The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-13
And Travels Two Miles Down
the Mountain Side.
TREES AND BOULDERS
Carried Along to the Valley Be-
low.
Italian Miners and Their Fami-
lies In Cottages
Are Overwhelmed and a Number
of Lives Lost.

Georgetown, Colo. Feb. 13.-The most
terrible and disastrous snow slide ever
known in Clear Creek county occurred
at Silver Plume, four miles from here,
at o'clock Sunday morning. The slide
started two miles away and came with
terrific force, carrying along hugh boul-
ders and immense trees.
short distance from the starting
point the avalanche parted, one section
coming down Chiroke Gulch, taking
with it two cabins occupied by Italians,
and the shaft house of the Cary City
mine. The other slide came down Wilt
han Gulch, between the Pelican and the
Seven Thirty mines. The latter did the
most damage.
Settlements of miners, mostly Italians,
were situated in both gulches. For
week or more the inhabitants have
moved from place to place to escape
threatened disaster, should the noun
tainS of snow start down the noun
tain side. Some fingered in their homes
and were carried away in the slide 1t
is estimated that thirteen bodies are
still beneath the piles of snow in the
two gulcheS.
EIGHT BODIES RECOVERED.
Denver, Colo, Feb. ia Times spec
ial from Silver Plume, Colo, says: Many
people living in cabins on the mountain
sides are moving today in order to avoid
possible death in snow slides such as
that which swept down Cheyenne canon
yesterday, killing at least ten persons.
Much heavier masses of snow than
that which came down yesterday still
cling to the mountain sides and are
liable to become dislodged at any mo-
ment.
The bodies of the missing men who
were carried away in the avalanche of
yesterday are still being hunted. So far
eight bodies have been recovered. Three
men who were caught in the slide were
taken out with only slight bruises, and
they will recover. 1t is known that
thirteen persons were in the slide and
missing. Possibly a, dozen
more were caught by the slide but the
Italians who lived in the canon are
averse to giving information. The men
who were saved say that it was by
miracle for they were unable to get out
of the way of the moving mass of snow.
The known dead are;
DOMINIC DESTEFNO, HIS WIFE,
HIS SON AND HIS DAUGHTER.
JOSEPH, JOHN and PETER TON
DEM.
JEROME GUIANZI.
JOHN BIETTO.
ENRIC NAVARIA.
INJURED.
Tony Negretto, arm broken.
Joseph COncOno, head cut.
Tony Maloni, leg broken.
The bodies of Destefno and of Joseph
Tondeni have not been recovered.
AVALANCHE 300 FEET WIDE.
Where the slide finally stopped the
drift is 500 feet across and from so to
70 feet in depth. 1t is fully 800 feet in
length. The drift is filed with timbers
and boulders and the rescue party
found it almost impossible at present to
to dig in the hard mass. The rescue
party was made up of the mining and
business men of this place and George
town and they worked in relays.
Ropes were used and sometimes IS
men would be hauling away on them to
get a big log out of the snow. From
within ten minutes after the slide had
come down the gulch until late into
the night men were working in the
drift to rescue the missing ones and
then it was only skinned over. At
Destefno's cabin no trace of the man
could be found. The roof of the cabin
was taken off and the sides were crush
ed in. On the floor sat the body of the
wife. On one side was the boy as if
kneeling in prayer, while directly in
front of the mother was the little girl
of two years in the same supplicating
attitude. The mother was leaning over
the little girl as if giving her protec-
ton. All three were dead. The snow
was packed solidly around them.
The ore houses of the Pelican and
Cary City mines swept away and it is
estimated that $4,000 worth of ore was
carried into the basin betw cen the
mountains and lost.