A Close Encounter in the Ridgedale Addition
A carriage ride turns tense when a black bear crosses the road near the city's edge.
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.
Charles W. Bardsley, while driving in the Ridgedale addition yesterday, saw a big black bear. His horse was somewhat frightened, and as he had several ladies in the carriage, he did not approach the point where the bear stood in the middle of the road until bruin had disappeared in the brush to the westward. Ridgedale addition is near the Steilacoom electric railroad powerhouse and about two miles west from the center of the city.
“His horse was somewhat frightened, and as he had several ladies in the carriage, he did not approach the point where the bear stood in the middle of the road.”
Today, Ridgedale is a deeply urbanized part of Tacoma, making this 1892 report of a bear roaming a 'suburb' a striking reminder of how quickly the wild was pushed back by the expansion of streetcar lines and rapid development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.