Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1872-03-08
From the Greeley Colorado Tribune.
Lost in the Snow.
A NIGHT OF PERT BY GREEN NOUN
r.rx nov IN A FIERCE STORM.

Tuesday, the 2Sd of January, 1874
will long be remembered by the peoPie
~ northern Colorado. Snow covered
the ground. yet the weather was pleasant,
and the mountains stood out grandly in
the sunlight. On the afternoon of this
day, jeremiah Fisk left the Highley coal
mine with load of coal for his home
in Greeley, The distance is fourteen
miles. Two teams had gone before him
and others were on their way to the
mine. A little after o'clock, when in
sight of the town, he passed two of his
neighbors who were cutting ice in lake
seven miles northwest of Greeley. The
Cache la Poudre River lay at the foot of
the slope, about two miles due south of
him, and the road leads almost directly
down to the river, and follows it to the
town limits. Not long after leaving the
| lake he heard noise like the roaring of
great water spout. Instinctively he
turned toward the mountains; they were
calm and beautiful as in the morning,
but northward, where the Black Hills
rise from the plain, he saw vast wall of
cloud approaching with the speed of a
whirlwind. The roaring increased. At
this instantthe frozen tidal-wave touched
the foot hills and chased the sunbeams
from the mountains like an avalanche.
The horses rushed forward in terror, and
second later they were in darkness,
the storm sweeping over them with re-
sstless fury. Snow, finer than the finest
-four, filled the air so that it was impos-
sible to see hundred feet in any direc-
ton. Fisk wrapped buffalo robe
around his neck and shoulders, and
urged the trembling horses on, but they
could not keep the road, and in a short
time the plain was as trackless as the
sea. After the horses had left the beat
en- way they could hardly walk, and it
was not long before they refused to
move. The darkness increased, end the
murcury was fast running down to zero
No time must be lost. The traces
we're unhitched, and mounting the
strongest horse, Fisk attempted to urge
him forward but he would not go
Then he led them for time, but finding
that it required all his strength to keep
the buffalo robe from blowing away he
left the team and pushed on before the
wind, for the wind was his only com
pass. The storm increased in violence
every moment. In many places the
snow was deep. and more than twenty
times the strong man was hurled into
the drifts, SO terrible was the storm
BY eight o'clock the mercury stood al
10 degrees below zero. The snow blew
from all points of the compass, and pen
etrated every stitch of his clothing that
was not protected by the buffalo robe
He know that several houses were near
but how could he find single one o
them, when on that very night the engi
neers on the railroad we're unable to find
the water-tank at Pierce station in the
darkness. The man knew that death
was on his trail. His strength was fail
ing rapidly and the cold increasing with
the fury of the storm. All his garments
were frozen stiff and his eyelashes coatec
with ice. 1t seems that he crossed the
river few hundred feet below Boyd''
rancho, but he has only faint recollec
ton of stumbling down bank and o
dreaming that he might possibly be nea
a house. He felt that his time had al
most come. To go on was madness, ye
he could not stop, except to brush away
the frozen tears, for wife with hel
babies are waiting and praying not tire,
miles away from his sinking heart
He managed to walk an hour longer
when a dizziness came on, and his brair
reeled like the storm. Then he begar
, digging hole in the deepest drift tina
he could find. 1t was like digging hi
own grave, for he knew not how soon h,
, might sink with exhaustion. Afte
working long time the ground wa
reached, and, then drawing the rob
over his head, he waited for the snow t,
bury him. The wind did its work well
and in an hour eighteen inches of snow
covered his roof of fur. Never did
. man long to sleep more than he, but b
, knew that if he closed his eyes, it woult
be forever. He fought with his sense
r like Bunyan's Christian Pilgrim, an,
, kept awake. Burning pains shot through
his swollen limbs, and his legs crampe,
= as if on the rack, and finally something
q like nettles prickled in his boots The
he knew that bis feet were freezing
6 Was he to die after all the hours of ae
o ony. No, he would keep his muscle
q moving and he did so, long after his toe
:. were frozen stiff. Hour after hour thi