Point Defiance Dynamite Disaster
A workplace explosion at Point Defiance Park leaves one man dead and several others gravely injured.
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.
Thirty pounds of dynamite exploded in Point Defiance park this morning, instantly killing L. S. Carr, a teamster, and severely injuring John Russell, another teamster, and Michael Conant, Barney Rodsied, N. Hallowell and Walter Hutchinson, laborers. Carr was attempting to rescue his team of big gray horses. It had been raining off and on during the morning, and at 10:30 o'clock the men, who were working a short distance from the park entrance, went into an improvised blacksmith shop for shelter. The box of dynamite was also taken into the shop and placed about four yards from the anvil, at which Smithy G. H. Austin was hammering a red-hot piece of iron. Presently there was a little jet of flame discovered in the dynamite box. All bands rushed out of the shack at the sight of fire among the explosive. Carr and Russell ran to get their horses out of the shed adjoining the shop, although they were warned of the impending danger. The fire in the dynamite box blazed higher and higher for a minute, during which time the men were ordered to bring water in buckets. Just as the men recovered from their fright and got ready to bring water, the dynamite exploded, nearly demolishing the shop and shed.
“A hole was also gouged out of the ground where the dynamite box stood.”
This disaster at Point Defiance—now one of the region's most beloved public parks—serves as a reminder of the dangerous, unregulated labor conditions that defined the construction of Seattle and Tacoma’s infrastructure.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.