Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-11-19

great mass pitched downward with ire
mendous velocity until it reached the
quarry. Then the upper part shot
forward horizontally straight across
the valley and up the opposite hill
slope.
Rock Torrent Through Valley.
A cloud of dust accompanied it and
great wind was flung before it.
Trees were blown about like matches
and houses lifted through the air like
feathers and broken up as though
little toys by it's force alone.
The avalanche, shooting with in
credible swiftness across the valley,
struck the opposite hill slope obliquely,
and was Immediately detected, like
water, down the level and fertile val
ley floor, which it covered in a few
seconds to the distance IF nearly
mile and over it's whole width with a
mass of rock debris 80 feet deep.
Most of the people who had run up
onto the opposite hillside were killed
instantly. Only when the avalanche
had struck this slope and begun to
turn aside from it did the people in
the lower village, far down along the
level plain, have any suspicion that
they were in danger. Twenty Sec
Qnds later all was over, and the rock
torrent had swept away half that viii
lage. The sharp edge of the avalanche
cut one house in two. All within the
fatal edge were destroyed; all without
were saved. One or two men had
race for life and won, but most who
were in the path of the destroyer were
doomed.
In brief, 100000 cubic yards Of
rock fell about 1900 feet, shot across
the valley and up the opposite hillside
to height of over 300 feet, then de-
Elected and poured like a torrent over
a horizontal plane, covering it uniform
ly throughout a distance of 5000 feet
and over an area of 100000 square
yards, to a depth of from to 60 feet.
Before the avalanche there lay peace
full village and fertile green fields;
within one minute a solid gray rock
carpet had been spread, beneath which
ings, their houses and their fields,
while the familiar Plattenbergkopf had
vanished and a great hole was in it's
place. Few were the wounded requir-
ing succor, and few the dead whose
bodies could be recovered.
Great Alberta Avalanche.
Only slightly less dramatic and quite
similar in character to the Elm rock
slide, was the one which partially
swept the town of Frank, Alberta. BY
hairs breadth only did the COM
munity escape complete humiliation.
This slide was of much greater magni-
tude than the Elm disaster, although
not so many people were killed.
Turtle mountain, the scene of the
avalanche, is a lofty, narrow ridge
situated about IA miles east Of the
Continental Divide, and is surmounted
by number of rock peaks. The
range is pierced, north of Turtle noun
tain, by narrow gap, through which
flows Old Man river. Near the gap,
and where the valley is broadened by
close to the foot of the mountain,
nestles the town of Frank, an i'm
portant coal mining center. The noun
tain itself is an exceedingly precip-
itate series of cliffs of limestone, sand
stone, and shale rising more than 5000
feet above the river.
At dawn on April 90, 1908, a huge
rock mass nearly half mile square
and from 400 to 500 feet thick in the
center suddenly broke loose from the
mountain and crashed with terrific vio-
lence into the valley beneath, over
whelming everything in its course.
! The great mass, broken into innumer-
/ able fragments by the fall, plowed
| through the river bed, crossed the val
ley and hurled itself up the opposite
slopes to a height of 400 feet With
| in a minute or a minute and a half
over a square mile of pleasant valley
was covered with a rock-fow from
3 to $50 feet deep. Most providentiaI-
/ ly the greater portion of the town lay
outside the course of the slide; never
theless, 20 people were killed.
Two and half miles were traversed
by the slide, from the top Of the creek
on the mountain to the foot, while the
material dislodged is estimated at
100000 cubic yards This is over
three times the size of the Elm slide.
While it is believed thHt the coal min
ing in the valley may have FASTENED
the slide the primary cauSe was nm
doubtedly the structure of Turtle
mountain. The huge mass was in a
state of unstable equilibrium, and pos
sessed a week base.