The sun., 1902-03-10
WHEN A SNOWSLIDE LET'S GO.
Hairbreadth Escapes Of Mining Men In
the Mountains Of Colorado.
From the Denver Post.

That's where my hair went-in a San
Juan snowslide" And Thomas Tulley.
one time miner editor. Governors private
secretary, and now Deputy State Treasurer.
rubbed his bald pate refectively A reflective
rub looks just like any other kind. but the
novels always call them reflective when they
are followed by good story.
Don't tell me about cyclones or earth
quakes or any such make-believe dan
gers can stand anything but that rip
ping, splitting, cracking sound OF snow
avalanche breaking loose from its moorings.
and the swish and roar and boom when IL
gets under way, and the swapping OF trees
and crashing Of boulders and trembling Of
the whole earth as II nears the bottom Of
the mountain and the sickness that comes
over a fellow when II frts past within few
feet of him. kicking snow IN his face aud
making playthinR Of rocks as big as a house
and Telling whole forests at a time
Il was wrecked twice In one night by snow
slides in the San Juan and II was just for a
joke, l guess. that one or the other didn't
mash me into dust, OF preserve me In ice
Worst night | ever put in on this earth. !
can tell you Ii WAS somewhere IN February
1891, along about the time the big Saguache
snow half mile long and hundred feet deep.
We were without any mail Tor nlty-twO days
and II was seventy three days before We
got a train after that slide.
Same winter. too. that the big Idaho slide
came down from Kendall mountain and
town OF Silverton was kept In firewood for
two years. Piled IL right up In the town limits
and smashed into stove size. too; was up on
Kendall mount ain on my uncle's mine. the
Titusvile We had couple OF fellows up
there to look after the big stamp mill through
the winter, and every few weeks Jnarl,y
Price and would go up and see how they were
getting along.
Iii was too far to tramp back and forth
to the bunkhouse, so Dave Purdy and Will
Kane, the two fellows who were guarding
the MILL had fixed up the assay Office for
a bedroom. That day when We got to the
mill IL began to snow, and we stayed all
night so We built up roaring FIRE in the
assay furnace and piled back on our blankets
in the other end Of the room
The snow fell almost in blankets. it seemed,
and the wind howled awfully Several
times We heard the roar and smash and
felt the building shake as a snowside went
down some other part of the mountain. but
we thought We were safe. No slide had
ever touched that, spot
Il have looked over the ground since
and | know just how IL happened, but il
was more than Q surprise that night when
part Of an o,r ayaaHche SioPped over from
10 sleep when we heard that Internal crack
and boom and roar right above US. and
smashl bangi and away down the gulch il
went with half the assay office Took the
furnace and our fire and all the roof and
just left us lying there in the snow with our
bedding. And scared! That's when my
hair got up and stood on end, and has never
laid down peaceably since Two or three
trees eway up the mountain had just cut
and had turned II over into the little NulCh
where, our assay office stood That's what
Well, we held a council right Quick. dug
up lot OF matches and some candles and
after we saw what had been done to our
any more We took our blanket and candles
and matches. an old sheetiron stove and an
old canvas tent and moved up 10 the big
mill fifty feet up the side of the mountain
We climbed 10 the crushing room. near the
top of the mill There we put up our tent
to keep out the dT9ft toritr all we could Then
We We're stil scared half 70 death. for we
down the mountain. some near by, some
so far We could only hear the roar
Then we got 20 telling stories Purdy
was an old mule skinner and h. used TO ten
the most blood-curding stories ever heard
his tales be had killed and skinned at at Feast st
an Indian fight. and he had just killed two
reds and was skinning them when Kane.
ho had been nS r soH2 to Sed 9 4, he window
My God. boys, here comes one from
SPirdy commenced praying for forgive
the rest of us were too scared to speak or
move. The slide came down from behind
a roar worse than anything ever ina gined
II sld part way up the side OF the other noun
tain, slowed around and started down OF
the creek Rulch, tearing out the whole lower
half OF our mill, boilers. en- gines, ten of the
stamps and the whole blessed works That
old mill danced around like a pgsteboard
We'll, we wouldn't stay there any longer
II was long past midnight, but We put on
every dud we could find. tore up comforts
and wrapped the strips round us, put on
German socks and snowshoes, and set out
into the night
Il took an AK in case we should have 70
cut wood and build a fire. Kane had a pick
get buried. and Purdy carried all the pro-
visions we had saveda bottle of whiskey
and two salt crackers
We couldn't see three inches but we
knew timber was somewhere up hill and
we knew that old John Lambert cabin
so we climbed and climbed. in that scream
ing storm and became worse scared every
minute as We could hear the av3llnohes
tearing down the mountains all around u-
walked till daylight Then found We
had gone clear over the ridge into Deer Park.
miles from home
We started home then. and we were in
mortal terror for fear we'd start u slide our
selves Every time VIC had to cross an open
seemed TO me There was one slide full
mile long. and with SLOPE Of Ih degrees,
anyway We thought sure that's where we'd
go down Kane wa. the best Snowshoer,
uso hia roe but II the slide started 20 sit
on the pole. keep on his shoes, amt Try To ride
Oh ton Seemed 10 me he wasn't thirty Soc
onds making that run. Then tried.
That where ! lost my hair. IL don't
matter for know ! never could have made
il was more like q fHll-.it iust blow Of
We got home safe, hut there were twenty