Tragedy at the Blind Culvert
A locomotive fireman dies after a train plunges into a washout during the Great Flood of 1892.
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.
Mrs. Cole and her three young children have brought a $25,000 lawsuit against the Oregon Improvement Company for the death of her husband, a locomotive fireman. On November 18, 1892, during a period of heavy flooding, the fireman was working on the Seattle and Northern road, traveling from Hamilton to Anacortes. Heavy rains had caused a washout at a blind culvert, and the engine went headlong into the stream. The engineer survived, but the fireman was killed instantly. The court proceedings highlight the dangers faced by railway workers during the volatile weather of the Pacific Northwest.
“The streams along the line were swollen by the rains, and at a blind culvert... a washout had occurred.”
Rail infrastructure in Washington has always been at the mercy of the region's intense hydrology. Today's recurring washouts and track closures—often exacerbated by climate change—echo the same environmental hazards that proved fatal to workers in the late 19th century.
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