Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-02-27
SAW THE DAM BURST.
Eyp-Witnesses of the Walnut
Grove Disaster.
THEIR THRILLING ACCOUNT OF 1T.
How the Mighty Torrent Broke Loose.
Carrying Death and Distruc-
tiOn Before 1t.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HERALl

|
Upper Walnut Grove dam give the fol-
owing account of their experiences:
Their names are Moses and Robert
Moore. two Scotchmen, who recently
arrived here from Colorado. When found
they were engaged in cleaning fish for
their supper, stating that they had Sc
cured enough fish from the wreck of the
dam to last them ever since the disaster.
MANY Of them were found eighty feet
above the level of the creek on the sides
Of the bluffs. The brothers say they we're
the last two men to make the journey
alive between the two dams.
THE BEoTHERs' STORY.
"We came up the Hassayampa," one
of tn EN- said, "from Wickenburg, pros
pecting all along the river. We left
Wickenburg five days previous to the
disaster; passed several parties Oh the
way who were prospecting also and who
must inevitably have been lost. Three
nights previous to the food we camped
with three men near the lower dam.
They had freighting outfit consisting
learned that the men escaped, but lost
their outfit of animals, wagons, clothing,
and everything they had.
"We had to cross the river thirty-nine
times between the two dams; in some
places it was waist-d deep. We were two
DAYS coming from the lower to the upper
dam. The last night, which was We'd
nesday, we camped about mile below
the big dam with three men named
Fenshaw, Packer and 'Frenchy.' On
Thursday it rained heavily, and We came
direct to Walnut Grove dam and camped
in the company's bunk house.
THE RISING WATERS.
"Friday morning the water in the dam
was rising at the rate of eighteen inches
an hour, with all the sluices open, and
Superintendent Thomas Brown had
fifteen men employed all day in blasting
out the waste waterway to increase its
capacity to allow the escape of the water
The two big pipes at the bottom of the
dam were also open and were running
to their fullest capacity. The water
reached the bottom of the waste water
way, which is several feet lower than
the top of the dam, about o'clock, and
it rushed through it with such force that
it washed out the sides and increased its
size to nearly double what it was before
1t kept increasing its width, washing
mostly son the side next the dam. In
spite of the immense volume of the water
which went through this passage it still
continued to rise in the dam until 8
O'Clock at night, when it commenced to
pour over the top of the structure. ITO
feet hign, with a whizzing, deafening
sound like the ocean beating against the
rocks.
DRUNKEN MESSENGER.
cat o'clock in the afternoon Superin-
tendent Brown, seeing the dam must
lower dam to notify them of the danger,
but he stopped at saloon on the road !,
and becoming intoxicated, failed to de.
liver his messoge, returning to the wreck
of the dam the nexS morning. The feel
ing against him was 30 strong there that
he Immediately left.
"a n )ther messenger was sent at 80 in
the evening, but owing to the darkness
and fury of the storm he could make but
slow progress, and was overtaken and
drowned by the flood just as he neared
the lower camp.
Superintendent Brown camped at the
dam all night, and watched the irresist.
ible progress of the food, but was power
less to do more than he had already
done.
THE MIDNIGHT WARNING.
I'VE had gone to sleep, but about 12
O'Clock we were awakened by Brown
calling to his foreman, Mr.. Dwyer: Get
up, Phil l think the dam has broken
"Soon afterwards there was a tre-
mendous roar, which was perfectly inde-
scribable, and we arose and looking out
saw the water rushing out of the dam.
Inside Of two hours the water had dis
appeared entirely from where it was from
sixty to hinety feet deep.
'Dwyer took lantern and work sd his
way down along the precipitous cliffs of
the river about mile, where camp of
miners had been located. His light at
tracted the attention of a man named
Francis nj. Parker on the opposite side
OF the stream, who called for help. He
could not see him in the darkness and, it
being impossible to reach him, he re-
turned to the dam and we two, accom-
panied Dy Mexican and an Italian,
provided with ropes, went down to
rescue him. We remained there until
daylight without being able to reach him.
At daylight we could see him away up
on the side of the hill, eighty feet above
the river, among the brush. We called
and motioned to him to come down to
the stream. We threw rope to him.
but he was afraid to risk crossing with
it. He had nothing but his underclothes
on and his feet were bare and all cut aud
bruised from climbing among the rocks.
We tied matches to a stone and threw
them to him, when he built fire and
warmed himself. Then we motioned to
him to 60 up the stream, which he did.
and was assisted across the waters and
provided with clothing.
OVERWHELMED BY THE TORRENT.
"He stated that while himself and
partners had previously been afraid the
dam would burst, they felt no fear what. |
aver this time, and had gone to bed feel |
ing secure. During the night they were
awakened by q sound as if some one had
thrown handful of stones against their
,abin. He heard one of his partners
imp out of bed and exclaim, NV God
What is that?' and he never heard
,r saw anything of them after. Tne
lext moment he was lifted against the
oof of the cabin and he caught hold of
he rafters. The water formed an eddy
where the cabin stood in a little cave.
nd the cabin was raised to the surface
# the water, and after floating around in
his eddv for a while the roof uuoo e+rroL