Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-02-28
The Hassayampa Flood.

PRESCOTT, Arizona, Feb. 25.-The failure
Of the messenger to arrive yesterday with
further particulars of the great disaster on
the Hassayampa :river, had tendency to
engender feeling of hope in the hearts of
many that the news was exaggerated, and
that the horrible catastrophe was not as
bad as was at first briefly reported. Such
hopes, however, were dispelled last night
MESSAGE msn fpom fmsssengsb5 gSber aFr'yea 0Ne with ev
ing the particulars as follows:
"The scene Of desolation alorg the Has
sayampa river below the sites of the dams
IS complete. A tornado could not have
made such complete track. For miles
the waters turned free by the breaking of
the dams have filled the bed of the creek
with bodies and with enormous bouiders.
trees and every other kind of debris" He
gives thirty six names as partial list of
the drowned. Besides these here men
toned some twelve or fifteen of the miners
| who were in the placer mines between the
upper and lower dam, with number of
and 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 of which were found twenty
or thirty miles from the place where the
Aioou o'Ci looh lAell' AL Cne remains are
more or less mutilated, while in several
cases only fragments have been recovered,
as the force of the flood was terrific. Many
bodies have doubtless been 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
appreciated without going over the ground
covered by it. Those who saw it say it
came down in almost
A PERPENDICULAR VAIL
80 or 100 feet high and apparently crushed
down instead of sweeping away every
thing before it, Immense boulders weigh
ing tons we're thrown around as a child
might toss doll. Enormous trees were
broken in two or torn into shreds. Iron
bars were broken and twisted out of shape
and an ordinary fiat iron was picked up
and carried five miles and then embedded
in the walls of the canyon 80 feet above
the present level Of the stream. A large
safe belonging to r. Brown, containing
in the neighborhood of $1,000, was swept
| away and no trace has been found of it.
Whatever the water struck went down.
The Hood struck the lower dam at 1850
| and five minutes later the headquarters
hye hAs, miles below, were swept away: Sew
but notwithstanding 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 night clothes. Early on the
evening Of the 2lst inst. a courier was sent
from the upper to the lower dam to warn
the residents OF 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 life in trying to cross the
Hassayampa river within view Of the sur
Chas. Thompson, q courier who arrived
here this afternoon from below Wicken-
burg 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 dis
covered. The old historic Brill ranch,
with all the other ranches along the river,
has been entirely swept away.