The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1901-04-12
H WHITE TERROR.
Greatest Snow Blockade Ever Known
in North Western Kansas.
THE ST. FRANCIS BRANCH
For Forty-Three Miles Locked With Ice
and Snow for Fourteen Days.

SiSNo ~ tN'iNc' SNtNS
and st. Francis branch of the Burlington that
spands Rawlins and Cheyenne counties in the
extreme North Western portion of Kansas.
Sheets of wet snow driven by a terrific
n~orth-wester obscured the landscape and
darkened day into the dusk of evening. All
day long with undated fury indescribable,
the white terror piled high filling the deep cuts
of the Burlington and blanketing the vast
plains with a carpet of fine hardened snow
two TO three feet on the level. When Mon
days day broke the line of the Burlington for
forty-three miles west of Atwood was under a
complete blockade, the right-of-w ay and
trackage obscured, and no one could descry a
railroad there except for the line of telegraph
poles and the red station-houses of McDon-
aid, Bird City and St. Francis, Kansas, halt
buried under drifts. Monday, March 18th, all
trains were nnuled between Orleans and st.
Francis, Kansas, a distance of 1874 miles; that
day the snow-plow with a double-header and
emergency train under Train Master Kenyon
of McCook and Wrecking Foreman Emerson
with a large gang of men went to the big
drifts of the Brakeman hills and commenced
a task SO formidable that its equal is scarcely
known in the annals of snow blockades
These cuts were filled with hardened icy snow
so compact that when struck by the snow
pillow huge blocks, half ton in weight, flew
above the smoke-stack. The great force of
two engines against a solid wall of drift wore
on the head engine, and the snow-plow was
demolished and engine derailed. Many hours
of tedious labor, standing in sluSh and mud
several feet in depth, were experienced before
the locomotive was tracked again. Another
~snow-plow was secured and after a week OF
hardest labor with pick, shovel and snow
pillow the cuts of the Brakeman hills were
tunneled and the plans of Beardsley reached.
For six miles traversing many curves, the
Burlington right-of-way winds its Serpentine
trail through the Brakeman hills. One cut,
seventy feet deep, was filled from twenty to
twenty-fv feet for three fourths of a mile,
and many others packed with snow. The
spectacle presents itself of a series of snow
tunnels, scarcely wide enough for a train to
thread its way through.
From March 23rd to April 9th, St. Francis
and Bird City were cut off from the world by
mail and rail. A fuel famine and shortage of
provisions prevailed: stock in great number
persisted and general distress was eXper-
fenced. April End, the first train came into
Mcdonald, Kansas, since March 23rd, coal,
freight. and ten days mail on board. For Sew
eral days the people of this famished town
were burning loose railroad ties, fence posts,
old lumber and living on limited rations.
When the snow-plow with Train Master
Kenyon, Emerson and their tired gallant
workers reached St. Francis, late in the after
noon of Friday, April 9Th, the whole popula-
ton of St. Francis and adjacent county met
them with wild cheers and heartfelt demon
~stration. This beleaguered town having been
for fourteen days shut out from the outside
world; for two weeks imprisoned by the
storm king; fer a fortnight without letter or
daily newspaper-locked in a vast plain of
deep snow. The blockade crew consisting of
Conductor VIM. Shinsel, Brakemen Chllders
and Meyers, Engineer Tony Clark and Fire
man --. Mail Clerk Voorhees, and
Express Messenger Arnold, who had been
showed in since March 23rd, had orders to re-
turn to Oxford, Neb. With train ready they
steamed out of station and never was a hap
pier crew liberated from a forced and monoto-
nous imprisonment. At the same time the
w~est-bound train in charge of Conductor CAT
frey with Lundbery and Will Turley, brake
men, Engineer ]. Haskell, Fireman--
Mail Clerk Fairchlld and Messenger --
was threading its way through the snow
tunnels of the Brakeman hills and arrived on
the plains of Beardsley.
The relief train had on board twelve days
mail, express and freight for the beleaguered
towns of st. Francis and Bird City, when with
c%yclonic fury a terrific blizzard burst forth,
driving binding sheets of fine snow. One
half mile east of Mcdonald, Kansas, train III
stuck in a snow drift 600 feet long and five
feet deep. The crew pulled part of train to
Mcdonald and all efforts to succor the drifted
train were in vain. This was about $50 p. M,
Thursday, and the coaches lay there until
about s a. m. Saturday, when a shrill whistle
announced the rescuer in shape of a snow
plow and big gang of men under charge of
Master Mechanic Archibald. The train was
soon dug out and side-tracked at McDon-
aid. The blizzard caught the snow-plow that
was on its way to succor train III in the Bird
City cut. The snow-plow under Archibald,
after relieving the west-bound train, fastened
to rescue the buried s%now-plow under Ken
yon, that had been fast for twenty-four hours,
with thirty-fve men completely exhausted.
In the afternoon, Saturday, April 9th, the
s~now-plow was relieved at ST. Francis and a
blockade that had lasted for fourteen days
was ended. No army ever battled under
greater difficulties against a more stubborn
unyielding foe than did Kenyon and Emerson
and their band of thirty odd workers in the
walls of snow midst the deep cuts of the Blake
man hills.
The snow-plow crews were made up of
Conductor Ii. A. ROUGH, Brakemen George
Bunting and H. J. Hines, and Engineers NJ.
A. Gates and Thad Shepherd, all of McCook.