The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-04-05
COLORADO SNOwSLIDES.
REMARKABLE FEATs THEY PER-
FORM ALON0 THE ONRAY.
A Drln Through witch conehe- Wen, hr

DAF AHs ANllh gu ihiiAN uN NbIltb lIOIl
being the most conspicuous figure on the most
picturesque road In Colorado is Harvey Lewls's
old Harvey" they call him. though the adj
%jective does him injustice, unless applied be.
cause OF HE stationary habit. Anybody in
Colorado who Is stationary deserves to be called
old. Seen from the tourists standpoint. he is
n quiet, retrospective man, who watches the
stage go by with dreamy gaze, and you'd never
suppose he took sufficient interest in its transit
to note whether there were two or four horses
pulling II. That Is just what Harvey does no
ticc, for he is a tollgate keeper, and the stage
company pays by the horse. One character
istic becomes noticeable to the person who en-
Joys his society for half an hour or 30. lie lis.
tens TO all that's said. and Joins In when It
comes to relating experiences; but no matter
how interesting the talk his ears seem ever on
the alert for something else. BY cautious in
quiry one learns what 1t is he Is listening for.
IL Is the crash and boom of n snowsilde.
For Harvey's road. the famous Ouray. Is in
the heart Of the greatest upheaval in all the
Rocky Mountains, and its threadlike course Of
twelve miles makes an ascent of 1000 feet. AT
the highest point it is II 900 feet above sea
level. On one side the cliffs rise at varying
angles. one, two, three. four thousand feet; on
the other at many places n loosened pebble
would cleave the air like n plummet fully a
thousand rect DefOre dashlnR TO pieces Mt the
bottom of the canon of the Uncomuahgre.
1t Is one Of the few spots in the Rockies
where the casual visitor may become acqualnt-
ed with the terror of the nountains-the snow
slide. There is also to be encountered It's COM
panion in destructivcness. but not in horror
the comparatively familiar cloudburst. liar.
vey has sat in the door of his toll house and
watched both. The Cloudburst Is preceded by
crashes OF thunder which reverberate in n thou.
sand cailons with awful iteration, as though
the earth was splitting wide open; then comes
the booming roar of millions of tons of water,
Ucecntuated by the sharp artillery Of trees
torn asunder and hurled blow after blow
against impressive. rocking walls of granite.
There is no installing a clOudburst. Like a
mighty giant rushing into conflict its voice is
heard above the thunder. Silent is the work
of the snowslide. On the steep slope OF a
turks two, three, four feet, or more,
of snow. The eye rests on 1t -pouf! it is gone
and the bnre earth where 1t was is a black spot,
dense in the dazzling white all around. Be-
low. on a road maybe, maybe not. the snow
has cnveloped, absorbed everything it touched;
obliteration. Sometimes a. the snow starts
there is to be heard n sound like n pistol shot.
Is the falling mass swapping loose.
Harvey's home, the toll house. s~nugglcs in
n cleft which is on the path of untold numbers
Of cloudbursts. In fact, the predecessor of
the present toll house was hurled by one of
them into the chasm below, where not enough
Of it was found to make kindling wood. There
no one in the place at the time. Fear of
clOudburst? No; Harvey says he
would hear the noise of II before the rush of
water could reach him. Then, you see, he
locsn I fear cloudbursts.
From in front of his door Harvey can see
The road M in making n turn H. puts across
the side of Mother Klein Mountain. which is
II spur of Mt. Abram. The oistan ,e
is the most dangerous part of the
twelve miles. and this it is his special
duty to patro! at critical times. Cne winter
snowslide there filled the ravine. which Is
not so deep at that point, and piled up forty
deep for IA distance of 400 feet along tho
road. The toll company tunnelled n hole through
the snow big enough for the largest Concord
'oach, and the stages and other teams used
he icy channel all summer. Late in August
intact the rest of the year and until the next
Aurust. That was II heavy snowslida.
one day Harvey was taking q pdStnr up the
read with II driver OF burros from the Grizzly |
mine. Ahead of them amhled two of the sa.
,aclons niue ANIMALS. suddenly the great
them lost it's hold on the earth and hundreds
bi tons of II dr"pncd on the two jacks. carry |
them down the preCipitous incline TO the
river bed. Its an axiom in the West that
bnrros are never killed. and these were not.
'hnlgl Lad II been any other anlna al that !
went Oft the grade at that point they would
been "A whole museum of compound com
uinutcd fractures.
I'VE were only twenty five or thirty feet
behind tho iacks when they went over Har-
icy said when relating this incident.
to walk from Ouray 10 the Sunnyside
mine over the range in san Juan
SiIa., lint Th + is d ii ,rrrisle is u only S slYmt f9 e1 !,
he toll road at the bridge, up the tncom-
lahgre w the Mickey Breen, Happy Jack. and
Al \ lrtt ,,t,,.- I nlA itn.tNn tl. IA,,n,, - tG, /
Mountain mine, across the shoulder of Han
.on's Tcak at q height of nearly $1,000 feet and
he season and snowshocs, were not needed;
o the two friends acquired skates" in Ouray;
hat is, they got fairly. drunk. One man ap-
louse at daybrcak nearly frozen. bgt able to talk.
lie said his companion must have turned back
'efore they reached the toll house, as he missed
lin about there, They lad plodded along side
" side until the hlinding snow caused them TO
G,par"t", h" said. Next fall the body Of the
there the snow was late in melting. 1t was
II the bottom OF the canon directly below the
pot he had last remembered seeing hin he
THE Slide Just seems to pick EN- off as neat.
7 deer hS "'""tvr MTrp lar " '"''' "ro'e
\ remarkable incident Is that Of the doctor
had the horse he was riding knocked from
him by z little condensed slide, The
oCtor clung To the stone coping on the edge OF
he road. hut the, horse went clear to the bot
ON and was killed. What would you? 1t
Another time n late slide sent n free horse
wing down the side Of Mother klcin's. where
he deClivity is not so steep, and 10y a singular
nance the beast landed on top of the mass
( snow that knocked him of. He scrambled out,
nd remained in the canon all summer and au-
lmn. feeding on fat, lush grass. There
'as no way of hauling him up. and TIE brute
ad far too much sense to find n way back to
lac rOHd until the snow began to fall. These
horses do II heap more thinking
han the ordinary dull pludder Of the plain.
The mail carrier from Mineral Point TO Eu-
often stayed later than lie should nj the
place. because poker is n favOrite
anne there. and he was very fond of poker.
hen he failed TO show up nj the Point one
inter evening, there was anxiety next morn
~, and II party went out To search, for him.
hey wore snow shoes, and thus passed over sew
raj places in the road where slides had blocked
no way for Ordinary pedestrians. Learning
lat the carrier had left Eureka the afternoon
they did not fail To jump To the CDnclu-
on that he had persisted on the way, though he
as n hardy mOuntaincer and expert travel
n. SO II big party started to work on the
and after several days digging.
ave NJ the search for his body. They were
u22lei. lie could not have gone out Of that
luuIry except through Mineral Point or Eu-
cha, and then there WAS no reason in the
urld why he should disappear voluntarily.
hey were then on the road while the arguments
proceeding, and one Of them nOnChalantly
.uck his shovel intn u bank of snow that had
allen from the hill above.