The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1907-08-09
Those Dakota
BlOCkadeS

prdncn line during a winter full of
Dlizzards rises to remark that the
folks who are bowling against the
railroads up there don't know what
they are talking about.
The dispatches say" he says, that
the present winter is the worst since
the one ten years ago. AS | was
resident Of the state that winter
may interpret the conditions to-day in
the light of my experiences.
Even in the eastern part of the
state there are sections of main lines
where cuts are very necessary. 1t is
IN these cuts that the severe trouble
from railroad navigation occurs. AS
no chain is stronger than it's weak
est link, these cuts when filled with
snoW block the whole system.
THE reader must remember that in
North Dakota falls a much larger
amount of snow in one of their snow
years than we in the east have, and
there are almost no thaws to reduce.
the volume of snow lying on the
level
1T is not unusual to see ten feet OF
snow on the level, as now stands all
over North Dakota, and ten years ago
in the middle of March, when spring
was budding in most parts of the
United States, snow plows were
bucking drifts and there was five feet
OF snow throughout the state
+,
snow falls, and keeps on falling, the
problem of how to handle it on the
level on the prairie land is difficult
enough. But when it falls into one
of these cuts of which l spoke, then
it becomes TERRIFIC obstacle to rail
road management.
Take the line that has got into the
public dispatches, New Rockford. This
is on a branch about 100 miles long
that runs from Jamestown to Leeds.
1t has only one train each way day.
= The line is north and south one,
the worst direction, obviously, for
snow blockading. 1t has several cuts
and is in valley where snow falls
heavily and stays.
mo wonder the Northern Pacific
railroad has been unable to get any
trains through, and we are compelled
to believe President Elliot when he
declares that he has done his best to
penetrate that awful adamantine
mountain of snw.
Ten years ago there was a branch
line in North Dakota so situated that
the Northern Pacific did not try to
open up all winter simply because it
was practically impossible to do so.
When blizzard succeeds blizzard and
snoWstorm succeeds snowstorr1, no
amount of snow blowing can do any
thing. Towns along this line were fed
by wagons from the main line No
o4s suffered
'srhen take the Hannah line, an
other about which the interstate com
MERGE commission has been exer-
cised. If you will take up a railroad
map of North Dakota you will see a
curious arrangement of seven branch
lines, extending north from the main
line Of the Great Northern to the in
ternational boundary.
These lines run one or two trains
UP and back each day. The Hannah
branch begins at Larimore, Is miles
west of Grand Forks, and runs 125
niles northwest to Hannah, in Cava-
lier county.
II know something about that line,
because | lived on it for year when
its terminus was Langdon, the coun-
ty seat of Cavalier county. This line
runs uphill almost all the way
'Its terminus lies on top of what
they call the mountain, which Is a
rise of ground belonging probably to
the Turtle mountains little further
west There is but one passenger
train each way and one freight train.
When a genuine storm occurs and
snow falls for "a hours or SO hours at
a stretch, as it did ten years ago this
winter, the possibilities of a snow
blockade are immense.
1--WE were so situated on Thanks
giving day in 1896. The storm struck
the little cottage | lived in about two
o'clock in the morning. When say
struck, / mean struck.
"There was a bang, as If some pro-
iectile had been thrown against the
house. and then a roar That roar
kapt up its roaring all that night, all
the next day, and nearly all the next
night
when the people began to dig
themselves out they found the snow
in the middle of the road anywhere
from ten to 20 feet high. They found
it in some places crushing in store
fronts and reaching second story win
doWs.
"They did not attempt to do any
thing more than dig themselves out,
- 4boy, fhny hnpau I'm U0nd Uho11