The Snohomish River's 'Miasma of Decay'
An 1876 editorial decries the hazardous state of the river banks, warning that stagnant water and rotting sawdust are breeding sickness in the growing town.
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.
Malaria and warm fever, from the river as stagnant ponds and mud, have now become endemic. The cause is in a main form: there are low spots along the river bank full of rotting ponds and mud, from decaying sawdust; consequently, our sanitary and healthy city is to be lamented. The accumulation of sawdust along the bank, which has been the subject of frequent complaint, should be cleared away immediately, as the health of the town urgently requires that such misery should be removed from our midst.
“The accumulation of sawdust along the bank... should be cleared away immediately, as the health of the town urgently requires that such misery should be removed from our midst.”
Long before Snohomish became a destination for historic tourism, the river was its primary economic engine and its greatest health liability. This 1876 complaint about sawdust-induced 'miasma' reflects the environmental cost of the early timber economy, a precursor to the modern ecological efforts to restore the Snohomish River's salmon habitat and water quality.
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