Regarding the Monday article, “Ice caves closed for years”: Thank goodness the Big Four Ice Caves are closed! A quick search of the Herald’s online news archives produced one article about a 27-year-old woman who was killed in 1998, and another article about a man who became stranded climbing above the caves in 2003.
If the archive went back further, more deaths and injury would be found. The Big Four Ice Caves are notorious to locals for the numerous accidents that have occurred there. Running a front page picture of a Jobs Corps crew member and a back page 1997 file photo showing kids playing at the mouth of the cave is irresponsible journalism. Your picture made an extremely dangerous area look like a playground. On top of that, the accompanying article does not make one reference to the danger that has been well documented.
I’m as disappointed as anyone that the trail is closed, it is a wonderful hike and most people have enough common sense not to enter the caves. I think running that picture takes the edge off the danger, makes the warning signs less threatening, and, in fact, encourages people toward behavior that could get them killed. Just because the bridge is down doesn’t mean people won’t find a way back there. In the future, it would be nice to see some forethought (and hindsight) from The Herald when considering images and content for its pages.
Tyler Ingram
Marysville
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