The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1921-12-08
STORY OF EARLY
DAY SNOW STORM

(by FRED L0ckley IN oregon Journal)
This storm we have just expert
enced wasn't bad, for a one-day af-
fair" said J. A. Soesbe Of SO East
Twelfth street north, "but if you want
to know what Oregon can do if it real
ly tries you should have been here in
1884, when we had the real tie-up on
the railroads. | moved to Hood River
in 1880 and helped incorporate the
town. | served two years there as
Judge of the district court and if seven
more votes had been cast for me |
would have been the first mayor of
Hood River.
In 1884 | was living at Hood River
but was making improvements on
preemption claim at Deschutes. | had
gone to my claim just before the big
storm of 1884 broke. My claim was on a
high hill overlooking the Columbia and
the storm commenced while | was
working there. For three days and
nights it showed furiously. and on the
morning of the fourth day started
intending to catch a train into The
Dalles. When | was about halfway
down the hill | was caught in a snow
slide and carried to within a few feet
of the station. AS the snow was very
light | suffered no inconvenience fur
ther than being somewhat smothered
and considerably frightened, and | was
about 20 minutes ahead of train GO
ing into The Dalles, and which was the
last one over the road for two weeks.
when reached The Dalles
learned that a passenger train that
had left for Portland that morning was
in bp col
Hood River and that snow poW and |
crew were to be sent after it the |
following morning. | made arrange |
ments to be one of the crew. The shop |
crew worked all night constructing |
snow ploW attachment to the front of |
a locomotive. With this ploW and nine |
additional locomotives to help push it
we left The Dalles at O'Clock, ex-
pecting to 90 right through, but in
stead we hung up at the first cut.
where we ran into about 10 feet of
drifted snow. 1t was necessary to
shovel the engines clear of snow so
they could back up and take run at
the drift again with sufficient force to
push through. This operation was re-
peated at every cut, so we were all
day making Hood River, 22 miles.
From Hood River on we were able
to make good time, as much of the
road was over trestles. where there
was no snow. We reached Viento sta
tion running about Is miles an hour,
and there we met our Waterloo. The
last train was stuck in the snow a mile
below Viento, and Conductor Lyons,
expecting a relief expedition, had come
back to Viento Hearing our approach,
he climbed on the water tank so he
could get clear view of the track, to
give the danger signal. When the en-
gineers saw the red light and heard the
pistol shots they thought they were
into the passenger train and
applied the emergency brakes. This,
with the five feet of snow, caused them
to stop in Jiffy.
''FOr some reason, the last engine
had broken loose and, with the bag II
gage car and crew, was running about H
200 yards behind Having a clear track
and the baggage car pushing him, he
could not stop, and came on, striking II
he nine locomotives with force enough
TO knock nearly all of them off the
rack. By morning every locomotive
hat was not wrecked was dead for H
ack of fuel and water and the relief
expedition had only increased the seri
BUSINESS of the situation by bringing II
about so more men and no provisions
Tor feeding anyone.
"The next morning Roadmaster Don /
y asked for someone to go back to
Hood River with message. | vOlun- II
eered. 1t was still showing furiously, H
he temperature below zero and the
Mind blowing gale, so it was not pos
iible to see 100 feet ahead. There was
10 sign of train ever having passed
,ver the road. and every cut was filled
With fine, drifting snow, sometimes 20
eet deep. made Hood River, seven
niles, in eight hours and delivered my .
Message. Word came Immediately
rom The Dalles to send provisions at
my cost. Captain Coe organized a
rev of l6 men and we left the next
morning with cooked provisions. This
vas found impractical, as everything
ooked froze before we got through, so
We took uncooked supplies thereafter
nd the cooking was done at the Viento
ection house.
1--WE made trip every day for 10
ays and it never let up showing and
lowing during all that time. As the
w. r. q N. had wrecked its entire
those 300 passengers would
ave been there until a chinook wind =
hawed them out if Superintendent
'uckley had not come down from the
Iorthern Pacific with a snowplow and
trainload of men and provisions and
ut a way through to Portland. This d
torn came during the first weeks of Z