The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-03-07
TEE BURST DAN.
Further Particulars OF the
Horrible Disaster Reports
q Loss of Over Fifty.
A Wall of Water a Hundred
Feet High Rushed Down
the Valley.

PRESCOTT Ariz., Specialize failure Of
the messenger to arrive yesterday with 1ur-
Their particulars of the great disaster on the
Hassayampa river had q tendency to en-
gender the feeling of hope IN the hearts OF
many thatthe news was exaggerated and
that the horrible catastrophe was
not as bad as at first briefly report
ed. Such hopes, however, were dispelled
when ]. ]. Williams mining snperintend-
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
brief story 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
iaRls E. H. 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'Neill. 1t was midnight,
however, before this messenger arrived,
giving list of the lost as far as known,
and partial list Of the survivors. Sheriff
O'Neill writes as follows from Rouarks
ranch, dated Monday:
THE WATERS AWFUL WORK.
The scene of deSOlati0n along the HasSayAmpa
river below the sites of the dams is complete.
tornado could not have made such complete
wreck For miles the waters turned free ~ the
breaking of the dams have filled the he'd Of
the creek with bodies and with enor-
Other *. kind Of debris; + The ~ fo1ew ing
drowned: Hannah McCarty, maid to Miss Han
lon and Miss Van Buren, Joe Reynolds, miner;
George Ebbetts, !aborer; n. E. Nickel labo 2
Buren,; E.. G. Wheeler, laborec; one Mexican,
pans wbt Cook YGb s L.
Patrick Shay laborer; Patrick Barry laSorer;
Charles Bracken, laborer; William Flangan, la
borer; Freckerick Palmer, laborer Casper
Freester labOrer; John Browne, engineer Alex
Browne engineer; s. Burlogie, laborer; l.. d.
Haynes laborer, and child; George Fundsl, Ia
borsr, and eight Cinnamon. Among the survivors
are Miss Mary Hanlon, niece OF II. 8 Van
Buren,, president of the Walnust Grove Water
Storage company: James Reddington, hydraulic
er La and bs
mund Silsbee, II. S. Van Buren, and daughter,
with Lieut.. A. N. Brodie, superintendent, were
in the Phgnix having s LETT tor for, there a. the
toned some twelve or fifteen miners who verei in
the placer mines between the upper andlowe
dam with a number OF ranch 1 alofg the
are ascertalned the entire loss will probably be
between fifty and sixty lives The bodies thus
far discovered are about dozen, many OF
which were found twenty and thirty miles from
the place where the food overlook then all.
The remains are more Or less mutt Ated,
S Mh in fbe o Of
was terrific. Many bodies have doubtlessleen
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 do tn in
AN ALMOST PERPENDICULAR WALL
ninety or one hundred feet high, and apparently
crushed down instead of sweeping every hing
before it. Immense boulders weighing tons we're
thrown around as a child might toss BAH.
Enormous trees were broken in two or torn into
shreds. Iron bars were broken and twisted
out of shape, and ordinary fat iron
mes and then in the was of a ehe
canyon eighty feet above the present level of the
stream. A large safe belonging to Robert Brown
containing in the neighborhood of 81 900, was
swept away and no tracs has been found of it.
Whatever the water struck went down. The
food struck the lower dam at 1850 and five
below were swept away. Several persons were
at both points watching, but notwithstanding
this the number Of men drowned at the first
escape did SO with only what they had on
their backs. many only in their night clothes.
Earlier ON the evening .or OF tn the 21st
to the lower dam to warn the residents at the
latter point 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 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.