The Man Who Walked Away from Death
Richard Schmalp, a 50-year-old homesteader near Menlo View, survived a terrifying fall that split his skull open, leaving him unconscious for half an hour.
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.
Richard Schmalp, an old resident on this coast, fell from a bluff in front of his dwelling at Menlo View, and was almost killed—living only about half an hour after the mishap. He had been building a trail in the glade, and as he was going down the glade he slipped and fell a distance of about 30 feet, breaking his skull. The man sustained injury and a fracture of the lower jaw received. Mr. Schmalp is about 50 years of age, and had lived in Michigan for the past twenty years, and has since made a home at Menlo View. He was found by the bluff.
In an era before modern trauma care or even reliable emergency services, a fall from thirty feet was often a death sentence. Schmalp’s survival is a testament to both luck and the rugged resilience of early Washington settlers who lived on the edge of danger daily, far from hospitals.
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