A Woodsman's Night Terrors
A Snoqualmie man's journey home turns into a desperate flight from wildlife after his lantern fails.
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.
A good joke on D. R. Kinsey, of Snoqualmie, is told by residents of that town who came to the city yesterday. About sunset on Friday, Mr. Kinsey started for a six-mile walk from Snoqualmie to his claim, carrying a lantern to light his way across footlogs. Realizing the lantern leaked, he delayed lighting it until necessary. When he reached a difficult footlog, he discovered the lantern had no wick. While contemplating improvised repairs, a cougar screamed nearby. Terrified, Mr. Kinsey ran blindly through the woods into the darkness, eventually becoming disoriented and losing his way. He resolved to return to the trail, deciding that if the cougar blocked him, he would attempt to fend it off with a pocketful of doughnuts, or failing that, toss his fresh meat to the beast while he made a desperate escape. He found his way home, vowing never to venture out after dark again without a complete electric light plant.
“He calculated and came to the conclusion that he was half a mile wide of his mark.”
This story highlights the isolation of late-19th-century homesteaders near the Snoqualmie wilderness. Today, the contrast between the 'dark woods' of 1893 and the suburban accessibility of the modern Snoqualmie Valley is a stark reminder of how rapidly Washington's landscape was transformed.
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