The Sad Martyr of Snohomish City
A local official’s descent into obsession over an impossible get-rich-quick scheme mirrors the mania of early Washington's frontier booms.
Snohomish City has a crazy man roaming at large. It being hinted around the city that a certain county official was very far gone, an Intelligencer reporter called on the gentleman to find out the truth of the statement. He found Mr. [Name Redacted] sitting by the stove with a small paper box in his hand in which were a number of blocks of wood with numbers in them. He was mumbling something to himself, and seemed in a very deep study. On being touched on the shoulder by the reporter, he glanced up to his face and said, 'I can do it, I know I can, it is just as easy as can be, and I'll get that five thousand dollars as sure as can be.' The reporter turned sadly away, for he saw it was one more added to the long list of martyrs to 13-14-15; but advised the sheriff to lock him up before he got dangerous.
“I can do it, I know I can, it is just as easy as can be, and I'll get that five thousand dollars as sure as can be.”
In 1880, the '13-14-15' puzzle craze swept the nation, causing a literal wave of hysteria and temporary insanity for those trying to solve the logic trap. This story captures the precarious mental health of frontier life in the Snohomish valley, where the pressure of economic struggle often pushed people to the breaking point—much like the modern anxiety surrounding housing and financial survival in the region today.
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