A Fatal Day in the Timber
A young man from Michigan was killed instantly while logging in the Wishkah River valley.
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.
Edward C. Ferguson lost his life at Payette's logging camp, up the Wishkah, last Friday evening. Ferguson was engaged with another man sawing down trees. They had just sawed a large tree and stepped one side for it to fall. In doing so, it struck a smaller tree, breaking off about twenty-five feet of its top, which came crashing down upon Ferguson before he had time to get out of the way, smashing in his skull, breaking his shoulder, and fracturing his leg in two places. Before assistance could be had and the unfortunate young man taken from under the tree trunk, he was dead. The deceased came here from Genesee county, Michigan, where he leaves a widowed mother, a sister and several brothers. He came here about eighteen months ago and since that time has been employed in the camp where he met his death. The body was brought to this city and has been embalmed by C. A. Beardsley. It will be sent back to his family in Michigan.
“It struck a smaller tree, breaking off about twenty-five feet of its top, which came crashing down upon Ferguson.”
The dangerous nature of timber work defined the early economy of Grays Harbor. While safety standards have evolved drastically, the industry remains a high-stakes environment in the Pacific Northwest, mirroring the constant struggle between human labor and the immense scale of the forest.
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