Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-03-26
When a snowslide Lets Go.

Iuiey, one Tune miner, eultOT, COVER
nor's private secretary, and now deputy
state treasurer, rubbed his bald pate re-
tlectively A reflective rub looks just
like any other kind, but the novels all
ways call them reflective when they are
followed by q good story.
Don't tell me about cyclones or
earthquakes, or any such ke-belieye
dangers. / can stand anything but that
ripping, splitting, cracking sound of a
snow avalanche breaking loose from it's
moorings, and the swish and roar and
boom when it gets under way. and the
swapping of trees and crashing OF boul-
ders and trembling of the whole earth
as 1t nears the bottom of the mountain
and the sickness that comes over a fell
low when it fiirts past within few feet
of him, kicking snow in his face and
making plaything of rocks as big as a
house and telling whole forests at
time.
II was wrecked twice in one night by
snowslides in the San Juan and 1T was
Just for joke, l guess, that one or the
other didn't mash me into dust, or pre-
serve me in ice. Worst night ever put
in on this earth, can tell you. 1t was
somewhere in February. 1891, along
about the time the big Saguache slide
buried the railroad under rocks and
snow half a mile long and hundred
feet deep. We were without any mail
for fifty-two days and 1t was seventy
three days before we got train after
that slide.
Same winter, too. that the big Idaho
slide came down from Kendall noun
tain and brought so many trees with it
that the whole town Of silverton was
kept in firewood for two years. Piled
it right up in the town limits and
smashed into stove size. / was up on
Kendall mountain on my uncle's mine.
the Titusville. We had couple OF fel-
lows up there to look after the big
stamp mill thru the winter, and every
few weeks Charley Price and I would
90 UP and see how they were getting
along.
ut was too far to tramp back and
forth to the clubhouse, so Dave Purdy
and Will Kane, the two fellows who
were guarding the mill. had fixed up the
assay office for bed room. Ihat day
when he got to the mill it began to
snow, and we stayed all night. SO we
built up a roaring fire in the assay fur-
mace and piled back on our blankets IN
the other end of the room.
..The snow fell almost in blankets. 1t
seemed, and the wind howled awfuily
Several times we heard the roar and
smash, and felt the building shake as
a snowsltcie went down some other part
of the mountain, but we thought we
were safe. No slide had ever touched
that spot.
II have looked over the ground since,
and l know just how 1t happened, but
it was more than surprise that night
when part of an avalanche stopped
over from the gulch on our right. We
were just getting to sleep when we
heard that internal crack and boom and
roar right above us, and smash! bang!
and away down the gulch it went with
half the assay office. Took the furnace
and our fire and ali 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 away UP the mountain
had Just cut off slice of the slide that
filed the gulch, and had turned 1t over
into the little gulch where our assay
office stood That's what caused our
wreck.
We'll, we held a council right quick,
dug up lot of matches and some cam
dies, and after we saw what had been
done to our house we declared we
couldn't stay there any more. We took
our blankets and candles and matches.
an old sheetiron stove and an old cam
vas tent and moved up to the big mill
fifty feet up the side Of the mountain.
We climbed 40 the crushing room, near
the top of the mill. There we put up
our tent to keep out the draft all we
could. Then we nailed comforter
overhead, got the stove to going and
fixed up pretty comfortable. We were
still scared half to death, for we could
hear every little while slides going
down the mountain, come near by, some
SO far we could only hear the roar.
"Then we got to telling stories. Pur-
dy was an old mule skinner and he used
to tell the most blood curdling stories
i ever heard. He wouldn't hurt flea,
but according to his tales he had killed
and skinned at least forty Indians. He
was telling us about an Indian fight,
and he had just killed two reds and was
SHINING them when Kane, who had
been trying to see out at the window,
fell inside on the floor and yelled:
my God, boys, here comes one from
above!'
"Purdy commenced praying for for
givenesss for being SO mean to the In
dams, and the rest of us were too
scared to speak or move. The slide
came down from behind the mill and
hit the bottom of the gulch with roar
worse than anything ever imagined.
1t slid part way up the side of the
other mountain, slowed around and
started down off the creek gulch,
tearing out the whole lower half of our
mill, boilers, engines, ten of the stamps
and the whole blessed works. That
old mill danced around like a paste
board box.
well, we couldn't stay there any
longer. 1t 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.
II took an ak, In case we should have
to cut wood and build q fire. Kane
had pick, and Price shovel for
fear some OF us should get buried, and
Purdy carried all the provisions we
had saved--a, bottle Of whiskey and
l., al