The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1890-03-06
THE BURST DAM.
Further Particulars of the
Horrible Disaster Reports
a Loss of Over Fifty.
! Wall of Water a Hundred
Feet High Rushed Down
the Valley.

PREscoTr, Ariz., Special. failure of
the messenger to arrive yesterday with fur
ther particulars of the great disaster on the
Hassayampa river had tendency to en-
gender the feeling of hope IN the hearts of
many that the news was exaggerated and
that the horrible catastrophe was
not as bad as at first briefly report
ed. Such hopes, however, were dispelled
when j. ]. Williams, mining superintend-
ent accompanied by his brother, Ben
Williams of Bisbee, and Prof. James
Douglas, mining expert and capitalist, ar
rived from Copper Basin and related the
briefstory told them by two prospectors
direct from Walnut Grove dam. Not only
was all the hope dispelled, but their
story went to show that half had not
been told A short time after the arri-
val of Prof. Douglas and the Messrs. Will
Jams, e. I'll. Beggs, a stage agent who took
Sheriff O'Neill and DR.. Miller to the scene
of the disaster, returned and reported that
messenger with full particulars had been
sent by Sheriff O'Eeill. 1t was midnight
however, before this messenger arrived,
giving list of the lost as far as known,
and partial list oG the survivors. Sheriff
O'Neill writes as follows from Rouark's s
ranch, dated Monday:
THE WATERS AWFUL WORK
The scene of desolation along the Hassayampa
river below the sites of the dams is complete.
tornado could not havemade such a complete
breaking of the dams have filed the bed OF
the creek with bodies and with enor-
oSB.S nS RSpdeF o dtbfs The and oTfE
thirtyeight names are partial list of the
drowned: Hannah mccarthy, maid to Miss Han
lon and Miss Van Buren,; Joe Reynolds miner;
| Iah ball lob
Alexander Mcmillan, coachman for Mr.. Van
Buren,; E, G. Wheeler, laborer; one Mexican,
name ,unknown; G. I: Cook; laborsr; N IL L.
| bee, visitor; Charles King. blacksmith;
! Patrick Shay, laborer; Patrick Barry, laborer;
Charles Bracken, laborer; William Flanagan, la
borer; Freckerick Palmer laborer: Casper
| Freester, laborer; John Browne, engineer; Alex
! Browne, engineer; S. Burloge, laborer; l.. D.
Haynes, laborer, and child; George Fundell, la
borsr and eight Cinnamon. Among the snryiyors
: are Miss Mary Hanlon, niece OF II. S. Van
| Buren, president of the Walnust Grove Water
| Storage company: James Reddington, hydraulic
| Brown merchant, and all his assistante; Ed
! mund Silsbee, II. 8. Van Buren, and daughter,
/ with Lieut.. A. N. Brodie, superintendent, were
| in the Phoenix, having left for there on the
| Tuesday preceding. Besides these here men,
| toned some twelve or fifteen miners who werein
the placer mines between the upper and lower
| dam with q number of ranchers along the
stream are missing aud when all the casualties
are ascertained the entire loss will probably be
between fifty and sixty lives. The bodies thus
| far discovered are about a dozen, many oi
! which were found twenty and thirty miles from
the place where the flood overlook them all
The remains are more or less mutllated
have been recovered, as the force OF the hood
was terrific. Many bodies have doubtless beer
buried in the sand and others torn to pieces and
carried far south The impetus OF the stream
of water when turned loose can hardly be appre-
ciated without going over the ground covered by
it, Those who saw it say that it came down III
AN ALMOST PERPENDICULAR WALL
ninety or one hundred feet high, and apparently
crushed down instead OF sweeping everything
before it. Immense boulders weighing tons were
Encanous trees mee Broken M tSu or @ torn into
shreds. Iron bars were broken and twisted
out OF shape, and ordinary nat iron
miles and then embedded in the walls OF the
canyon eighty feet above the present level OF the
containing in the neighborhood of $1,000, was
swept away and no tracs has been found of it..
Whatever the water struck went down. The
food struck the lower dam at 1:50. and five
minutes later the headquarters, five miles
below were swept away. Several persons were
ut both points watching, but notwithstanding
point was over thirty, and those who did
Escape did SO with only what they had on
their backs, many only in their. night clothes.
+ Sartel Courier qN was as sent sent nom a. tSs upper
to the lower dam to warn the residents at the
latter point that TIE former structure was in
danger Oh Dr6bkluE, DuG OWiDS W bLc SGOEuu
darkness the messenger could not keep ahead OF
! the food and lost his lie in trying to cross the
Hassayampa river within view OF the survivors
of the camp he had tried to save
Charles Thompson, a courier who arrived
here this afternoon from below Wickenburg,
and who lost his ranch above the lower
dam, reports that nine bodies have been
discovered at Wickenburg, and three above,
in addition to those already discovered.
All the ranches along the river have been
entirely swept away.