The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1916-01-28
Occurred Saturday Morning al East Portal of Horseshoe Tunnel
Two LeaenwOth People Escaped Injury
THE diner AND DAY COACH GO OVER THE BANK
Diner Takes Fire and One Man Burned Three Missing Are Supposed Be
Buried in the Snow 400 feet of Snow Sheds are Also
Swept Away By an Avalanche of SHOw

The most disastrous wreck on the
Great Northern railroad since the 10Th
OF February, 1910, when SO people
were killed by a gigantic avalanch of
of snow and rock at the west portal of
the Cascade Tunnel, occurred last Sat
urday morning shortly after 8 o'clock,
at the east portal of the horseshoe tun-
mel, about six miles west of where the
great slide took place FIVE years ago.
Eight people lost their lives. One
being burned in the dining car which
took fire after rolling down the bank,
and some twenty more or less injured.
Train No. 26, due here at 500, was
thirty minutes late last Saturday morn
ing. George T. Stirling and Peter
Sauer took passage on the train and
were bound for Seattle. Both escaped
serious injury. Mr.. Stirling was in the
sleeping car dressing when the crash
Gamer This car turned over but did
not go over the bank. Mr.. Sauer was
in the day coach which went over the
bank and rolled and slid down the
steep mountain side about IT'S feet.
Mr., Sauer was one OF those taken out
of the car alive and only slightly hurt.
Mrs. Fern Wallace and baby, of Lyons.
Wash, were in this car and persisted.
Their bodies have not yet been found.
Ralph Batterman, 10 years old, baby
Batterman and Edward Batterman, of
Wenatchee, were also in the day coach
and were killed. Mrs. Batterman es-
capped. The body of Mr.. Batterman
was found with the baby clasped in his
arms.
The dining car also went over the
bank and lodged near the day coach.
Two employees and an unknown man,
described as a large man with a bald
head. were killed in this car, the latter
having burned up in the car which
took fire from the range. Five ser
iously injured passengers were taken to
an Everett hospital on relief train
which was sent out from that place.
The bodies of Ralph Batterman and
and Mrs. Wallace and baby are buried
in the snow and may not be found
until the snow disappears in the spring.
The destroyed train had stalled in a
small drift or slide and had been there
some time waiting for helper train.
Conductor Harrington, in charge OF
the train, an old time man on the
road, had gone thru the great Yelling
ton disaster and knew his train was in
a dangerous place. He talked with
some of the passengers and told them
a slid: might occur at any moment.
One Of the rotary snow plows sta
toned at this place was caught twelve
miles ND the canyon with tremendous
slides behind it and many between it
and the summit OF the Cascades. For
tunately it was we'll supplied with fuel
and kept busy Saturday and Sunday
irving to clear the roadbed OF snow.
Sunday a snow plow and work train
with some two hundred men arrived
here from Spokane and Monday morn
ing the slides were tackeled from both
ends and in the middle. In the mean
time all trains were routed by way OF
the Northern Pacific. We had one
train day between here and Spokane
until Tuesday, when the first train
trom the west came in during the
night, opening the road to traffic much
or;cker than was first calculated could
be done.
Shortly after the slide that brought