Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-04-02
PALOUSE COUNTRY
BEST YET--NALDER
Extension Worker Writes of Trip
Through Rocky Mountain District
in Wake OF Storm

natures most favored regions is the
opinion of Dr. f. f. Nader, director
of college extension of the State Col
lege, who has just had an opportunity
to Judge the merits of the two sec
tions at first hand. DR. Nader is
on his way to Ann Arbor, Mich,
where he will attend a national CON
vention of extension workers of col
leges and universities. Enroute he
will lecture at the educational insti-
tutions of Colorado, Kansas, Indiana,
and Iowa under the auspices of the
national University Extension asso-
citation.
DR.. Nader wrote to The Herald as
follows:
Enroute East via U F. train, Denver
to Omaha, March 2S, 1920.
Editor Herald:
Any Palouser who doesn think
that he lives in a favored spot is
hereby advised to take a trip
through Blizzard Land in the wake
of a storm, as yours truly is doing
today. We left Denver last night at
10 o'clock. | got up this morning
about half past six, to find that a
blizzard which we struck soon after
leaving Denver had destroyed the
telegraph lines along the road so
that we had lost nearly three hours
The train dispatchers on the line
could not make connections, and we
had been going it blind across the
prairies, our movements controlled
only by block signals.
And such wreckage of poles and
wires as we have seen! AS | write
this we are stuck at a little town in
northern Nebraska, waiting for
train ahead to get out of the block
and let us proceed. We have come
about 500 miles since | first looked
out of the window this morning.
In all that distance it looks to me
as though three out of every four
telegraph and telephone poles In
sight are wrecked. or stripped of
their wires. For good part of the
way | have travelled with a district
superintendent of the telegraph sys-
tenn The Union Pacific line is par
alleled by two telegraph and one
Bell Telephone company's line. |
have learned that the damage tdone
by last nights storm will run into
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
And the lines certainly look like
1t! Poles blown down and smashed
by thousands, mile on mile. In
many places the poles were blown
over with such force that they were
stuck in the ground wrong end up
! have seen hundreds of poles that
were split from end to end, OF
broken in two or three pieces when
they struck the ground The storm
came across the prairies from the
northeast. In many places the
broken and tangled wires were blown
clear over on the railroad track.
In places where the railroad runs
parallel with the Lincoln highway
the telephone poles lay across the
highway for miles at a stretch, max
ing both traffic and phone service
impossible. About six inches OF
snow fell during the night and drift
ed in piles everywhere What with
the wreckage of poles, cross-bars
and wires and the snowdrifts. the
highway looked like sectors of Nc
Mans Land. l saw several automo-
piles that had evidently been aban-
doned on the road. One big cal
looked as though it had been blown
off of an embankment.
OF course there were other evil
dences of fury of the blizzard Wind.
mills mounted on wooden towers Law
PROSTATE. One had crushed q cattle
shed when it came down. Corr
cribs and out buildings were blown
over / saw one wrecked chicken.
mouse from which I imagine every
chicken had been blown into tn,
next county. In every grove or tim
Der culture trees were smashed o.
uprooted
This is great country ali right
and wonderful to see. What hav,
seen in the past eight of ten hours
however, makes one Palouser gla,
that he and his live where the eli
mate doesn't get quite so durne
strenuous.
Yours faithfully,
F. F. NALDER.