The Mud-Trap at the Old Seattle Gas Works
A young delivery driver narrowly escapes a watery grave after his team sinks into the treacherous quicksand of the tide flats.
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 young man who is employed in driving Craig & Hastings' delivery wagon was over in the vicinity of the gas works yesterday, and not being acquainted with the character of the flats, thought it would be an excellent idea to give the horses and the wagon a washing off. Accordingly, he drove down into the salt water; but had proceeded only a short distance from the high-water mark when the team began to sink rapidly. He saw immediately that quicksand was at the bottom of the trouble, and seizing his pocket knife, commenced cutting the horses loose. It is doubtful, however, whether he would have succeeded in saving the team, had it not been for Mr. Webster, who came to the rescue just in the nick of time. One of the horses had sunk down into the mire nearly out of sight, and upon cutting them loose from the wagon, Mr. Webster gave the less-mired animal a vigorous starting up with his whip, and in his efforts to get ashore, he hauled out the other with him.
“He saw immediately that quicksand was at the bottom of the trouble, and seizing his pocket knife, commenced cutting the horses loose.”
Today, the area near the old Seattle gas works has been transformed into Gas Works Park, a site of industrial reclamation. It is a striking reminder that much of Seattle’s modern shoreline sits atop filled-in tide flats that were once lethally unstable and unpredictable for early settlers.
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