The Logging Camp Cougar Standoff
A Christmas-season encounter on a trail near Snohomish leaves a local hotelier shaken when his revolver fails him.
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.
The genial host of the Snohomish Exchange, Mr. I. Cathcart, had quite an adventure on a late trip he made from town to his logging camp some five miles from here. When about a mile from his camp he was confronted on the trail by a large cougar who seemed disposed to contest the right of way. The quarters being too close to admit of any equivocating on Mr. Cathcart's part, he drew his revolver, and when in the act of firing, through some cause, the cylinder dropped out. Whether through fear on the part of the cougar or for some other reason best known to himself, the brute skulked away, much to the relief of Mr. Cathcart, who found the position anything but agreeable.
“The quarters being too close to admit of any equivocating on Mr. Cathcart's part, he drew his revolver, and when in the act of firing, through some cause, the cylinder dropped out.”
In 1879, the rugged isolation of the Snohomish valley meant human-wildlife encounters were a mundane occupational hazard. Today, the rapid urbanization of Snohomish County has largely pushed apex predators to the margins, though the tension between growing human development and wilderness remains a central theme in local discourse.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.