Mining Camp Tragedy Near Carbonado
A target practice outing turns lethal when a accidental discharge claims the life of a 50-year-old miner.
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.
Yesterday afternoon at Melmont, a small mining town on the Northern Pacific near Carbonado, Maurits Hill was shot and instantly killed by Charles Meyman. Hill and Meyman, along with John Hill, Jack Walters, Jacob Johnson, Peter Calo, and John Povy, had been working in the mines at Melmont for the Northwest Improvement Company. On Sunday, they were on the outskirts of the village having target practice with a .32-caliber pistol belonging to Meyman. While walking back to town, a chipmunk was spotted and Meyman pulled his revolver to take a shot, but the animal vanished. He placed the weapon back in his pocket. Further down the road, near Walters' house, Hill asked to see the revolver. As Meyman pulled the gun out, he apparently touched the trigger. The weapon discharged, striking Hill in the chest and killing him instantly. Deputy Coroner Mellinger investigated and deemed the incident an accident. The only potential charge against Meyman is for carrying a concealed weapon. Hill was a 50-year-old Finnish immigrant.
“Meyman must have touched the trigger, for just as Hill reached for the gun it went off, the bullet striking him in the left breast and going direct to his heart.”
Melmont, once a bustling company town for the Northwest Improvement Company, is now a ghost town reclaimed by the forest. The casual handling of firearms among industrial laborers remains a recurring theme in the history of the rugged Cascades coal camps.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.