of them and felled him with a blow of his fist. When the other loosed his grip, Mr. Shotwell struck the grounded man with his axe, but was interrupted in the work by several pistol shots from the hand of the other ruffian, one of the shots passing through his vest. The business seems to have been badly managed on both sides; Mr. Shotwell did not mention the affair until the next day. Had he been prompt to report the fact at home, the footpads might have been captured, but as it is, they were permitted to escape without detection, and will doubtless be encouraged to pursue their calling elsewhere.
“Had he been prompt to report the fact at home, the footpads might have been captured, but as it is, they were permitted to escape without detection.”
This 1876 account of a rural road ambush near the Black River highlights the persistent, frontier-era anxieties regarding safety and frontier justice in Washington Territory. Today, the Black River area remains a significant geographical artery, reminding us that even as the region has urbanized, the rugged, isolated nature of the landscape has always shaped the local experience of crime and community response.
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