Industrial Tragedy at the Far West Lumber Camp
A young laborer is crushed to death by a falling boiler at an Electron construction site.
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.
While engaged in moving a boiler at the Far West Lumber company's camp near Electron, on the Tacoma Eastern, about 10 o'clock this morning, Hugh McCulloch was crushed to death. It had become necessary to move the boiler, which had been used in pumping water for use in the camp, and 15 men were employed to do the work. As they were placing the boiler in position, it became necessary to stand it up on end. Suddenly, the boiler swerved to one side. McCulloch tried to get out of the way but was caught between the falling boiler and a stump, and his body was mashed to a pulp. The boiler, which weighed about a ton, could be easily handled by 15 men, but when it started to fall, their attempts to hold it were futile. With Hugh McCulloch at the time of his death were his brothers, Fred and James. He was 24 years old and was a good, industrious workman. His body was brought to Tacoma and is at Mellinger's undertaking rooms.
“Suddenly the boiler swerved to one side. McCulloch tried to get out of the way, but was caught between the falling boiler and a stump.”
Workplace fatalities were a grim, common reality of the early 20th-century logging and industrial boom in the Pacific Northwest. While safety standards have since evolved, the dangerous, labor-intensive work of building the infrastructure—like the Electron power plant—remains a foundational, if often invisible, part of Tacoma's history.
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