In the redwood camps of northern California, logging was a dangerous trade even for the most experienced men. The trees were enormous, the terrain was steep, and every cut trunk had to be controlled with chains, skill, and luck. One mistake, one snapped chain, or one shift in weight could turn a valuable piece of timber into a rolling disaster.
That is what happened near Laytonville in January 1900, when Hugh Gallagher, chief logger at the Usal Redwood Lumber Company’s mills, was overseeing the movement of an immense redwood from the mountainside down toward the mill chutes.
Gallagher was known and respected in the community, and he appears to have understood the danger of the job. After adjusting the great chains around the tree, he warned the men to be cautious before setting it loose.
Then he went ahead to inspect the route the giant trunk was expected to take.
Moments later, the binding chains snapped with a roaring crash. The enormous redwood, said to contain some seventy thousand feet of lumber, broke free and plunged down the mountainside. With each bound, it gained speed and force, becoming impossible to stop.
Gallagher tried to escape its path, but the sight of the rolling timber seems to have overwhelmed him. The report describes him running frantically in a circle before the massive trunk overtook him. The tree passed over his body without slowing.
His death cast a deep gloom over the Laytonville community. Gallagher had come from Philadelphia, made his life in California’s redwood country, and left behind a widow and two children.
Crushed By A Giant Redwood
LAYTONVILLE, California. — The tragic death of Hugh Gallagher, chief logger at the Usal Redwood Lumber Company’s mills, yesterday has cast a gloom over the community.
Gallagher, who is well and favorably known, was superintending the logging of immense redwood trees from the mountainside down to the mill chutes and had just completed the adjustment of the huge chains on an uncommonly large tree.
After instructing the men to be cautious in liberating this particular piece of timber, Gallagher proceeded to inspect the proposed route the timber was to roll and shoot over. He had only gone a short distance when the huge binding chains that held the tree snapped with a roaring crash this immense tree, containing some seventy thousand feet of lumber, plunged down the mountain side, gaining frightful momentum with each bound.
Gallagher’s effort to escape from the path of the rolling tree was pathetic. He appeared confounded, running frantically about in a circle.
The massive trunk of the tree leaped upon him, passing over his body without losing a degree of its original momentum.
The body was found ground and encased into the earth to a perfect level. Its appearance was beyond all semblance to a human body.
Deceased was a married man and originally came here from Philadelphia. A widow and two children survive him.
Source: The San Francisco Call. San Francisco, Calif. January 20, 1900.
