A Brutal Mill Accident at Port Blakely
A mill worker loses his foot to the saw, marking another dangerous day in the Puget Sound timber industry.
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.
A Kanaka employed in the Port Blakely mill, while at work yesterday morning, just previous to the time of shutting down the mill, got his left foot caught, by some means, in the machinery, and before he could extricate himself the toes and fore part of his foot were mangled fearfully by the saw. He was immediately brought to this city and taken to Dr. Weed’s hospital. Upon examination, the doctor found an amputation of the fore part of the foot necessary.
“Before he could extricate himself the toes and fore part of his foot were mangled fearfully by the saw.”
This report highlights the extreme physical danger faced by the immigrant labor force that powered Washington’s industrial infancy. Much like today’s conversations around workplace safety in the gig economy and construction, this 1876 incident reminds us that Seattle’s early growth was built on a foundation of precarious labor and life-altering occupational hazards.
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