The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1890-03-07
THE BURST DAM.
Further Particulars of the
Horrible Disaster Reports
a Loss Of Over Fifty.
A Wall of Water a Hundred
Feet High Rushed Down
the Valley.

PREscoTr, Ariz., Spccial.-Thc failure OF
the messenger to arrive yesterday with fur
ther particulars of the great disaster on the
Hassayanpa river had tendency to en-
gender the feeling of hope III the hearts of
many that tho news was exaggerated and
thut the horrible catastrophe was
not as bad as at first briefly report
ed. Such hopes, however, were dispelled
when J. J. Williams mining superintend-
cnt, accompanied by his brother, Ben
Williams of Bisbec. and Prof. J.mee
douglas. mining expert and capitalist, ar
rived from Copper Basin and related the
brief story told them by two prospcctors
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
Jams. Il. II. Bcggyys. stage agent who took
Sheriff O'Neill and DIR. Miller to tho scene
ofthc disaster, returned and reported that
o 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 y partial list Of the survivors. Sheriff
O'Neill writes as follows from Rouark's
ranch, dated Monday:
TIE WATERS AWFUL WORK.
The scene Of desolation along tile lIussayampa
river below the sites OF the dams il complete.
a tornado could not have made such u complete
% wreck; For miles the waters turned free by the
breaking OF the dams have filled the bed of
the creek with bodies and with cnor-
osSes kma SSpdess RI aenss trsss rhs and oeWy
drowned: IIannah McCarty, maid to Miss Han
lon and Miss Van Buren,; Joe Reynolds, miner;
George Ebbetts, laborer; N. Z. Nickel, !aborcr:
Buren,; f. G. Wheeler, laborer: one Mexican,
Cook, @ labersr . N. L: White, laLorer; John sils.
Patrick Shay, laborcr; Patrick barry, laborer;
Charles Bracken, laborer: William Flanagan, la-
borer: Freckerlck Palmer, laborer: Casper
Browne, engineer; $. Burlogic, laborcr; l.. D..
Haynes, laborer, and child; George Flndell, ln-
borsr, md eight Chinamen. Among the survivors
Buren,, president Of the Walnust Grove Water
Storage company: James Reitlington. hydraulic
engneer; Paul lansing, bookkeeper; Robert
With Lieut.. 4. n. Brodie, superlnteiident, were
N the Phoenix, having left for there ON the
toned SOME twelve or fifteen miners who were in
the placer mines between the upper and lower
dam with u number OF ranchers along the
are ascertained the entire loss will probably be
between fifty mud sixty lives The bodies thus
lar discovered arc about a dozen. many of
the place where the flood overlook them ALL
The remains are, more or less mutilate1,
while in several cases only fragments
have been recovered, as the force oi the food
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
1t. Those who saw it say that it came down In
AN ALMOST PERPENDICULAR WALL
ninety or one hundred feet high, and apparently
before 1t. Immense boulders weighing tons were
thrown around as q child might toss a ball
Enormous trees were broken in two or torn into
out Of shape, and ordinary flint iron
miles and then embslted in the walls Of the
stream. large safe belonging to Robert Brown,
containing in the neiglborhood Of $1,000, was
swept away and no tracs has been found Of it..
food struck the lower dam ut 1:5O. and five
minutes later the headquarters, five miles
below were swept away. Several persons were
this the number OF men drowned ut the first
point was over thirty, aud those who did
escape did 80 with only what they had on
a courier was sent from the upper
to the lower dam to warn the residents at the
iatter po!nt tnat the iOrmef structure was IN
danger Of breaking, but owing to the storm and
darkness the messenger could not keep ahead oi
the food, and lost his lie i'll trying to CROSS the
Hassayampa river within view OF the survivors
OF the camp he had tried to save.
Charles Thompson, q courier who arrived
here this afternoon from below Wickenburg,
and who lost his ranch above the lower
dam, reports that nine bodies haye been
discovered at Wickenburg, and three above,
in addition tG those already discovered.
All the ranches along the river have been
entirely swept away.