The Deadly Hazards of the Timber Frontier
Tragedy strikes workers in Lewis and Thurston counties as multiple men are killed by falling trees during the logging season.
On Saturday, the 23rd ultimo, Jacob Waller, familiarly known as 'Uncle Jake,' was instantly killed near Tenino, W. T., by a falling tree. Mr. Waller was at work sawing a log to move it from the road, when a large fir tree that had been set on fire to burn it down, fell so suddenly and silently that the unfortunate man was crushed to death. On the same day, at Winlock, a teamster hauling ties for Clark & Co. was struck by a fallen tree and severely injured. Another logger working in the woods on the Newaukum River was mashed all out of shape by a falling tree.
“The unfortunate man was crushed to death before he was hardly aware of the danger.”
The immense danger faced by 19th-century loggers remains a haunting part of the region's industrial heritage, highlighting the high human cost paid to extract the timber that built modern Seattle.
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