A Terrifying Double Runaway at White Bluffs
Two schoolgirls survive a harrowing cart crash after a frightened mare triggers a chaotic chain reaction on the road to town.
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.
Two exciting runaways Tuesday caused several people much anxiety, broke up a couple of buggies, tore down a fence or two, and resulted in one horse being badly cut. Frightened when the rig to which she was attached caught in the gate, a mare belonging to Sam Brisco kicked herself loose from the buggy, dove through a heavy woven and barbed wire fence, and started for town. In front of the O'Brien place, she met Gladys Kruger and Aileen Sprague driving home from school in a cart. The Kruger pony became frightened, turned, and dashed into an electric light pole, wrecking the cart and throwing the girls to the ground. Dragging the remains of the cart, the little pony hot-footed after the Brisco horse. Unable to make the turn at the Shaw ranch, Brisco’s horse took the fence into the Shaw orchard where she was captured. The Kruger pony scattered kindling wood from the Helsom ranch to the schoolhouse, where she dumped what was left of a once perfectly good cart. Neither of the little girls was injured.
“The Kruger pony scattered kindling wood from the Helsom ranch to the schoolhouse, where she dumped what was left of a once perfectly good cart.”
While White Bluffs is now a ghost town reclaimed by the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the dangers of rural transit remain a vivid part of Washington life. In 1915, the greatest road hazard was a panicked horse; today, the unpredictable shifts of regional highway travel remain a similar, if mechanical, anxiety for those traversing the Columbia basin.
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