The Unidentified Passenger
A tragic fall from a train near Badger leaves a man dead and the town searching for a name.
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 fatal accident occurred Saturday night about two miles west of Badger. A party supposed to be stealing a ride on passenger train No. 3 mysteriously fell from the train, which resulted in a badly broken skull, causing almost instant death. As soon as discovered, the proper officials were notified in Prosser, who came down on No. 6 Sunday morning and took the remains to that place. Nothing could be learned of his identity or where he came from. He was fairly well dressed.
“Nothing could be learned of his identity or where he came from. He was fairly well dressed.”
Railroad fatalities involving 'hoboes' or transient travelers were a common, grim footnote in the development of the Pacific Northwest. Today, Badger is a ghost of a community, and while train travel is safer, the vulnerability of the unhoused or transient population remains a civic struggle that rarely makes headlines until a tragedy occurs.
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