Mystery Body on Whidbey Island
An unidentified logger is found decomposed on the beach, sparking a coroner's inquiry.
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.
The body of a man was found on the beach between Holmes Harbor and Race's Spit, on Whidbey Island, last Saturday evening by an Indian, who reported it to Dr. W. L. White, the coroner, on Sunday. The coroner went out Sunday afternoon, and the body proved to be that of a logger, but there was no means of identifying the remains. It is reported that a man was drowned in a boom on the Snohomish river about two months ago, and this may be the same one, for the body is badly decomposed. A spring back knife, red bandanna and a piece of tobacco were found in his pockets.
“A spring back knife, red bandanna and a piece of tobacco were found in his pockets.”
The lonely death of an itinerant laborer, identified only by the simple items in his pockets, captures the transient nature of the logging industry in the 1890s. These types of reports were common in the local press, reflecting the frequent tragedies of life in the logging camps.
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