After the Fire
A local orchardist returns to White Bluffs to begin rebuilding after losing his home in a winter fire.
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.
Mr. and Mrs. McCord Taylor returned to White Bluffs Wednesday evening from Seattle, where they have been since their home on their orchard tract here burned in December. Mr. Taylor says he intends to build a small house on his place but has not decided yet whether he will live here or lease the orchard this summer.
“Mr. Taylor says he intends to build a small house on his place but has not decided yet whether he will live here or lease the orchard.”
The precarious nature of homesteading on orchard tracts in early 20th-century Washington meant that a single house fire could effectively end a family's agricultural venture. Today, the ruins of the town of White Bluffs itself are gone, reclaimed by the Hanford Site, making the resilience of these early settlers a foundational layer of local history.
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