Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-03-28
|)NO TRAINS \ AN CONE YET
Efforts Being Made Today to Transfer
Passengers Across the Slough
at Mckenzie.
Work Train With Boats and Men
Goes to Mckenzie this Morning
to Begin the Work.
Water Still Overflows the Tracks and
Blockade Of the Road Still
Unbroken.

The first move toward transferring
passengers and mail across the stretch
o. Sswater ait Mckenzie was made this
morning. Orders were received by
Agent Scott Of the Northern Pacific at
Bismarck to procure as many boats
and skiffs as possible and take them
to Mckenzie to transfer passengers
from one train to the other. Accord
ingly all the available boats and
scows available were pressed into use
and taken to Mckenzie on the work
train this morning. The train pulled
out at about half past nine o'clock,
with a number of passengers anxious
to spar the stretch of water.
passenger train followed the
work train at a little distance, brought
from the west, where it has been held
up at iMandan for several days, and
the passengers on this train were the
first to reach the. transfer point.
The orders of the railroad company
were to transfer passengers and hand
baggage. No efforts will be made to
transfer heavier baggage.
The stage of water at Mckenzie re-
mains about the same. Apple creek,
into which much. of the surplus water
drains, is full Of snow, ice and water
and does not carry off any Of the sur
plus. Hence the water stands at
about the same stage in Mckenzie
slough. IA.
The depth Of the water on the flats
is reported to be six to fifteen feet
in various places. Over the track it
is about three feet deep.
The rails and roadbed were badly
twisted from the waves washing over
the track in the high wind of yester-
day. A bridge about the middle Of
the overflow has been lifted bodily
from it's mornings and stands up in the
air.
Haystacks in the vicinity are nearly
covered with water and their tops are
just visible.
A hand car with a number of section
men made a run over the tracks into
the water last evening. The section
men hip boots and the water
reached nearly to the top Of their
boots as they stood on the car. Agent
Scott took down a quantity of oakum
this morning to be used in calking up
the seams of the skiffs which have been
out Of use for some time and are 1eaky
at the seams.
A millionaire from the Pacific coast,
named Noonan, with a half million
dollar deal on in Chicago, which re-
quired his presence Saturday of this
week, chartered a special train
last might and was taken to McKen-
zie, where he was rowed across and
met by another train at the other end
of the slough. He was bound to get
to Chicago or time, even if under diff
fculties. -
Fifteen or twenty travelling men
who have been water logged in the city
since the blockade, left on the first
train for Mckenzie this morning, anx-
ious to get across.
The transfer is being superintendent
by Agent Scott from this end of the
line and Agent Squirting from the other
end. Superintendent Wilson is in ac-
tive charge of work at the scene of
the blockade. Railroading on this di-
vision the past few weeks has been not
all a bed of roses. 1t has been only a
few days between billiards. and spring
freshets.
Apple creek is still high. Charley
Bentley visited the ranch yesterday
and found the water so high as to be
~untenable. The stock was all gotten
out on the high lands. A few chickens
were drowned. The bridge at his place
has gone out with the freshet.
Charles Kupitz announces that he
is running the only through line to
the east and will make special rates
via stage and the 500 at Pollock for
Minneapolis, Chicago and other east
ern points.
Yesterday several trains were run
back to Fargo and passengers for
points west of the blockaded track
were given an option of going to
Helena and coming back over the
Northern Pacific to their destination.
Gus Baer: No transferring for me.
Bismarck vas good enough for me
twenty years age, and it is good enough
now-until the conditions Of the sele-
ments will allow a train to go east
uninterrupted. / have had a good visit
with old time Bismarck friends and re-
turn to Grafton with a better opinion
than ever d the capital city.
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