Weekly journal-miner., 1911-03-01
SAD MEMORIES OF
 DISASTER REVIVED
GFrom Thursday's Daily.)

While Washington Birthday i.
 periodically revered throughout tn,
 nation, and annually is observed witt
 all the ardOr and affection beeom
 ing the American, in a local regard
 1t is also a day that is filled with the sad reeolleetions that cluster
 around the greatest disaster that
 ever overlook Arizona-the destruc-
 tion of the Walnut Grove dam in
 this county and the loss of over one
 hundred lives. On the morning of
 February %, 1890, at ? o'clock, the
 big storage reservoir dam went out after an incessant rain of twenty-two
 hours. In the mad rush of water, measuring over 100 feet in height, that broke away from the big lake, many were caught like rats in a trap at the service dam settlement, and but few escaped. Those who were fortunate enough to be saved were diligent to heed the warning that the elements conveyed, while those who met a watery grave, trusted too en- tirely in a cessation of the storm, and were confident that the big structure would withstand the down pour.
 In that frightful disaster sixty three bodies were recovered at diff ferent points along the Hassayampa for twenty miles, and a sad feature attending the sacrifice is that many who were known to have been in the path of the raging torrents have never been accounted for.
 In addition 10 the sad loss of so many human lives, the Territory sus- tained a serious blow in the destrue- tion of one of the greatest irriga- tion and mining projects ever un- dertaken in the West, and which un- til today has never been revived.
 This wonderful conservation enter prise had for it's object the reelama- tion of thousands of acres of fertile lands on the plains below, while in its immediate vicinity hydraulic mining was one of the principal req sons for its construction. With the loss of both, time has frittered away the many who were once identified with it's interests, and the last of the original owners, H. s. Van Buren, suceumbed a few years ago in New York City. Since that time, the en- terprise has passed through a chan nel of uncertain consideration, and until recently, when it was reported that the government was to under take its rebuilding, it has maintained an apathetic regard with those in terested or identified with it.
 It VII be interesting for many res idents of Prescott to learn that among the survivors of the awful catastrophe of 1890 was Mrs. Alex snder o. Brodie, wife of Colonel Brodie, at present stationed at St. Paul, Minn., in the United States army. This estimable woman was saved from the fate that overlook so many others, through here heroic conduct in fighting her way from the old residence at Cottonwood to the bank on the opposite side, and in ner hereulean effort, narrowly missed an awful death. All with her and around her perished. Colonel Brodie at the time was in Phoenix on business of the great enterprise.
 Many in Prescott yesterday re- called the day with feelings of pleas ure on the national observance of the birth of the great American, and on the other hand, the sad chapter of the awful disaster in this region was revived by the memory of the gloom that overshadowed the city twenty-one years ago, following the receipt of the news of the terrible disaster.