The Predator of Hutchinsons Creek
A Danish settler in a local farming community takes matters into his own hands after a cougar targets his livestock.
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.
For a couple of weeks past the dismal howls of a cougar have been heard from time to time in the neighborhood of our Danish settlement. Monday afternoon, as Mr. Jukom Jensen was going into a pasture lot 100 yards from the house, he found a cougar at work on the carcass of a large ewe which he had tethered and left grazing a short time before. Jensen procured a gun and fired at the beast, which, though not hit, left the carcass and walked along a huge tree trunk and disappeared in the brush. The carcass was watched until 10 p. m., when steel traps were set. They were effective, and this morning a couple of rifle shots ended the cougar's existence. The handsome fawn-colored beast was a young female and measured six feet from tip to tip.
“They were effective, and this morning a couple of rifle shots ended the cougar's existence.”
Human-wildlife conflict remains a defining feature of life on the rural fringe of the Pacific Northwest. This report highlights the constant vigilance required by early settlers to protect their livelihoods in the deep timber.
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