The Dangers of the Donkey Engine
A logger suffers a catastrophic, life-altering injury at a Shelton camp after a piece of heavy equipment fails during a haul.
John Norman, a logger at the Granger Logging Company's camp, on the Washington Southern railroad, was seriously injured this afternoon, a hook pulling out of a log being hauled by a donkey engine. The hook weighed twenty pounds and struck Norman, breaking both legs, one hanging by a shred. Dr. Riley came from Olympia to assist Dr. Beech in the amputation, as both of Norman's legs will probably have to come off.
“The hook weighed twenty pounds and struck Norman, breaking both legs, one hanging by a shred.”
This incident highlights the extreme danger of early industrial logging in Washington before the rise of comprehensive labor safety regulations. Donkey engines were notoriously unpredictable, and industrial workplace injuries were often treated as 'accidents' rather than systemic failures of equipment and labor standards.
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