Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-03-02
WARM WEATHER AND RAIN HAS
STARTED MORE SLIDES AND
CAUSED DAMAGE,
MANY TRAINS ARE CANCELLED
GREAT NORTHERN is OPERATING
but ONE TRANscoNTINEN-
tai TRAIN NOW.
Engine Buried and Five Cars Are
Dtched at Zelda Tuesday-Prin-
cipaI Town Of Co|fax Country Cut
OFF BY the Floods - Puget Sound
Streams at Danger Point.

Conditions almost unprecedented in
that section have virtually cut off
the entire northwest and have tied
up traffic of a half dozen atrns-con-
tinental railroads. ThaWs in the
mountains have caused avalanches
and snowslides that nave swept
away mountain towns and sections
of railroad tracks from Nevada to
British Columbia.
The exact number of deaths caused
by avalanches in the Rockies, in
Idaho and in western Montana pro-
badly will not be known until the
summer sun melts the great masses
of snow and ice in the canyons into
which several mining towns were
swept.
In the Cascade mountains in Wash
ington a Great Northern train with
sixty passengers is. reported buried
under a snowslide. Four trans-con-
tinental lines into Washington and
Oregon are blockaded. Only one
railroad is operating into Salt Lake
City. West of Utah, Southern Paci-
ic and Western Pacific lines have
been cut by swollen mountain
streams.
Several hundred west bound pas
sengers are held in Ogden.
Seattle, Mar. 1.-Warm wind and
rain caused rapid melting Of snow in
the Cascade mountains today, bring
ing slides of snow, earth and rock
down on the railroad tracks and
turning the mountain streams to
torrents. ~
The Northern Pacific cancelled two
trains each way and it's other trains
ignored time tables and crept eau
|tiously past points where danger
threatened. The Great Northern,
whose main line is buried for ten
miles and which is operating only
one tarnscontinental train each way
via Van Couver, Washington, was
further embarrassed by a washout on
the Spokane, Portland and Seattle
road.
In the Puget Sound country
streams are already at the danger
point. Rainfall here today was light
but heavy precipitation along the
COdSL pOluIS " d uO"APOuA IOluo1
row. Railroads tonight have wreck
ing trains ready and settlers in the
valleys are preparing to move.
On the eastern slope of the Cas-
cades cold weather is checking the
thaw.
A land slide on the Northern Pa
cifc near Zelda, today buried a pass
ing freight engine and ditched five
cars.
The accident will delay the traffic
of four roads, the Spokane, Portland
and Seattle railroad, the Northern
Pacific, the Oregon railroad and Nav
igation company and the Oregon and
Washington.
Colfax, the principal town Of the
Palouse country, is cut off by floods
today Railroad and electric lines
are blocked. Bridges have been
washed out and water is from two to-
five feet deep on the business streets.
No lives have been lost.
Seattle, WASH, March 1.-Sweeping
down the steep mountain side on the
west slope Of the Cascades at dawn
this morning, an avalanche of snow
overwhelmed two Great Northern
trains, three locomotives. four huge
electric motor engines and brought
death to more than a score of per-
sons. according to meagre reports
that have drifted in from Wellington,
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