Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-03-26
WHELMED BY A SN0WSLIDE.
A Beacon in the Wasatch Mountain
Whose Extinction Gave Warming of
the Coming of the AyaIanche-A
Night of Terrer.
New York Sun.


Night of Terrer.
New York Sun.
the past week, writes a Wasatch,
Utah, correspondent to the Sun, has
been one of terror in all this section
Of the mountains. No one has felt
secure for a moment, and the rever-
berations of the snowslides and the
trembling of the earth have filed the
people with alarm. The number of
casualties In and around Alta is the
greatest ever known, and the narrow
escapes have been almost without
limit. The SHOWS on the mountains
are very deep, and just at this time
quite wet. The fairest mornings are
the most portentious of disaster. With
the sun shining bright and warm and
gentle wind blowing, the stranger
would be wonderfully impressed with
the splendors of the mountain seen
cry. Snow is everywhere to be seen
| IN enormous quantities, except here
and there on the mountain sides,
where great black streaks indicate the
track of some slide. Old settlers have
dozen ways of learning when there
is danger ahead. In the first place,
when the streams trickling down the
canyons stop suddenly, leaving only
the empty bed, they know that avail
anches have occurred further up
which have clogged the whole canyon
and hold the water back. Then sun
ny, thawing days, when the surface
snow becomes damp, so that it will
pack we'll, are sure indication of the
destruction to come. The boy who
loves to roll snowballs would be in his
glory here now, providing there were
no men to stop him ia his sport. A
hallstone dropped on the mountain
side may roll on and on, gathering in
size and momentum as it descends,
until it becomes a ball which shakes
the ground as it rolls. Sometimes
these enormous balls GO from top to
bottom of the canyons without doing
much damage, but it frequently hap
pens that they are the cause of dis
astrous slides. A little piece of snow
detached by a passing breeze high up
on the mountain side may be the di-
rect cause of an avalanche that will
leave desolatiOn in lis wake.
Alta where the recent fatal slides
occurred, is a very exposed point, and
has always been regarded as an ex-
tremely dangerous place to pass the
winter in. This winter the inha9it-
ants have been few in number, but
nearly all of them have suffered death
or injury from the SHOWS. The first
| slide this year started in the same
| place that the one last winter did, and
IN the same way. Some of the miners
live IN their shafts in order to escape
| the avalanches. A miner high up on
the mountain poking around IN the
snow near his shaft started several
balls of snow rolling. Half a mile
further down was another mine, over
the shaft OF which a lantern was
swinging. Every night the few terri
fed residents of Alta would watch this
dim light on the snowy background,
and feel that as long as it still burned
there was no Immediate danger, By
the time the balls from above reached
the lantern they were merged Ia one
gigantic mass, and just at that point
the slide began. Instead Of rolling,
the snow from this point on slid with
the velocity Of the wind, tearing up
everything in its path and causing
clouds of the lightest fakes to rise a
hundred feet in the air. AS the avail
anche passed the lower mine it swept
the works away clean and with them
the lantern.
By the time the noise made by the
approaching avalanche was terrific.
and the people of Alta, rushing to
doors and windows to look for the
beacon, saw that it was gone. The
few seconds warning thus given were
of inestimable value. Nearly all who
were saved from instant death owed
their escape to the movements then
most hurriedly made. A more desc
late scene was never witnessed than
that presented by the village of Alta
Immediately after it's burial in the