The Day a Buggy Rolled Into the Quillayute Woods
After 24 years of settlement, the remote Clallam County woods see their first carriage—and locals can hardly believe their eyes.
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.
The first and only carriage ever brought into the Quillayute country passed through Beaver Tuesday morning with Mr. Frank T. Balch, of Boston, on the seat. Mr. Balch was making good time, as it was only 10 o'clock when he reached here, having left Clallam Bay in the morning. It was a case of stop and talk with every one and every one had a thousand and one questions, more or less, to ask. Mr. Balch has resided in the [Quillayute country] for twenty-four years, and was one of the first settlers to locate in this wild woods. Speaking of the novelty of his new rig to a representative of the Leader, he said: "It would have been hard to make a person believe twenty-four years ago that a buggy would be knocking around through these woods today." It is more like civilization to be able to see carriages pass along our roads, and gives hope and confidence to the Quillayute settlers.
“It would have been hard to make a person believe twenty-four years ago that a buggy would be knocking around through these woods today.”
In an era when a rough dirt track was the height of adventure, a single carriage signaled the arrival of modernity to an isolated corner of the Olympic Peninsula. Today, the same region is crossed by highways, but the thrill of connection remains.
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