Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-01-24
ALI the TranscOntinental Roads are
Tied up Some Place Along
Their Lines.
The Telegraph Wires are Down
Along the U. p, C. 2. and
n. ?. Roads.
The Only Communication With the
Pacific Coast is by Way OF
the Southern Pacific.
The Most Complete Blockade.

CHICAGO, Jan. 20.-The snow blockade
most complete on record. Not only has
travel become an impossibility on estern
divisions of the Central and Northern Pa
cific, but the telegraph companies are
equal sufferers and every through wire is
down on both these routes. The only
means of telegraph communication with
the Pacific coast now is by the indirect
route Of the Southern Pacific and tile VOL
ume of business transacted is necessarily
limited. Washington and Oregon are shut
off from communication with the entire
world with the exception of one little zig
gag wire that still ticks feebly between
San Francisco and Portland. When this
wire goes down these two northwestern
states will be further away from New
York than China so far as telegraphic
communication is concerned AS trains
are not running the snow blockade
renders it impossible for the telegraph
force to reach the scene of the break. The
Western Union repairers are showed up
at half dozen points in the west and
there is little prospects Of renewed com.
munication until tle railroads have mas
tered the elements. The snow blockade
on the Central Pacific road is at Emigrant
Gap, near the summit of the Sierras. Last
night eight west-bound trainsIwere showed
in and the prospects of the road being
opened in the next forty-eight hours are
throug gh the freezing ice, and the force of
shOVelers is inadequate. There are 1900
men at work but the snow is
SEVEN FEET DEEP
on level and fathomless in the cuts. The
falls is tremendous labor. On the North
ern Pacific there is a complete snow block.
ado at Sissom, near Mount Shasta. Col.
Fred Cracker of the Southern Pacific, who
was going north, has been showed in there
for three days in special train and expects
to get out tomorrow. The Southern Pacific
road has been badly injured in the Tehoch-
pi mountains. by washouts, and beyond
Los Angeles floods have done much dam
age. The only unobstructed road is the
Atlantic and Pacific, but as this depends
on the Southern Pacific for connections
between Majove Desert and San
Francisco ana on the washed out South
ern Pacific line between LOST Angeles
and San Francisco, travel on that may also
raining heavily in southern California for
days past while it is showing in the north.
Western Union adyiceS this morning are
that the snow is still falling throughout
the west so that the prospects are by no
means encouraging.
ON THE COAST.
PORTLAND, ORE, Jan. 2O.-For some
days past there has been heavy snow
blockade on the Union Pacific trunk and
branch lines between Huntington and
Portland. There has been no through
trains for nearly a week past and conse-
weather has prevailed, most of the time
accompanied by heavy winds and binding
snow storms. Five or six trains both east
and west bound are blockaded somewhere
between Dalles and Baker City.
LATER REPORTS.
PORTLAND, Ogn., Jan 2O.-So far as
known there is no interruption of through
orIlocal trains over the Northern Pacific
lines. Trains have been running with
but slight Interruptions. Late reports this
Pacific state that that line is practically
free from snow and ice.
The Northern Pacific Open.
ST. PAUL, Jan. 20.-The general passen-
ger agent here OF the Northern Pacific
railroad says that the report published in
the st. Paul evening papers from Chicago.
stating that railroad and telegraph commu-
nication with Washington and Oregon is
almost entirely cut off does great injustice
to the Northern Pacific railroad. While
they have experienced comparatively
heavy snow storm on their Idaho division,
they have met with no serious difficulty in
operating passenger trains, as with their
rotary plows their main line has been kept
open from st. Paul to Tacoma and Port
land throughout the entire winter. The
greatest delay to main line trains between
st. Paul and Tacoma and Portland that
has occurred this winter from snow is