Two Dark Days?

August 12, 1895:
WASHINGTON WOEFUL
A Fire Sweeps Over Chehalis County Doing Great Damage
By Associated Press to the Tribune.
Montesano, Wash., Aug. 10.--Word has been recieved here that a very destructive fire is sweeping over the eastern part of Chehalis county.


September 12, 1902, was a day those pioneers of both settlements would never forget. The sun rose as usual in the southwestern part of Washington. About 7:30 a.m. it gradually became darker and darker, until by noon lanterns were needed. ( The center of this phenomenon seemed to be at Tenino. People on the Queets were frightened, and many of them believed the world must be coming to an end. Mrs. Streater recalled that several neighboring families gathered at the Donaldson homestead that "Dark Day." Since no smoke was detected in the air, they had no way of knowing that a cloud of ash from great forest fires in Clark County, Washington, and in Oregon was obscuring the sun.