The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-13

Two Miles of Forest Swept Down the Noun
tain, Causing Great Destruction.

FABIAN HOUSE, n. H., July 1L.-Since the
destructive Wiley slide there has been no land
slide in the White mountain region like that OF
yesterday A thunder shower hung around the
White mountains all Thursday afternoon, trying
to work its way north to Canada. 1t rained
hard during the day and in the night it poured,
making the mountain side roar with new born
torrents. Toward morning the storm concen-
trated its forces for final effort. Passing Twin
Mountain to Mount Pleasant it rolled on along
the side of gigantic Washington and made an
assault On Cherry Mountain, triple peak ABOUT
twelve miles to the north. Mr.. n. NJ Daven-
port, the town tax collector of Jefferson, had
just got up, and saw the assault. He says the
lightning played around Owls Head, the central
and highest peak for moment or two and then
came vivid flash that seemed to light the whole
armament and opened UP deep vistas in the pail
of clouds Before the report reached him he
saw little rift Of fresh earth far up the noun
tain side near the summit, and while he looked
the spot ran down the mountain, bearing i'll its
wake trees rocks and everything but the sold
lodges Tall trees swayed to and fro for a mo-
ment and went down like grass before mower.
1t was the commencement Of landslide, the
greatest that has occurred in the region for
many years. Owls head is 3. 500 feet high. Be
low IL; 10 lle HOfln, III Ndlles are several
homesteads Of farmers Nearest the mountain
is the house Of Ezra Bordreau, a Frenchman.
Some half mile further down were the house
and barn Of Oscar Shanly, a well-to-do New
England farmer. Bordreau says he thinks he
was asleep when the slide occurred, but was
awakened by the noise and ran to the window
and looked out. Il seed it acoming" said he,
''and my house he too high, so they no reach
him. When he all gone say to my boy, L is
alive, think but Shanly he is gone too He
m awful Ha kp forty
thousand horses and run away. Scare me
awfully; scare my COW, too, SO she give no milk"
According to Mr.. Shanly, he, with his three
hired men, were in his barn at the time which
he thinks was about 6 o'clock. He heard the
clap Of thunder and thought it lasted a very
long time The noise grew so loud that, in spite
of the arguments of his men, he went to the
floor and there saw the slide coming, not forty
rods away. He ran back and spoke to his men,
and they made haste to get out of the way Mr.
Shanly and his two men, Moses andClef Mcdonald
ran to the east and got beyond the torrents Of
trees and soil that came pouring down. The
third Donald j. Walker, farm laborer, twenty
four years of age, was milking cow in the
STALL and did not hear in time TO escape from
the barn before it was struck He was buried
in the wreck and carried several rods. When
found he was lying among the broken frame
A timber was across his chest, he was badly
bruised, and his leg broken so that it will have
to be amputated
Mr. Davenport says it was between two and
three minutes from the time the first spot
appeared on the side of Owls Head to that when
Shanly's buildings were crushed out Of all shape
and as the distance made in that time is fully
two miles, the speed was about mile minute
or faster than the speediest train. To-day the
field was covered twenty-five feet deep in mud
over an area of forty acres, and in this mud
were powders weighing forty tons and trees two
feet in diameter and seventy five feet long. Not
a limb remained to tell that they ever had
branches. Even the bark was gone--peelcd off
as if by a draw-shave. The whole mass is full Of
these monsters, stripped from fifty acres Of old
growth woodland. Good judges estimate that
there are 400, 600 feet Of tim Der wing on Shanlys
farm.
The slide followed tortuoUs path down the
mountain, twisting to left and right, but always
going down. just before arriving at Shanlys
house, the brook, which was the channel Of the
avalanche made sharp turn to the right, and
the earth, and mud and trees were unable to
follow the curves. Meeting little hill back of
the buildings the dirt raised 400 feet in the air.
and spread itself over Shanlys farm, covering
an acre of potatoes, two acres of grain, fine
garden and about twenty five acres of grass land,
and spelling his farm. The force was nearly
spent when it struck his buildings, but they
We're knocked out of all shape, and driven sew
eral rods to the north His entire loss is between
$50 900 and $40, 900. He is stout, healthy man,
forty nine years of age, and has wife
and three children, who depend upon him for
support The avalanche swept away the whole
of his lifes labor.
He and his family sat among the straw under
the broken barn roof today and said it was all
the shelter they could call their own. A herd of
young cattle belonging to Mr.. Marshall were
chewing their cuds on the hillside when the slide
came down and they were ground to pieces
among the powders The hoofs and horns Of
several lie under the logs just back of Mr.
Shanlys orchard, a mile from the pasture.