A Grisly Discovery Near Ballard
A young boy picking berries stumbled upon a gruesome scene north of Ballard, leading investigators to a suspected suicide.
By placing a dynamite cartridge in his mouth and lighting the fuse, W. A. Crone is believed to have ended his life some day during the past month. His body was found in the brush about two miles north of Ballard and fifty yards from the Great Northern track. Robert Dean, a 10-year-old boy living on C Street in Ballard, saw the remains while picking berries. Investigation around the place revealed the man's jaw-bone lying on the ground, with pieces of his skull hanging on the surrounding trees. When the clothes were searched, four dynamite cartridges were found inside the vest pocket along with a program of a variety theater, two mirrors, a watch, and a post-office money order, which led to the man's identification. The clothing suggests the man was either a logger or a miner.
“Pieces of his skull were hanging on the surrounding trees.”
Industrial accidents and suicides involving dynamite were a recurring horror in the early logging era of the Pacific Northwest. While the specific geography of Ballard has shifted from timberlands to dense urban development, the legacy of these dangerous work-camps persists in local folklore.
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