Worker Killed in Tacoma Gravel Pit Slide
A young laborer was buried beneath a wall of sand at a North End worksite.
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.
George F. Presler, a laborer at the Thompson gravel pit at North Thirtieth and Union streets, was almost instantly killed yesterday afternoon in a slide of sand near the bottom of the pit. The sand completely buried him, and when he was extricated in less than five minutes, he was found to be dead. Presler lived with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Presler, at 2018 South J Street.
“The sand completely buried him, and when he was extricated, in less than five minutes, he was found to be dead.”
Workplace safety in early 20th-century Tacoma was often non-existent, leaving families to bear the burden of corporate negligence. While regulations have evolved, the precarious nature of labor in the region's expanding infrastructure continues to be a central theme in local civic discourse.
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