A Dangerous Journey to White Bluffs
A family trip to White Bluffs ends in a harrowing roadside rescue after their car flips 12 miles south of Hanford.
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 on their way to White Bluffs Monday, Mrs. R. D. Mathieson and her daughter, accompanied by Mrs. B. F. Raspberry and her daughter from Toppenish, met with an accident about 12 miles south of Hanford. Mrs. Mathieson, who was driving, lost control of the Ford touring car, and it tipped over. All of the party escaped injury except the little Mathieson girl, who was caught in the wreckage. After some difficulty, the child was released from under the car and the whole party was brought to Hanford by P. W. Green, who happened by in his car. The injured child was treated by Dr. W. F. Morrison, who found three ribs broken. As soon as the fractures were reduced, the party returned to Burbank. The two ladies and their daughters were on their way to White Bluffs to see Mrs. Mathieson's parents, who had arrived the day previous to start improvements on ten acres of land they recently purchased.
“After some difficulty the child was released from under the car and the whole party brought to Hanford.”
Travel in the Columbia Basin required grit and luck long before the massive infrastructure projects of the mid-20th century transformed the region. Today, the landscape is largely defined by the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, meaning that a trek near the 'old' Hanford site is now restricted territory rather than a simple rural road trip.
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