The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-03-02
TRAINS BURIED.
Avalanche Sweeps Down ON Two
ON Great Northern.
Loose Stones and UprOOted Trees
Descend ON Cars.
ARE HURLED 200 FEET
To the Bottom of a Canyon Near
the Track.
TWenty-Three Lives Are Known
to Have Been Lost.
ARE HURLED 200 FEET


Northern trains. three locomotives, four
huge electric motor engines and
| brought death to more than a score OF
PERSONS near Wellington.
| As details of the disaster are receiv-
| ed, the horror grows. Twenty-three
lives are known to have been lost when
| the mass of snow. loose stones and up
| rooted trees hurled the cars, containing
| 70 sleeping persons over the narrow
ledge of the high line down to the bot
tom of the canyon. 200 feet below and
when the last reports were received
from the scene of the catastrophe, %
were missing. Besides these a score
are more or less seriously injured.
! Among the known dead are:
TRAINMASTER A. L. BLACKBURN,
| Everett.
| A E. LONGCOY. secretary to Sup
erintendent O'NeiI
| LOUIS WALKER, Everett, cook on
| Superintendent O'NeilPs car.
| Seriously injured:
J. D. Kurde, fireman.
The Buried Trains.
The two trains that were carried away
were the westbound Spokane limited
and the westbound transcontinental
fast mail.
The latter carried no passengers.
Most of the dead and injured are be-
lieved to have been passengers on the
Spokane express.
The avalanche rolled down the noun
tain at 4:20 a. m. The two trains, three
locomotives four powerful electric mo-
tors, the depot and water tank were
swept off the ledge and deposited in
twisted mass of wreckage at the foot
of the mountain
The first news of the disaster was
brought by John Wentzel of Yelling
staggered mi SkVknr7iSh
miles from wellington, and gasped out
his story He was so exhausted from
his long fight. against the snow that
it was several hours before he could
give coherent story.
The names of all the passengers
caught in the avalanche are not known
here. Men who tired of the delay in
the mountains and walked out to Sky
komisn say that "a travellers remained
at Wellington. Monday night. Only 40
of these slept on the train, the others
staying at the railroad hotel and near
by cottages.
dad, COL was among the passeng rs
on the train.
Asleep When Slide Came
Most of the dead are believed to have
been passengers on the Westbound
Great Northern express bound from
Spokane to Seattle, which has been
stalled in the mountains since last
Thursday.
They were asleep when the slide
came. The other train was the trans
continental fast mail which carried TO
passengers. Twenty bodies have recov-
cred. Is or 20 are injured and 25 are
missing. The two trains were in
charge of Conductors Parseybook and
Petit, both of Everett. The fate Of
the train crews is not known. The pri-
vate car of Superintendent O'NeiIl of
the western division of the Great
Northern was attached to the express
and buried with the rest of the train.
1t is feared A. E. Longcoy, private sec
among the dead. O'Neill, who has been
directing the fight against the snow
blockade for the last ten days, was not
in the car at the time and escaped
The trains were overwhelmed near the
west portal of the Cascade tunnel. All
telegraph wires are down to within Is
miles of the slide and it has been i'm
possible to obtain the names of the
dead and injured.
AS soon as word of the disaster
reached Everett, the Great Northern
division point one hundred miles west,
a rescue train of physicians and nurses
was started for the scene. This was
followed by a second rescue train car
rying undertakers, wrecking outfit and
laborers.
AS sections of the track had been
carried away farther down the noun
tain the rescuers could only get within
Is miles of Wellington and had to make
the remainder of the distance from
Sceic a station one thousand feet be-
low the tunnel, by foot through the
mountains. BY making a trail, they
can cut this distance to three miles.
The avalanche was half mile long.
Reports received here say that the
Great Northern power house. which
furnishes electric power to operate
trains through the Cascade tunnel and
for the depot and water tank. was
swept away by the avalanche, and that
the railroad boarding house was badly
wrecked. A number of the dead and
injured are railroad men and residents
of Wellington.
One Who Escaped.
Seattle, Wash, March 2.-John S.
Rogers of this city was one of the
snowbound passengers on the Spokane
express who wearied of the long wait
for relief and walked out to Skykom-
ish Mr.. Rogers left Wellington the
night before the disaster He gave an
account of the wait of the passengers
for relief and scenes about yelling
ton prior to the avalanche.
"wednesday morning we were
stopped at the east portal of the Cas-
cade tunnel" said Mr.. Rogers. I'VE
we left the east portal. A few hours
later an avalanche wiped out the sta
tion and the bunkhouse where we ate,
killing two men. We pulled through
the tunnel as far as Wellington, which
is about half a mile beyond the west
portal.
conductor Petit was in charge of
throughout those trying days. There
was plenty of food. but only enough
coal to maintain the heat in our
coaches, which was absolutely neces-