The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-03-07
THE LIST rs GROWING.
THE DEATHS FROM THE ARIZONA
DISASTER MULTIPLYING.

1t Was q Catastrophe Which Recalls
Johnstown's Sorrow An Irresistible
Flood Which Carried Havoc in It's Path
Particulars.
A messenger bringing further details Of
the Walnut Grove, Ariz., dam disaster has
arrived. Sheriff O'Neil, who went to the
scene of the disaster, writes as follows:
The scene of desclation along the Has
sayamapa below the sites of the dams is
complete. Fer miles the waters turned
free by the breaking of the dams have
filed the bed Of the creek with bodies md
with enormous boulders, trees and every
other kind Of DEBRIS"
Following is a partial list of the
drowned: Hannah Mccarthy, Joe Reyn-
olds, miner; Geo. Ebbetts, laborer; Alex
ander McMillin, coachman for Van Buren,;
-. q. Wheeler, latorer; one Mexican, name
unknown; G.. L. Cook, laborer; N. L..
Cook, laborer; L. N. White, laborer; John
silsbee, Charles King, blacksmith; Patrick
Shay, laborer; Patrick Barry, laborer;
Charles Bracken, laborer; VIM. Flanagan,
laborer; Frederick Palmer, laborer; Casper
Fieester, .laborsr; John Brown, engineer;
Alex Browne, engineer; S. Burlogi, laborer;
L. D. Haynes, laborer, and child; George
Rundell, laborer, and eight Cinnamon.
Besides those mentioned, some twelve
or fifteen miners, who were placer mining
tive the upper and lower dams. with q
number Of ranchers along the stream,
are missing, and when these casual
ties are ascertained the entire
loss will probably be between fifty
and sixty lives. A number of bodies have
been recovered, many of which were found
twenty and thirty miles from the place
where the food overlook them. All the
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, others torn to pieces
and others carried far to the south.
The impetus of the stream of water
when turned loose can hardly be appre-
ciated'without going over tine ground COW
cred by it. Those who saw it say it cana
down in almost a perpendicular wall 80 or
loo feet high and apparently crushed down
instead of sweeping away everything
before it. The immense body Of water,
one and one-half miles square and sixty
feet deep, was emptied in an hour. In
mense boulders, weighing tons, were
thrown around. Enormous trees were
broken in two or torn into shreds. Iron
bars were broken and twisted ont Of
shape and an ordinary flat iron was picked
up and carried five miles and then i'm
bedded in the wall of O canon eightyI feet
above the present level of the stream. A
large safe, containing several thousand
dollars, was swept away and no trace can
be found of it.
The flood struck the lower dam at 1:5Oa a.
M, and five minutes later the head
quarters, five miles below, were swept
away. Several persons were at both points
watching, but notwithstanding this the
number crowned at the first point was
over thirty, and those who escaped
did SO with only what they had on
their backs, many with only their night
clothes.
The survivors are in great restitution,
having neither provisions nor clothing.
Many are using coarse grain sacks in lieu
Of clothing.
Friday evening a courier was sent from
the upper to the lower dam to warn the
residents that the former structure was in
danger of breaking, but owing to the
storm the messenger lost his life IN trying
to cross the Hassayamapa within view of
the survivors of the camp he had tried to
save.
Charles Thompson, the courier who ar
rived from below Wickenburg, reports that
nine bodies have been discovered at Wick
enburg and three above, in addition to
those already discovered.
The old historic Brile ranch, with oil
the other ranches along the river, have
been entirely swept away.