The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1896-01-17
AN AVALANCHE CANE
1t Swept Away Stamp Mills in
the Silver Bow Basin.
THE wATcHMAN BURIED IN 1T.
The Plant Was Valued at S2S. 900 and
Was owned by a Citizen
OF Seattle.

G. 2. Swsnehart the editor Of the Alaska
Mining Record, who arrived here yesterday
on the Topeka. told thrilling story OF me
most recent Of Aiaskas mighty ayalanches.
This tremendous snowslide started on the
mountain side back OF Juneau, and gather
ing force swept into the Silver Bow basin,
and carried with il the stamp mills and the
whole OF the large mining works of the
Elmer company. doing destruction estimat-
ed at nearly $4,000. Dir. Swinehart said:
The day before | left. large searching
party was out ali day endeavoring 10 find
the body of John T. Pearl They were IN
successful. and the day we left a stu
larger body of men went on the search.
Pearl was a Waterman employed al the
mill, and il is believed that he was eating
his breakfast at the time the avalanche
struck the building in which he sat and car
RED il away.
THE avalanche occurred on the MORN
ing Of December ., and a curious thing
that mas since been learned about Il IS that
the watchman at the Camel mill saw it
start. and yet never reported il. Had he
done so, il is possible that some of its de-
sfruction might have been averted, and at
least the life of Pearl might have been
saved 1t is supposed that Pearl heard the
roar Of the avalanche, and started TO run,
and ne must have got some distance from
the buildings and have been carried away,
debris.
THE slide came down the main head CT
Gold creek, striking first the boarding
house, then the mill and then the Office
buildings, with a depth OF about forty feet
OF snow This depth can be calculated pref
~ accurately from the fact that the cupoia
on the top Of the mill was carried away on
the surface of the avalanche. clear down
the valley, without being broken, while the
mill itself was smashed into fragments. The
slide came rolling down with sucn terrific
force that the huge t.mberS of the mill were
scattered in splinters some hundred feet ca
either side. So great was the impetus or
the avalanche that it traversed a distance
Of over 2,0D feet down the level valley,
wrecking and burying everything IN IS
way. Its force IS perhaps best estimated
by the circumstance that the stamps n
the mill, huge bars of steel coupled in the
strongest pOssbl manner for the work
they have to do, were torn apart and scat
tered, some OF them singly here and there.
Through these spiinters of timber and ma
ohinery and rocks and snow, body of vol
unteers has been carefully searching for
Pearls body, but / do not think they VIII
find ii until the snow melts away with the
coming of spring. Pearl is a young man OF
about ~ years OF age, who has been EN-
ployed in the mill since last July. He is
son of Thomas +. Pearl, of Juneau, and
brother-in-law of Attorney BOstw.ck, for
merry Of this cry.
The mill plant was valued at $4,000, the
cost Of its construction, and it was TWEEN
ty-stamp mill with all the latest improve
ments and appliances. 1t was erected in
1889 by the Elmer Alaska Milling and Min
ing Company. Its site was specially Sc
lected. in the belief that 1t was a spot snow
slides could never reach, because of It's dis
lance on level ground from the mountains
base