June 26, 1975 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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MAURINE HULSE talks of her actions and thoughts during the 16 days she
was lost in the woods of Mason County.
DON SAMPSON
Maurine Hulse, 36, an Alderwood Manor woman
as a typist by the telephone company, recently
national attention for her miraculous sixteen-day
after she had become lost in the dense forest of
County.
Miss Hulse r disappeared from her home in Alderwood
20. Her partially-stripped car was later found on
logging road in the Kamilche Valley. After finding the car,
County authorities initiated an intensive search for the
woman. It was later found that Miss Hulse had
her car on Highway 410 before venturing into the
By coincidence she was found by Kamilche Valley
Don McDonald in the same area where officers
located her car.
When found she was suffering from the effects of
dehydration, frostbitten feet, numerous cuts,
and bruises. The day before she left Mason General
this writer discussed the ordeal with her in a taped
prompted you not to go to work on May 20th?
been down that day. It was one of those days when you
to get away from everything. I was working at the
company in Seattle, it was a beautiful day and I
to get into the car and go for a drive.
time did you stop your car and go for a walk?
three o'clock I stopped, took out my car blanket
I always carry with me, my purse, and went out to
a place to sit down and do some thinking. I was out
for a while, started back - I don't really remember the
I was sure I knew the direction - sure I was going back
the car. I never did find the car. It got scary about seven
that evening when I still hadn't found the car.
were you wearing at the time?
wearing blue jeans, a long sleeve blouse, white vinyl
long socks and tennis shoes.
you have any food or drink with you?
no food whatsoever except for some diet sugar pills,
packages of chewing gum and that was it.
soon as you realized you were lost what went through
mind and what did you decide to do then?
trying to find the car and when it started to get dark !
going. I was raised in a hunting family and I had a cousin
and brother-in-law who had gotten lost and I had heard never
to travel at night. I knew enough to find a place to sleep that
night so I found two logs that sort of went together and I
crawled between them, covered myself with the blanket, and
used my purse for a pillow. I was scared to death that night. I.
heard noises, twigs breaking. IJaid there and I just shivered.
What did you do the next morning?
I got up and walked some more. A couple of times I would
sit down thinking someone would find my car. Someone
might miss me because nobody knew I was going to do this. I
kept walking over logs and through brush. I was looking for
water because I was getting very thirsty by then. I hadn't had
any water at all. It got cloudy that day and that night it
rained.
How did you finally get water?
I found a bunch of trees to get under and there was a log
leaning up and I scrunched up under it and reached under the
log also and it was kind of pulpy. I pulled this pulp off and
squeezed it. I don't know why I knew to do this but I got
some water out of it. I'd feel along the log until I found some
more and then I'd do the same thing. The water was awful
dirty looking but I didn't care. That was how I got water the
first week. But some days that first week I didn't find any.
Around the end of the second week I found a creek and after
that I always tried to stay near running water.
• What about food?
Well, I had no thoughts of food that first week. All I thought
of was waterl On Memorial Day I found a puddle of water
and I laid down and drank. I drank so much my stomach got
upset and I became nauseated. But that feeling passed. When
I finally did think about food the thing I wanted most was a
tuna fish sandwich. Funny, huh?
Did you have any way to carry water with you?
I had this container of pills and 1 dumped them out, put
water in it and carried it in my purse. Then I started to get
really hungry and I began to think about food all the time. I
was starved. That second week my stomach began to ache for
food.
Did you sleep in different places during the first week?
Two nights I was in the same spot because it rained so much.
I was just too wet and cold to hike at all. Usually I would
curl up by a fallen tree and pull the blanket over my head to
keep warm.
"I was scared to death that night."
What was it like sleeping in the woods with only a thin
blanket?
I was very cold at night. I don't know what I would have
done without that blanket. I would hear animal sounds.
There were coyotes howling in the distance. I just couldn't
get used to it. Twigs would break around me. I just knew
some animal was going to attack me. One night I felt
something jump over me. Another night the wind really blew
and a large branch crashed a few feet from me. I was scared
every night.
Did you try eating any vegetation?
I tried eating some bark off a tree but it was awful. I saw lots
of mushrooms but I was scared to eat them because I didn't
know what they were. I found a few green berries - four to
be exact - I didn't care if they were green or not. They
didn't fill me up but they were nourishment. I had to have
something in my stomach. 1 was so weak I could hardly
move.
O .
A 17-year-old Tacoma girl
drowned in the North Fork of the
Skokomish River in the Staircase
area Sunday afternoon.
Mason County sheriff's
deputies, who assisted in
recovering the body, said the girl,
Wendy Ann Granquist, and five
other teenagers were floating
down the river on several large
innertubes tied together when the
innertubes hit a log and the girl
was thrown off and pulled under
by the strong undercurrent. She
became lodged under the log,
officers said.
The accident occurred about
lO0 yards inside the Olympic
National Park boundary.
Four Mason County sheriff's
deputies, 10 U.S. Park Service
employees, two U.S. Forest
Service employees and one
Jefferson Cotmty deputy sheriff
assisted in recovering the body,
officers said.
Two divers from the Mason
County sheriff's office and two
from the park service went into
the water in the search for the
body and its recovery.
The sheriff's office received a
call for assistance from the park
service about 2:15 p.m. Sunday.
The call came from the park
ranger at Staircase.
Thursday, June 26, 1975 Eighty-ninth Year, Number 26 4 Sections - 36 Pages 15' Cents Per Copy
ana
an wins
mu
er conviction
Mason County Prosecutor
Byron McClanahan wound up the
major part of his work as special
prosecutor in Thurston County
for the trial of James G. (Chloe)
Wilson when Wilson was
sentenced last Friday.
