Grim Discoveries Along the Railway Construction Line
Workers find bodies of unidentified victims, likely victims of violence, near old tent cities along the railroad path.
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.
Occasionally, the men working at the N.P. front who have occasion to pass through the small deserted construction towns, discover the body of some unfortunate individual who fell a prey to the thieves and murderers who infested that country. On Saturday last, some children, while playing where once stood the tented city of Horse Plains, discovered the body of a man far advanced in a state of decomposition. The children informed some men who found that the deceased had a bullet hole through the head. On the same day, carpenters working on the Howe truss at the third crossing discovered the body of a man floating down the river. Upon examination, it was found that the man had a bullet hole through the head and another through the breast, and that his legs were securely bound, and from the dangling ropes it looks as if the man was thrown into the river and sunk by heavy weights. No one could identify him. The carpenters gave the body a decent burial as the circumstances and place would permit.
“It is to be hoped that some day the perpetrators of these dark deeds will meet their just fate.”
The lawless nature of 1880s railroad construction camps highlights the violent underbelly of the 'Wild West' era. These anonymous deaths served as a dark reminder of the human cost of rapid western expansion.
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