Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-02-27
THE RUSHING WATERS.
Further Particulars of the Walnut Grove
Disaster.
Everything Swept Awny Before the Flood
Trees Torn Into shreds-Partial List of
Those Drowned.


dred and twenty-five persons two weeks
ago, and there were probably that many
in it at the time of the disaster. Fears
are entertained for their lives. A courier
who has arrived from north of here near
there says he was awakened about 2
o'clock in the morning by the shrieks OK
the people The wave was fifty feet
high when he first saw it, and was spark
ling in the darkness with millions
of phosphate rays and with
terrible roar it almost
instantly swept away tents and buildings,
and the canon, that was full Of cotton
wood trees, was swept out clean. The
lower dam, a structure 240 feet long and
sixty feet above bedrock with thirty
feet above the surface, was swept
away. a prospector, who was camping
on the bluff four miles below Wicken-
burg, says the sight from where he stood
was sublime in the extreme. In the mar
row, just below where the canon centers
and about one-fourth of its width be-
tween perpendicular rocks several hun
dred feet high, the waters backed up
hundred feet high, with a fearful crash
and roar, and rushed through the narrow
gorge like lightning, cleaning out
the last vestige of everything Wis
ible, leaving bare the hard rocks.
THE PARTICULARS
PRESCOTT, A. T.. Feb. 2G.-The fail
ure of the messenger to arrive here yes
terday with further particulars of the
great disaster on the river had tendency
to engender the feelings of hope in the
hearts of many that the news was exag-
gerated and that the horrible catastrO-
phe was not as bad as at first
briefly reported. Such hopes how
ever, were dispelled last night
about z O'Clock when j. j. Williams, a
mining superintendent, accompanied by
his brother, Ben Williams, of Bisbee and
Professor James Douglass, mining expert
and capitalist arrived from Copper Basin
and related the brief story told there by
two prospectoTs direct from the Walnut
Grove dam Not only was all hope dis
PEELED, but their story went to show that
the half had not been told. A short time
after the arrival of Professor Douglass
and the Williams brothers L. H. BOggs,
stage agent, who took Sheriff O'Neill
and deputies to the scene, returned and
reported that q messenger with full par
ticulars had been sent by Sheriff O'Neill.
It was midnight, however, before this
messenger arrived, giving list of the
lost as far as known and a partial list of
the survivors.
Sheriff O'Neil writes as follows:
RoUDAK's RANCH, Feb. 24.-The
scene of desolation along the Has
sayampa river and dam is complete
A tornado could not have made such a
complete wreck. For miles the waters,
turned free by the breaking of the
dams, have filed the bed of the creek
with bodies and huge bouldeTs, trees
and everything in the way of debris.
The following names are partial list
of drowned:
HANNAH MCCARTHY
MISS HANLON and MISS VAN BUREN,.
JOE REYNOLD, miner.
GEORGE ERBETTS, laborer.
Y. z. NICKEL, laborer.
ALEXANDER McMILLEN, Coachman for AIr,
Van Buren,.
f. NJ. WHEELER, laborer, and one Mexican,
name unknown.
6. S. COOK, laborer.
L, COOK.
L. n. WHITE.
JOHN SILSBEE KING.
PATRICK SHAY.
PATRICK BARRY.
CHARLES BRACkEN.
WILLIAM FLANAGAN.
FREDERICK PALMER.
CASPER F. RESTO.
JOHN BROWN.
ALEXANDER BROWN.
s. BURLONE.
J.. p. SAYNES.
GEORGE RUNDELL and eli ght children.
Besides these here mentioned some
twelve or fifteen miners who were in
placers on the mines between the upper
and lower dams with number of ranch
people along the stream are missing, and
when all the casualties are learned the
entire loss will be between fifty and sixty
lives.
The bodies thus far discovered are
about a dozen, many Of which are found
twenty or thirty miles from where the
flood overlook them. The remains are
more or less mutilated. Immense boul-
ders weighing tons were thrown around
a. a child might toss a ball. Enormous
trees were broken in two or torn into
shreds. Whatever the water struck
went down. The flood struck the lower
dam at $50 p. m. and five minutes later
the headquarters, five miles below, were
swept away. Several persons were at
both points watching, but, nOJwithstand-
ing this, the number of men drowned at
the first 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.
on the morning of the DIST q courier
was sent from the upper to the lower
dam to warn the residents at the latter
poinS that the former structure was in
danger of breaking, but owing to the
storm and darkness the messenger could
not keep ahead OF the flood aud lost his
life III trying to cross the Hassaymapa
river, which was in view of the survivors
of the camp he mad tried to save.
Chas. Tomason, a courier who arrived
here this afternoon from below Wicken-
burg, and who lost his rancho above the
lower dam, reports that nine bodies have
been discovered at Wickenburg and that
three of the above, in addition to those
already discovered, is recovered.