White Pine news. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1920-1923, 1923-02-11
ELY WOMAN BURIED UNDER
SNOWSLIDE OF YEARS. AGO

cut into the wrist of the buried
woman. She thought her hand would
be chopped off. She thought the AK
would enter her skull and only Prov
idence willed that 1t should not. The
log was several at the spot where the
woman's head lay and touched. Ev-
cry jar of the timber bruised her
skull and for days 1t was sore.
Mrs. Sabine was the first one res
cued. She was under the snow three
and a half hours. The Swede girl
was pulled out next-she and the
mating of dough in her long hair.
II was not minutes until the others
were taken out. II was hours. The
last were dug out at 4 o'clock in the
morning. all but n alive, and the
timbers had killed him.
AS each n met the air he or she
became unconscious. They collapsed
and were carried away.
First thought was to improvise
the engine house as an emergency
hospital. Near 1t was a tunnel, full
of water. Should another slide come
1t might release the water and drown
every occupant of the engine house.
They were taken 10 the clubhouse
and given such meager care as could
be provided.
Thirty feet of snow-was not the
weight terrible?' Mrs. Sabine was
asked this question.
If the main slide had struck US we
would have been going yet WAS her
naive response. 1T was 200 feet
deep"
The greater of the two slides melt
ed into an ice glacier several feet
thick and remained for the summer.
beautiful flowers swaying in the
breeze within hand reach of six feet
of ice.
AS soon as the rescued could stand
they were put on sn~owshoes prepar-
atory TO the descent to the Bonnie
Girl mine and La Plata City. Two
corrugated iron toboggans were made
for the corpse and the man with the
broken hips. From below came some
twenty-seven men to help. A rope
400 feet long was strung out. With
each Of the thirty-seven in the pro-
midway the crippled mans toboggan
attached to the rope, at the e end
but one man following the toboggan
of the corpse, each one holding or
dashed 10 the rope. marching ten or
twelve feet apart. they arrived at the
fs..tL ,.,.tasr ~ .annnI a
Plata City.
A town photographer took Two
pictures of the procession. n meet
ing with the end Of the other and the
two forming a panorama. MIS- Sa-
bine has the pair of pictures. They
are worth going miles To see.
She has another picture of the
slide. but with faint view of the
wrecked house. Only a few boards
stick out of the snow but their posi-
lions denote that disaster had fallen
there. Their silence speaks columns.
In the wreck the women's clothes
were tattered. They had to dress as
best they could in mems garments to
keep off the chill. At the Bonnie
Girl and La Plata City they received
Good Samaritan care.
In but a few days Mrs. Sabine re-
turned to the Small Hope and opened
a boarding house in the clubhouse.
She stayed there for most of the sue
ceeding summer and as the snow left
she gathered personal effects and
trophies. She found far down the
mountainside. hanging TO the wall of
the upper story of the house, a child's
bicycle. It was that of her little
daughter who had died before. Not a
spoke was bent and the paint was not
scratched. She found an alarm
clock, not damaged in the slightest,
and from that day to this II has been
hers and in use. II calls tho Sabines
every morning here in Ely.
The art of sn~owshoeing and skiing
was the inheritance of the accident.
The women became adopts and there
was much sociability. Frequent trips
were made to La Plata City, some
times twice in a day, sailing down
with airplain speed. Parties and
dances ensued and snowshoes were
the conveyance.
1t Is the most healthful of sports,
according to Mrs. Sabine. and m
that everybody should learn
1T would have been hard in soft
snow as when the Dugans were out.
but they could have made it at that.
You don't know what you are missing
or how important it may be to you.
It's easy to learn when you have TO-"
said Mrs. Sabine in conclusion.