A Cedar Raft, a Swollen River, and the Prospector Who Never Came Back
J. A. Hamm of Everett launched a homemade raft of four cedar logs onto the Skagit in July and vanished. His wife has heard nothing since, and those who know the river say no one could survive the run below Day Creek.
MOUNT VERNON, Aug. 7. — [Special.] — W. M. Swafford, a rancher living near Hamilton, arrived in the city today, bringing the news of the probable death by drowning of J. A. Hamm, of Everett. Hamm was a well-known prospector, and he went up into the Day Creek mines some months ago. On July 12 he came down from the mines to McNaught's cabin, in company with E. H. Cockreham, Sam Morrell and Pat Stewart. The next morning Hamm built a raft for himself of four stout cedar pieces, fourteen feet long and each eighteen inches wide. On these he put his packs and pushed out into the stream. He has never been heard of since and has undoubtedly met his death in the Skagit. His wife in Everett had not heard of him on August 2, and those who know the character of the river below where Hamm embarked say that it would be impossible for him to get through.
“He has never been heard of since and has undoubtedly met his death in the Skagit. His wife in Everett had not heard of him on August 2, and those who know the character of the river below where Hamm embarked say that it would be impossible for him to get through.”
Before the roads reached the upper Skagit, rivers were the highways and a cedar raft was a prospector's transport — but the Skagit below Day Creek was no place for one. Hamm's disappearance is a reminder of how remote and unforgiving the North Cascades foothills were a century before modern highways, and how many fortune-seekers simply vanished into them without a trace.
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