The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 5, 1901, Page 12

THE SUNDAY CALL. CLEARING THE RAILS OF A SNOWSLIDE IS ENTIRELY ACASE through the ver the passes of the is the cause of the the mountain sides, where have been cl everything the surrounding surface, nd clean cut of the hills ke from peak ation that it was caused by the question and commonplace enough 1o Those who leave the rail ver the mountain roads and during the summer months grow to r ct for the mighty p the side of a moun- i stone in th wers who from choice of circum- ns in the mountains through the cycle of the seasons—the man who sees nature’s wheels go round. She in her strenucus moods takes to the moun- tains to work off her superfluous energy; sghe reaches the extreme in everything; re cloudbursts; her heat makes thing air visible; her snows and blind and overwhelm. m February to May is the snowslide season, and snowslides occur on almost every steep mountain side where the con- her @itions are favorable. The prospector, miner, mail carrier, any one who has to follow the icy trails at this season, car- ries his life in his hand, and each winter claims its quota of victims. Picking one’s way along a badly broken trail on the side of a mountain, with thousands of tons of snow, ice and rock above, ready and liable at any moment to come crashing down upon you in an- swer to a sharp puffl of wind, a warm ray on an anchoring strip of ice, any nt thing that will affect the al- acy strained equilibrium, at any one of a thousand points may start the slide which will smother, break, grind and car- ry you with the other debris of the earth, and timber to your burial in the valle;” belo A walk of that kind is an experience that time: does not wither nor custom stale; tiptoe into each foot- deep, as care- g to walk on pieces of Sevres: porcelain without breakage. The report 6f a shot from a tunnel across the gulch makes you swear or pray under sto; The town of Silver Plume is known to almost every tourist who has visited the State of Colorado. It is hemmed in by steep mountains at the upper end of the famous Georgetown loop on the Colorado Southern Railway. The winter of 1838-99 was severe, and a large amount of snow had fallen and was oiled in vast drifts on the steep mountain sides above Silver Plume. The unusual amount of snow and consequent danger of slides had alarmed the inhabi- tants to such an extent that the authori- ties had ordered the frame schoolhouse located at the upper end of the town at the mouth of Cherokee Gulch abandoned until the danger was past. On February 12, 189, a strong wind- storm started and continued all night. SNOWSLIDE: ON A RATLROAD 300 FEET OF TRACK COVERED TO A DEPIH OF 60 FEET s PROSPECTING FOR BODIES OF VICTRMS OF THE SNOWSLIDE Sunday morning it somewhat abated, but the wind was still whirling the light snow about the mountain tops in fantastic forms and adding weight to the already overburdened combs of snow and ice that hung threateningly over the gwlch. The sky was clear, however, and the sun; playing on the drifting ice crystals, EFFECT OF SNOWSLIDE Al QPHIR. LOOF, COLO DEFOT AND TRACK WERE COVERED WITH 20FT OF SNQ\f AND TIMBER. crowned the valley with silver plumes in- numerable, making the name of the little camp below seem most happily chosen. At half-past § o’clock the sun was sud- denly blotted out and the town enveloped in a cloud of light snow as impervious to vision as frosted glass Then came the rumbling, grinding roar which told the —— people a slide had started. Panic stricken they waited until the noise had ceased and the flying snow subsided, when every inhabitant of the town able to wield pick or shovel started for the scene of the dis- aster with the paraphernalia of rescue. They found that the slide had providen- tially nopped just above the abandoned T S TS T T e ey schoolhouse. Tt had plowed a furrow two miles long and 500 feet wide, and piled the snow, rock and timber in a miniature mountain at the bottom of the gulch. Supepintendent Robinson of the Pelican mine was standing near the shafthouse when the siide occurred. Breakfast was just over, and several of the miners were standing about their cabins below. Mr. Robinson was idly watching them when he noticed a peculiar movement of the great mass of snow high on the mountain side. Before he could give an alarm the avalanche had reached the cabins, sweep- ing them ‘with their occupants to the bot- tom of the valley below. At almost the same instant another slide started furtner up the gulch, be- tween tne Pelican and Seven-Thirty mines. It wrecked most of the mine build- ings and cabins, grinding the huge logs of which they were consiructed into sirv- ers. In th two slides ten persons losi t lives, and $30,000 worth of ore read; for shivment was lost. Eight days later another slide occurred a counle of miles farther up the canyon at Browr ch, killing three miners ng five others. agle River extemsion of Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, axsrt;g; miles above Leadville, Homestake Peak thrusts itself, like an obelisk, several thousand feet into the air. On its side just below timber line. is the Homestake mine, one of the first heavy producers of the district. Just above the mine is a small lake, formed by a bench of eroded rock. In the shadow of a gigantic bowl- der, at the bottom of this bench, three cabins were located, used as storehouse and living quarters by the eleven men who. provisioned for the winter, were working the mine. On April 24, 1885, two friends of the men working at the ‘mine left Leadville on snowshoes to visit their friends and carry in scme mail. On reaching their destina- tion they found the whole mountain side e nad been swept clean into the valley be- low, leaving not a sign of cabin, shaft house or mine. Seeing the frightful condition of affairs the immediately returned to the camp and gave the alarm. A rescue party, head- ed by Colenel George W. Cook, Mayor of adville, reached the scene of the catas- They found the red with snow, pth of forty to g day. The side of reached, and, the bunik fter clear- wall and entran; ear where in the bun! the body of one man was fou by the logs. Leaning again of it another was standing raised. as if to ward off the danger. Three were clas : arms in the bunk opy found bee g place in attitude of prayer, and on the bed beside which he knelt two men were lying with no sign of having been sturbed from their slume s. The three others had been crushed by the timbers. The date of the disaster was fixed by the d, Febru- amcunt of orovisions co ary 20 or 2%. One of the w enrred in Colo: rst snowslides that ever do, so far as loss of lifs tation called k Rallway. and near the famous Alp was completed that r, 1884. In the Pitkin district and on the same day, 19, o 1ives s wn of Woodstocl consisted of the s postoffice, section house, saloon and several cabins. The town was located Just at the foot of the grade where the double-headed their last steep climb along the precip- jtous sides of the mountain before enter- ing the tunnel. The population of the lit- tle hamlet on its last day, and the last for all but three of its inhabitant venteen—nine men, two women and six children. High above the little cluster of houses was a narrow gorge. Above this the snow arted from opposite sides of the moun- tain at almost the same instant. The two slides met, and, pouring through the gorge, spread over the gulch below, Swught up the frail cabins and hurled them, with several hundred yards of rail- road track, rocks, timber and snow, ta the bottom of the caryon. ‘A rescue party from Pitkin worked heroically for two days and nights before all of the vietims of the slide were ac- counted for. Three of the number were found alive and recovered from their in- Jjuries. The railroad man, like the small boy and the inebriate, is evidently under the proe loetion of & special providence, for while it is not at all uncommon for slides tg bury a few hundred feet of track and cause the section men much trouble In keeping trains moving, one rarely of a train being injured by a snowslide of a railroad man being killed.