Witnessing a Death, Remembering a Life: Parents of Fallen Winlock Logger Find Strength in Community

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WINLOCK  — Tim Bostwick’s face twists into a rare smile at the thought of a family trip some 10 years ago.

The memory of his youngest son, Cole Bostwick, and the fun they had together allows for a brief moment of joy. The family still has a picture of him in the woods wearing a 10-gallon cowboy hat too big for his head. 

On Wednesday, Cole Bostwick, 18, was killed in a logging accident that occurred less than 15 feet away from his father. 

It was a tragic conclusion of life that followed occasional bouts of concern over his son’s involvement in the industry. 

Over the course of his own 22-year career as a logger, Tim Bostwick has witnessed the unexpected and shocking deaths of seven people, some of them friends and all of them colleagues. 

The sting of the those experiences hardly compares to the pain and suffering he and his wife, Wendy, are currently enduring. 

Tim Bostwick was the first to reach his son’s side after a carriage abruptly fell from above and crushed the former Winlock High School student as he was setting a choker on Green Diamond property off of Pe Ell-McDonald Road.

Cole, the youngest of three children, died instantly. 

Tim Bostwick now says he will never log again. 

“I hate to say this and it seems selfish, but I think it would have been easier if I had not been there,” Tim Bostwick said. “I could have dealt with this a little bit easier had I not been there, but I was there. I was the first person to him. It’s really hard.” 

Cole, a fourth-generation logger, joined EMB Logging and Trucking with his father about one month ago. He and his father were hired on the same day after they both previously worked for B&M Logging. Cole logged during the day and attended night school through the Apollo program at Winlock High School, an alternative to the traditional high school experience that allows students to hold full-time jobs. 

He was scheduled to graduate high school next month. He had aspirations of working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Alaska. 

Tim Bostwick was proud of son’s plans for personal improvement. He often worried after his son left Winlock High School to work as a logger.

“He was trying to start his life,” Wendy Bostwick said. “He was in such a hurry to grow up and just wanted to make some good money, some fast money to go to school.”

Friends would tell Wendy Bostwick she was crazy for waking up each day at 2:30 a.m. to make lunches and breakfast for her husband and sons before they started another day of logging. 

Cole’s 19-year-old brother, Austin Bostwick, works as a logger in Chehalis. His oldest brother, 22-year-old Damian Bostwick, also lives in Winlock. 

“For 22 years, I was at the door kissing them goodbye because you never know,” Wendy Bostwick said. 

Tim Bostwick, who dropped out of high school to start logging, supported his son’s goals of pursuing a career outside of the industry. Yet, Cole loved logging as much as his father and found it to be a good living while finishing high school. 



“I started logging when I was 17 and lied about my age, but times were different back then. I didn’t want him to make the same mistakes I’ve made,” Tim Bostwick said. 

Cole’s friends describe him as a class clown, always wanting to stand out in a crowd. 

His mother said that he always wanted to be recognized. As the youngest child, he was always competing with his brothers.

An outpouring of community support following his death has in some ways led to the realization of that desire, his mother said.

To recognize Cole, friends are putting together a candlelight vigil on Saturday night at a restaurant in Winlock.

Winlock High School will host the funeral service and celebration of life.

“I know he would love it,” she said. 

Many of those in attendance will likely remember Cole’s ability to generate laughter from those around him. 

“Cole always knew how to put a smile on anyone’s face no matter what mood he was in,” Shania Lynne Benson, a friend and fellow Winlock High School student, said. 

Since the accident on Wednesday, Cole’s family estimates more than 200 people have stopped by to visit and offer their condolences. Wendy Bostwick said she would not be able to handle her grief without the support from the Winlock community. 

It has been hard for her to be home, where Cole was still living with the family. 

“I still can’t go in his room,” Wendy Bostwick said. 

Tim Bostwick, who plans to relaunch his horse training business instead of logging, said he and Cole shared a love for the outdoors. Cole, along with his two brothers and father, would hike, camp, fish and hunt in their spare time. Cole and his father were supposed to go on a camping trip during Memorial Day weekend at Mount Adams. 

Tim Bostwick’s favorite memory of his son remains the family camping trip at Black Mountain in North Idaho over a Fourth of July weekend more than a decade ago. 

Cole’s parents plan to cremate him, save his remains and have them spread with theirs at Black Mountain. 

“It is the happiest I can ever remember us being,” Tim Bostwick said.