A Terrifying Drop from a Fir
An infantryman at Vancouver Barracks survives a forty-four-foot fall from a tree while attempting to catch a raccoon, an experience that left him shaken but alive.
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.
Ansel Woodworth, a native of Ohio, aged 25 years, will leave the Fannie Paddock hospital for the Vancouver barracks tomorrow. Woodworth was one of Capt. Carpenter's men over at Brown's point, and he and others treed a coon a day or two ago. The tree was a big one and there were no limbs on it for a distance of over fifty feet. It was too big around for Woodworth, who was bent on getting the coon, to get his legs about it so that he could climb. A sapling was tied about the tree with a piece of rope, and Woodworth, getting inside of the rope and against the tree, began to work his body upward. When forty-four feet from the ground he felt the rope loosening, and to his horror he saw the green bark of the sapling peeling off, thus allowing the rope to slip over the end. He made a grab for the end of the sapling that was about to be released and held on to it, and the other end of the rope until exhausted, when he went down. He struck a small tree in falling, which slightly broke the force of the fall. He was dazed somewhat, but no bones were broken.
“Before he gave up and let go, he says that the suspense was so great that perspiration rolled off his face and down his body.”
This story serves as a reminder of the raw, often reckless pastimes of soldiers stationed at the historic Vancouver Barracks. Today, the barracks are a National Historic Site, but in 1893, it was an active military post where young men frequently sought adventure in the surrounding wilderness with varying degrees of success.
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