“Skidder went thru bridge.” And there she remains.
Curt Lokovsek of South Prairie, WA was exploring the Enumclaw Heritage collection recently when he spotted a couple of images that jogged his memory. The photos portray a rail car carrying a steam donkey (once used in logging operations) that crashed through a bridge near “Good Water” sometime in the 1930s. A former Weyerhaeuser employee who worked on road construction in the area from 1975-1986, Lokovsek was familiar with the location. And he was sure that at some point he’d seen the remains of the wreck, still resting at the bottom of that same canyon. 
Relying on his knowledge of the area and using landmarks from these two photos, Lokovsek and some friends decided to take advantage of a recent sunny day and re-find the wreck. He sent us the photo to the right, showing Barrett and Bailey Petchnick inside the steam donkey’s smokestack. The smokestack can be seen in this photo–it’s the T-shaped object right below the wreck (according to Lokosvek, the stack has rolled a bit down the hill since the original photo).
We didn’t know much about these photos, except for the fact that they were probably taken by Augustus L. DeSpain, a mechanic and amateur photographer who worked for the White River Lumber Company and Weyerhaeuser, 1920s-1950s. A big thanks to Curt for bushwhacking in to find what’s left of this skidder and adding some context to these photos. It’s great to see local history buffs using Washington Rural Heritage in their research.
Also, thanks to Curt, we were able to pinpoint the exact location of this wreck and place these two images on the Enumclaw Heritage Map!
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