Everett’s early days recaptured in recorded oral histories

EVERETT — Working in an Everett mill used to include the very real potential to lose a limb — or a life.

Old timers recount their firsthand experiences working in early Everett in one of a series of oral recordings available to the public free online as radio-style programs at www.epls.org.

The recording about mill accidents features four laborers who talk about their time at prominent mills in the early 1900s.

They describe long days of hard work in dangerous conditions. One man, Al Zimmerman, describes an accident that crushed his foot.

“It’s a pretty harrowing story for people used to modern-day regulations,” said Cameron Johnson, a reference librarian who helped edit, fact-check and narrate raw interviews.

The podcasts are edited versions of recordings in Everett Public Library’s oral history collection. The interviews were recorded in the 1970s, and captured the impressions and voices of people who were alive during Everett’s earliest days.

Library staff have been working on the project for months and it’s now complete.

The programs include the topics of firefighting in the 1930s, early schools, transportation, baseball, the Great Depression and prostitution.

Find the podcasts under the heading, “Everett Voices,” on the library’s website.

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com