Tragedy on the Skookumchuck
A wedding celebration turns fatal as a group attempts to cross a swollen river on a log near Bucoda.
Three persons, including a bride and groom, were drowned in the Skookumchuck River at Bucoda near Centralia recently. They and two other people were attempting to cross the river on a log. The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Simpson, the bride and groom, and Gilbert Freeman, were recovered an hour later. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Bradshaw were rescued.
“They and two other negroes were attempting to cross the river on a log.”
Accidents involving river crossings were a common, harrowing risk in early 20th-century Washington, where infrastructure often lagged behind population expansion. Today, the Skookumchuck is a familiar site for local recreation, but its swift currents remain a dangerous reminder of the power of our regional waterways.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.