A Truck Tongue Knocks a Logging Contractor Into the Barge
Rufus Williams is badly injured while loading equipment for a Dalkena Lumber Co. log contract, pinned in a barge hold with part of a truck on top of him.
While assisting in loading his traction engine and trucks on a barge for shipment to Indian Creek, where he has a contract for getting several million feet of logs to the river for the Dalkena Lumber Co., Rufus Williams was quite badly injured. The tongue of one of the trucks swung around and, hitting Mr. Williams, knocked him down and into a hole in the barge with a part of the truck on top of him. He is now recovering from his injuries.
“The tongue of one of the trucks swung around and hitting Mr. Williams knocked him down and into a hole in the barge with a part of the truck on top of him.”
The timber economy ran on river barges, traction engines and men willing to load them by hand. Williams's injury is a reminder that the region's payrolls were built on physical risk long before modern safety rules and workers' compensation.
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