Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1894-12-07
TACOMA LANDSLIDE
Six Hundred Feet Of Docks Sink
Into the Bay.
A MAN AND A GIRL DROWNED
The Northern Pacific's Cattle Pens. One
and 400-Foot Freight House all
Go Down Tog, Their.

Tacoma, Wash, Nov 29.-Amid the
roar of an immense tidal wave beating
against the shores of Puget sound
about 800 feet of Tacoma's docks
plunged in Commencement bay at IL
o'clock last night. Half dozen steam
ers were tossed about like chips, and
two were disabled. At 40 a. M the
filled-in portion of the ocean dock was
still settling and the accident is begin
ming to assume the form of calam-
ity to the city.
III. II. Alger's boathouse, containing
himself. wife and six children, was
turned upside down, spilling the chill
dren out of their hunks into the icy
water and it is feared one of his daugh-
| tiers has been drowned.
John Hanson, Waterman at the
+ Northern Pacific hydraulic pump. went
down in the debris and cannot be
| found.
For distance of 500 feet the ocean
| dock had settled and 1t was feared the
big elevators and coal bunkers would
pitch into the bay. All the cattle pens
of the Northern Pacific, together with
the office and that company's 400-foot
freight house. went down together, and
fire at once broke out where the pump
station disappeared in the debris. Near
ly all of the dock which fell into the bay
is that portion of the water front which
the city has been trying to secure from
the railroad and the Tacoma Land Com
pany.
Steamboat men claim that the tidal
wave was % feet HIGH and it rushed up
the sound and tore the dock away. EN-
ployes at the wharf believe there has
~ lat, "a
that a great fssure or hole has been
formed in the bay, allowing the docks
to be swallowed up.
NOT A TIDAL WAVE.
Investigation proves conclusively
that last nights landslide was caused
by neither a tidal wave nor an earth
quake. Puget sound has very steep
shores. Just outside the Northern Pa
cific docks the bank slopes into deep
water at an angle of As degrees. Fifty
feet from the dock the water is 200
feet deep. At great expense the rail
road has put in solid docks of made
land supported on the water side by a
rock wall built against piling driven
into the mud. This was not strong
enougth to bear the immense pressure
and when this was increased by the
and loose by recent rains, the outei
edge of the dock began to slide and
finally gave way, precipitating into
deep water one Of the most valuable
portions of the water front. The strip
is 1,S00 feet long and 200 in width.
Two persons were killed-Emma
, Stubs, the 15-year-old step-daughtei
of II. II. Alger. boathouse proprietor
and John Hanson, a night Waterman
who was carried down with the en-
gine-house containing the boiler and the
pumps which furnish the power with
which the bluff side was being washed
down by hydraulic process and the bal
ance of the wharves filed in beneath
Neither of the bodies have been recov.
cred.
Superintendent McCabe says the dam
age to the railroad dock will not amount
to over $1,000. The building of the sea
wall for 1900 feet would be deferred
; until the engineers at st. Paul car
decide what plans would be adopted tC
insure future permanency.
The south end of the freight ware
house, in which were the offices, wen
down in the crash. The safe contained
2,40O in cash and valuable papers worti
> $4,000. 1t was supposed the safe ant
, valuable freight records had been SUM
in 200 feet of water, but this evening
the two-story building in which tn,
offices were located was found PARTIAL,
submerged on the beach at Gig Har
9 Dor, eight miles away. The safe ant
records are supposed to be safe.
I The damage to shipping and othe
! losses is estimated a / $4,000.