A Tragic End on the Tracks
A miner from Burnett, intoxicated and exhausted, falls asleep on the railroad tracks and pays the ultimate price.
Sara Anderson, a Burnett miner, went to Buckley yesterday and became intoxicated. While walking on the Northern Pacific track toward Burnett last night, he sat down on a tie to rest and finally fell asleep with his head on a rail. Later he was killed by a passing train. All the pieces of his body that could be found this morning were taken to Buckley.
“He sat down on a tie to rest and finally fell asleep with his head on a rail.”
This grim account of a rail-related death is a reminder of the hazards inherent in the industrial landscape of the 19th-century Pacific Northwest. It highlights the vulnerability of itinerant laborers who often navigated dangerous infrastructure in the absence of social support or public safety.
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