Page 16 - Pierce County Lawyer - July August 2024

The White Cascade By Ronald Culpepper, Pierce County Superior Court Judge, ret.
Most of us going to Leavenworth for the TPCBA Convention will take the usual route: Highway 18 to Interstate 90, crossing Snoqualmie Pass, and
then Highway 97 over Blewett Pass to approach Leavenworth. Another route, a bit longer and less developed but arguably more scenic, is US 2, the Stevens Pass Highway. Near the Pass summit, by the ski area parking lot, is an access road to a unique site in Washington’s railroad history, and a disaster: the Wellington Avalanche of 1910. Author Gary Krist in his well researched and intriguing book, “White Cascade,” provides
a glimpse into railroading in Washington, and many insights into the Wellington disaster. The book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in Washington’s history.
Steven’s Pass was surveyed in 1890 by John Frank Stevens
(later the chief engineer for the Panama Canal) for the Great Northern Railway. James J. Hill, “the empire builder” (and namesake of JJ Hills Restaurant at the Icicle Resort) decided
to use this route for his railroad connecting Seattle directly to the Midwest for the first time. The rail line opened in 1893,
but the tracks near the summit of the Pass required many slow switch-backs, and constant maneuvering of train engines, and encountered many problems during winters, so in 1897 a tunnel beneath the Pass was begun. The 2.6 mile Cascade Tunnel opened in 1900, greatly improving rail travel on the Great Northern, especially during winter.
On February 23, 1910, the Seattle Express and a Fast Mail
Train left Spokane for the 375 mile, 12 hour trip to Seattle. Weather over the state of Washington was terrible, especially
in the Cascades where heavy snow, up to three feet per day,
was falling. Snow was especially heavy on the west side of the Cascade Tunnel, so the two trains from Spokane were initially stopped on the Leavenworth side of the tunnel, to wait for the tracks to be cleared and for a break in the weather. The next day Great Northern officials decided to move the train through the tunnel to the town of Wellington on the west side. Wellington provided some comforts for the stranded passengers: a hotel,
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a saloon, grocery store, post office, train depot,
and a small hospital, as well as residences for Great Northern employees. Tracks on the west side of Wellington were covered with snow and debris from slides between Wellington and the town of Scenic, about seven miles to the west. Massive steam-driven rotary snow plows were in operation along the line,
but were unable to clear the tracks sufficiently for train operation.
Great Northern officials decided to place the two trains on a siding line, believing it to be the best spot convenient to the town of Wellington. The trains were still there February 28th when a group of passengers wrote a petition to Great Northern regional chief James O’Neill, who was on site and in charge
of the track clearing operation, asking that they be evacuated to the town of Skykomish, about 15 miles southwest of Wellington, below the worst of the snow. Part of their concern was the slope above the trains, which was mostly without trees, and covered with thick snow, measuring up to 17 feet in some places. This petition was never seen by James O’Neill.
Also on February 28th, Washington was hit by what we would now call a “Pineapple Express”, with warmer air and pounding rain, causing floods throughout the state, and soaking the Cascade snowpack. That evening a number of Great Northern employees decided to sleep on the two trains, believing them
to be safer than the somewhat flimsily constructed buildings in Wellington. Later that evening a thunder and lightning storm added to the drama and concerns on the tracks. The train passengers and Great Northern employees tried to get some sleep, but at 1:42 am (the time confirmed by broken pocket watches of victims) a ten acre slab of heavy wet snow broke loose from the slope above and roared onto the trains, knocking them over and causing them to roll as they were forced into a ravine of the Tye River, 150 feet below. Many of the train cars and their passengers were crushed after they landed and then were covered with up to 40 feet of snow, trees, rocks, buildings from Wellington and other debris carried by the avalanche. Decades later Charles Andrews, a Great Northern employee, described what he had heard as “White Death, moving down the mountainside above the trains. Relentlessly it advanced, exploding, roaring, rumbling, grinding, snapping - a crescendo of sound that might have been the crashing of 10,000 freight trains . . .”
16 PIERCE COUNTY LAWYER | July/August 2024