McClanahan had handled the
trial of the case in which a jury
found Wilson guilty of first degree
murder, rape, sodomy and
abduction in the death of
eight-year-old Janet Kleiner.
Wilson was sentenced Friday
by Judge Hewitt Henry to two
life terms plus 30 years in prison
to run consecutively.
McClanahan, in his arguments
to the court before the sentence
was imposed, asked for castration
of Wilson as well as maximum
terms on each of the charges.
McClanahan, in asking for
castration, which is authorized for
sex offenders under an old law in
this state, said, "I think an
operation would change him. I
don't feel there is any cure for
him. I feel he should be castrated.
He is a sexual deviate."
Judge Henry didn't mention
McClanahan's request in passing
sentence on Wilson.
McClanahan said this is the
third time he has asked for
castration for sexual offenders.
Were you in much physical pain?
During the second week my feet got so bad. Later I was told
that tennis shoes are one of the worst things you can wear in
the woods because during the day they absorb the heat and
at night they absorb the cold. So I was getting two extremes
on my feet. The soles are nothing. Everything comes through
- rocks - everything. You might as well have nothing on
your feet. My feet were so puffed up and hurt so much that
one of those nights during the second week I had to take a
piece of stick and bite on it to keep from screaming out
because of the pain. It was during that night that the pain
passed and a sort of numbness set in. After that I couldn't
walk too far.
Did you ever think the authorities had called off the search
for you?
Well, I didn't know. But during the second week I heard
helicopters and I got hope again. Somebody's going to find
me. I could see the helicopters flying overhead but they
couldn't see me. I tried to wave and I found out later that I
might have been able to signal them with a mirror I had in
my purse, but I didn't know that then.
Were you terrified this whole time?
I wasn't terrified but I did give up hope of being found. I just
knew I was going to die and never see my family again. I'd sit
down and wouldn't go on for a few hours and I'd think why
go on? Nobody is ever going to find me. But I kept on
because I knew I was still alive.
Did you dream at night?
I dreamed a lot about people. Especially about people who
had died. It's strange but I dreamed more about them than
people who were living.
What did you do during the day to occupy your time?
Time went so slow. I'd look at a few Avon books I had in my
purse. I had a few pictures of my animals at home. I'd take
everything out of my purse and rearrange it just to have
something to do. Sometimes I would think about my
childhood. Other times I'd think about what I would do if I
got out alive.
JERRY PITTMAN
nolo,
IS
unusual
anlsm
Jerry Pittman, a medical
technologist-microbiologist at
Mason General Hospital, reeenfly
presented a paper at a national
meeting on the procedures he
used to identify an unusual
-organism which was causing a
health problem for a man' who
was hospitalized.
The paper, on actinobacillus
a ctinomycele mcomitanis, was
presented at a meeting of the
American Society of Medical
Technologists in San Francisco,
California.It will also be
published in "Laboratory
Medicine," the journal for
medical technologists.
Pittman said after his
identification of the organism as
the one which was causing a
disease problem, he had compiled
more information on it and had
prepared the paper on it to let
others know how to identify the
organism and that it can cause
disease, so it will not be dismissed
as unimportant when tests are
made.
The identification was made
from blood samples which were
sent to the laboratory after the
man had been admitted to the
hospital. After the identification
of what was causing the problem,
the man was treated and that
problem cleared up.
Pittman said he did a series of
tests on blood samples taken at
different times to make sure of
his identification and that it was
not caused by some outside
source of contamination.
In order to verify his findings,
blood samples were sent to the
Federal Center for Disease
Control, which confirmed what
the local medical technologist had
found.
Pittman has been employed at
Mason General Hospital for about
three years, having come here
after his graduation from the
University of Washington in 1972.
How much ground did you cover during those 16 days?
I don't know exactly, but they said I crossed three counties:
Thurston, Grays Harbor and Mason.
How were you found?
I had pulled myself up from a creek and had fallen asleep. I
couldn't go very far without falling asleep. And I heard a
noise about 3:00 in the afternoon and it was a farmer driving
a bulldozer. And I said, "Please help me," and he looked at
me. And he said, "Are you that girl they've been looki0g
for?" And he ran down that hill so fast. At that point my
body just gave out and I couldn't walk.
Did you ever give up hope?
No, I just wanted to live. I was determined not to die in the
woods. I think my determination is what kept me going.
Has your ordeal changed your outlook on life?
Yes. Everyone looks good to me. I've never been so happy.
I'm just so lucky to be alive. Thank God I'm alive.
Footnote: Miss Huise expressed extreme thanks to the warm
treatment she received from the sheriff's office and the staff
at Mason General Hospital.
The Shelton City Commission
voted at its meeting Tuesday
night that no environmental
impact statement would be
needed for a proposed 50-unit
apartment complex on the north
side of Fairmont Street.
The commission also voted
that in the future, authority to
decide whether or not an
environmental impact statement
is needed on some projects will be
delegated to the city engineer's
office.
City Engineer Howard Godat
told the commission the law
allows the elected officials to
delegate that authority and that
in some cases it was possible for
his office to make a
determination where the
environmental impact would be
slight and that following this
procedure would allow those with
projects to get approval sooner by
not having to wait for a regular
commission meeting.
Godat said any project on
which there was a question or
which involved another agency or
department other than the public
works department, the question
would be brought to the
commission.
The commission's policy on
these determinations in the past
has been to get a recommendation
from Godat. The recommenda-
tions so far have been accepted in
every case.