Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-03-03
Four Score Killed by Wellington, WASH, Ava
|anche- Melting Snow and Spring Rains Raise
Havoc in Many Sections Trains Cancelled
And important Points Are Isolated.

Everett, Wash, March 2.-The dead
in the Wellington avalanche based on
a list of dead and missing given out
tonight by officers of the Great North
ern Railroad may reach total of "a
before the rescuers reach the bottom
of the mass of snow and wreckage that
crushed two trains into a deep gulch.
While only eight passengers and nine
railroad employees are known to be
dead, SO passengers and 80 employees of
the road are missing Railroad men
think few of the missing will be re-
covered alive if they are buried under
the snow.
Although 4S hours have passed since
the snow slide wrought its havoc at
the mouth of the Cascade tunnel. no
detailed account is given of what hap
pened
Several men or arriving at Scenic,
the nearest railroad station, were I'M
able to describe what they had seen.
The perils of their descent of the
mountain had made them hysterical.
To add to the difficulties, the only
telegraph wires into Scenic failed to-
night. Rescue parties are working
desperately to rescue the passengers
from the buried coaches. The day
coach and the smoking car have not
been found. They were smashed fiat,
it is said.
One woman was rescued from Pull
man after 12-hours imprisonment under
the snow
Brakeman Duncan and Conductors Rus
sell and Clary, who We're in one of the
cars that was smashed to splinters, es-
capped with slight bruises. In bare feet
they worked for hours helping the injured
and saving those caught under the wreck
age.
Mrs NJ A. Covngton of Seattle, who
is missing, was on her way to celebrate
her golden wedding tomorrow. 1t is
thought all the injured will recover.
1t is now said that the reason the train
was not kept in the tunnel where it
would have escaped the slide was that
passengers feared they would be blocked
in and suffocated there
Everett. Wash, March 2.-Supt.
O'Neill of the Great Northern, who
is directing relief work in the noun
tains, telegrapher that 60 lives were
lost in yesterdays avalanche that car
ried two Great Northern trains into a
canyon near Wellington. The cars fell
$50 feet and were buried by debris The
town of Wellington and the Great
Northern power house were not de-
stroyed
1t was impossible to reach the scene
of the wreck today except by foot.
From the east side of the cascades ap-
proach is cut off by a snowslide at
Drury, six miles east of LeavenWCrth,
which destroyed the station and killed
Waterman Johnson.
The weather in the mountains is
warm and rescue parties will be in CON
slant peril from snowslides.
Seldom IN the history of trans-con-
tinental railroading has the Pacific
slope been cut off from the rest of the
continent as it is today. Of the sew
eral trans-cc influential lines having
terminals on this coast. only the most
southern routes are open.
Everett, Wash, March AS further
details are received of the disaster that
overwhelmed two Great Northern
Wellington. as the west portal of the
Cascade tunnel. down the mountain
side. the horror grows. Twenty three
lives are known to have been lost
when the mass of snow, loose stones
and uprooted trees hurled the cars con-
tanning 20 sleeping persons down to the
bottom of the canyon 200 feet below,
and when the last reports were re-
ccived % more were missing. Besides
these. a score of more are seriously
injured. The lists available at present
contain only the names of trainmen
killed and injured.
The trains were the westbound Spok-
ane Limited and the westbound Trans
continental fast mail The latter car
ried 40 passengers.
Most of the dead and injured are be-
lieved to have been passengers on the
Spokane express, 40 of whom We're on
the train at the time of the disaster.
Besides these, 80 workmen who had
been engaged in the battle against the
driftc that had been holding the two
Inflated trains imprisoned in the noun
tains since February "a, were sleeping
in the day coaches.
The avalanche rolled down the noun
tain at 4.2O A. NJ. The two trains with
three locomotives. four powerful cleo
trio motors, the depot and water tank,
were swept off the ledge and deposited
in a twisted mass of wreckage at the
foot of the mountain. The noise from
the snowsiide, which was a mile long,
could be heard throughout the valley
and Supt. J. H. O'Neill, who was d.
recting the work of the night shift.
hurried to the rescue with his men.
Groans and cries for help coming
from the bottom Of the canyon indi-