Fatal Logging Accident at Sultan Junction
A worker for the Sultan Logging Company was killed in a gruesome industrial accident involving a donkey engine cable.
F. Amel, an employe of the Sultan Logging company, met his death in a strange manner at the camp near Sultan Junction, yesterday. He was working alongside a 'pig'—which is a canoe-like sled pointed at both ends, used to haul chains back to the woods after a bunch of logs has been pulled in by the donkey engine and cable. In some manner his heel got caught in the extreme point of the canoe and when the donkey started up, just as a load of logs was at the top of the hill, he was jerked from his feet, fell upon the back of his head and for 300 feet he was bumped over the logs. He was dead before the engine could be signaled to stop. The man came from Pennsylvania, but direct from British Columbia. Coroner Bakeman will bury him tomorrow if word is not received from his friends.
“For 300 feet he was bumped over the logs. He was dead before the engine could be signaled to stop.”
This reflects the extreme dangers of early 20th-century logging, where workers had few protections and industrial accidents were treated as commonplace occurrences. It serves as a reminder of the human cost that built the Pacific Northwest timber industry.
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