A Terrifying Bike Encounter
A Thurston County man narrowly escapes a black bear attack while cycling on a rural road near Little Rock.
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.
Dick Downs, who came into Olympia Monday afternoon from Little Rock on a wheel, says that he was almost killed by a big black bear which crowded his pathway and attacked him the other side of McCloud's place, several miles northwest of here. Dick Downs was riding in this direction when a large black bear which he thinks must have weighed 200 pounds, emerged from the underbrush at the side of the road directly in front of him. He saw that he would strike the creature with his wheel and dismounted quickly, when the bear turned upon him, striking him with its paws and almost felling him to the ground. Downs was too quick for the animal, however, and got quickly onto his wheel. He says the bear followed him at least 100 feet. The man's arm is badly lacerated and confirms his story of the encounter.
“He saw that he would strike the creature with his wheel and dismounted quickly, when the bear turned upon him, striking him with its paws.”
This vivid account captures the proximity of wild nature to human activity in early 20th-century Washington. While cycling remains a primary mode of transit and recreation in the region, modern encounters with wildlife are rarely this perilous, though they serve as a reminder of the shifting boundaries between urban expansion and natural habitats.
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