Willmar tribune., 1899-02-22

III
he (;and often his wife and children
also reap.
Among the Rockies.
Ninth of a series of letters written |
by the editor while on his trip in the
West.
ASPEN, COL, Feb. 6, '99.
Snow blockades are not unknown to |
MINES otans. Seldom winter passes |
in their state without snowstorms
which more or less etfectually para
lyze railroad traffic for short periods.
1t has been our lot during the past
week to experience snowstorms among
the mountains of Colorado which not
only stopped the trains from running,
but added an element of danger to the
work of opening the lines which we do
not have in Minnesota. Ithas showed
with but few lulls for the past two
weeks. The mass of snow on the |
steep mountain sides thus augmented
not infrequently starts and slides
down to the foot of the mountain.
Woe to the being that is in its path.
1t gathers up rocks, breaks down large |
trees and carries them down within it.
self. The mass of snow thus falling
is packed incredibly hard. It is near
ly impossible to force stick into it.
1t is shoveled like so much dirt, and
not infrequently spades and picks are
resorted to in order to loosen it so it
may be handled. About a week ago
one Of these slides settled down on the
Rio Grande & Denver r. r. tracks
about 10 miles from Glenwood. The
storm was so binding that the engi-
neer of a passenger train did not see
the obstruction on the track until too
near to avoid an accident. The en-
gineer and fireman saved their lives
by jumping. The engine plunged
against the slide and two cars were
partly telescoped. Miraculously none
were killed nor seriously injured. A
wrecling train with forty eight men
was ordered to the scene and began
the work of clearing the tracks.
About nine o'clock the next morning
there was another small slide at the
same place which did no damage but
scare the men at work. Two of the
crew threw down their shovels and re-
fused to hazard their lives any longer.
The others remained. Early in the
afternoon another tremendous slide
started and covered the track where
the men were working to tile depth of
20 feet. The engine and cars Of the
wrecking train were overturned and
smashed as so much matchwood. For
ty five men were buried or hurled into
the river. Three men were killed, Ia
later report says twelve killed) and
fortunately the others were all rescued
though some were injured. This slide
occupies the attentions of the snow
shovelers still, and we have had no
eastern mail since then.
- -
Fatalities by reason of snow-slides
occur here nearly every spring. Tray
el along the mountain trails at this
time is extremely hazardous. Mines
which are located at such places that
require travel up the steep. sides of
the mountain to reach them are tenn
por;trily closed down. The volume of
snow that accumulates by one OF these
ava a'anches is tremendous. A gentle
man told me the other day that he had
beer picking raspberries on the noun
tain sides up along Castle Creek
southeast of town when large heaps of
snow from 4 slide still remained .un-
melted in the ravine, the creek having
cut tunnel under the icy mass.
Tie Cripple Creek gold district is
attr ecting a great deal of attention
late y. Some wonderful strikes have
beer made in some OF the mines there.
In one mine there is about $1,000, 600
of ore in sight. Slabs of gold 80 per
cent pure are taken out. It is queer
we do not hear complaints of the
enormous profits gold miners secure
by reason of the free coinage of gold
by the government: -: ~.
. -: &:& )
= Feb. 9th.
Since the above was written we have
bad three days of blizzardly weather,
with tremendous snowfall and the
prospects OF getting letters from home
and newspapers are decidedly slim for
come time to come. The local papers
state that the railroad people are be-
coming weary If theiN nnanual str, q. a.