The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1903-01-02
FATAL SNOWSLIDE IN B. c.
EIGHT MEN BURIED UNDERNEATH
THE SNOW.
Disaster Happened at the Molly Glib
son Mine, near Nelson-80oO Feet
UP the Mountainside-Slide Started
From the Peak of the Mountain-Ex-
perience of Survivors.

Nelson, B. Cone body found, eight
men buried with no hope of recovery,
is the record to date of the snowslide
at the Molly Gibson mine.
Five survivors of the disaster are at
the mine, huddled in the tunnel mouth,
with no fuel or clothing beyond under
wear.
The mine is at an altitude of approx
imately 5000 feet. Up above is a rocky
ridge, then an immense glacier, half
mile wide, then jagged bare peaks of
rock.
The slide started from the peak by
some probably slight cause swung
round the cliff or ridge sheltering the
buildings and struck the clubhouse
endwise, sweeping it and its occupants
down a dry canyon. OF the 10 in the
building 10 escaped, although more or
less injured. Four of the survivors
spent the night in the snow, wrapped
in blankets. In the morning they start
ed down the hill. The first two reach
ed the hut at the foot of the tram
way at o'clock. The snow was from
to 20 feet deep. One man with a
broken leg and shoulder bone was car
ried into the tunnel and spent all OF
Friday and Saturday till noon with
out food or attention. A couple of sur
vivors then got the tramway working
and sent him down in a bucket. 1t
could not be used to get rescuers up.
The names of the men in the bunk
house were: j. Campbell, dead, body
found.
Buried in the snow since Christmas
night: T. Rouse, SilvertOn; w. Col
Inns, Nelson; L. Brouelle; w. G. Muir
ply; Ainsworth; Pietro, Italian; PRO,
Italian; M. E. Hall, assayor, Nelson;
Chinese cook.
Those who escaped: ID. McLaugh-
lin, leg and shoulder broken; A Har-
ris, frost bitten and bruised; D. Nc
Creath, ]. Dunlop. G. d. Bell. w. Saw
lille, A. Mcdonald, Charles tombstone,
all frost bitten and bruised; Jules La
belle, w. G. McGinness, uninjured.
G. e. Clark was in the hut at the
foot of the tramway ac the time of the
slide and escaped. Mclaughlin was
partly carried and sledded down 10
miles of the road to Kootenay lake
and taken in the steamer to Nelson for
treatment, the bones having been set
by DR.. Hawkey at the foot of the tram
way. Campbell and Murphy were mar
ried men with families; the rest were
single.
1t will probably be Monday before
any bodies are recovered. Food will
be taken up for the survivors and res
cures tomorrow morning. The stable
containing two horses was destroyed.
but the horses are uninjured, although
without food.
OF the survivors of the slide nearly
all had the same experience. The
slide, after striking the clubhouse,
which went to pieces like a house of
cards, swept the debris with the occu-
pants along through the canyon below
the buildings. When Dunlop was ex-
tricated, his head was wedged between
his knees, the snow locking him in
that position. All unite in describing
the suddenness OF the slide. There
was a sudden crash, for a couple of
seconds the boards of the building
were sailing in every direction, then a
wild struggle through the snow, which
twirled them like cords for a few mo-
ments more and then only the roar of
the wind and the wild cries for help
from every direction.
The parents of NJ. S. Hall, the assay
or, who is buried. reside in the out
skirts of Spokane