Fatal Winds at Milton Station
A sudden, freak accident during a windstorm claims the life of a resident just steps from his home.
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.
Death came suddenly and in a strange manner Wednesday to Charles Rothmiller at Milton station, on the Interurban, about five miles from Tacoma. In the midst of a heavy windstorm, while he was talking to a friend, he was struck by a falling limb within eighty feet of his own door. At that point, the timber had been thinned out for a sawmill. A tree approximately 125 feet tall struck a log near its base, creating a whip-stock effect that hurled a two-inch limb into Rothmiller's head, crushing his skull and killing him instantly.
“It struck with great force, crushing the skull and killing the man almost instantly.”
Industrial and residential proximity in Washington forests has historically been dangerous. This story highlights the casual, sudden loss of life in the early 20th-century logging landscape of the Puget Sound region.
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