A Ghastly Price for Dynamite Fishing
A fisherman from Index loses both hands in a horrific explosion while attempting to use dynamite as bait in the Skykomish River.
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.
Cnute Anderson, of Index, went fishing last Monday in the Skykomish river, using dynamite for bait. A stick of powder exploded in his hands, inflicting flesh wounds upon his face, abdomen and legs, and blowing away the whole of the left hand and all but the little finger of the right. He was brought to Snohomish in a caboose over the Great Northern road and placed in the county poorhouse. The surgeons found it necessary to amputate both hands, one at the wrist joint and the other two inches above.
“The surgeons found it necessary to amputate both hands, one at the wrist joint and the other two inches above.”
While dynamite fishing is largely a relic of the past, the graphic report of this industrial-style accident highlights the hazardous, unregulated methods once used in the Northwest's natural environment. It serves as a stark reminder of the physical cost of 'getting by' in the pioneer era.
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