A Lodged Tree, a Fatal Step: Logging’s Toll Near Ferndale
W. N. Roberts was planning how to bring down a hung tree when it fell on him—a sudden death in the woods north of Ferndale.
W. N. Roberts, a young man about thirty-five years old, was killed in the woods north of Ferndale last Thursday by a falling tree. He had been chopping, and felled a tree that lodged in the forks of another. For the purpose of determining upon some plan to free it from the obstructing limbs, he had gone on to pass under the suspended tree, and as he did so, the tree fell with a crash. One of the projecting branches struck him, producing death almost instantly. His companions notified the coroner and an examination was held, when the foregoing facts were elicited. Mr. Roberts was highly esteemed by his neighbors, and all deplore the unfortunate accident that resulted in his untimely death.
“One of the projecting branches struck him, producing death almost instantly.”
Logging remains one of Washington’s most dangerous industries, and the state’s workers’ compensation system was built in part to address the human cost of timber work. Roberts’s death is a reminder that the region’s wealth was extracted at a steep personal price.
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