On February 23 1910, the Great Northern Railroad’s Spokane Express departed from Spokane Washington heading west for Seattle.
The train was blocked by snow at Leavenworth which is on the east side of the Cascade Tunnel that goes under Stevens Pass. It finally continued its journey through the tunnel a day and a half later when plows were able to clear the tracks.
Trains Stuck in Wellington, Washington
When the Spokane Express reached the west side of the tunnel on Thursday February 25th, it was stuck again at the town of Wellington due to a relentless blizzard and small avalanches. A mail train was also parked on the tracks.
Snow plows could not keep up with cleaning the tracks because the snow was accumulating one foot every hour. Eventually they ran out of coal that fueled the snowplows. In addition, the telegraph lines went down.
The heavy snowfall continued from Thursday to Monday. A few passengers ventured out to Wellington and to another small town 8 miles down the track. Most stayed on the train with hope of the snow stopping and more coal arriving for the plows.
Weather Breaks in the Cascade Mountains
On Monday February 28th, the snow stopped and warmer weather arrived. The snow changed to sleet and then to rain. Thunder and lightning storms were created by the sudden weather change.
Disaster Strikes the Great Northern Railroad
At 1:00am on March 1st 1910, a huge slab of snow broke loose from Windy Mountain. It knocked the trains 150 feet downhill into the Tye River Valley below. The size of the avalanche was estimated as ten feet deep, a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long. The avalanche also wiped out the train depot in Wellington.
In the end, the death toll was estimated at 96 people. Out of that number, 58 were employees of the Great Northern Railroad, 35 were passengers and 3 were railway employees in the train depot. There were 23 survivors who were pulled from the wreckage by railroad employees from Wellington. More bodies were retrieved in the summer after the snow had melted.
Causes of the Wellington Avalanche
The major cause of the avalanche was the loud noise created by the thunder which loosened the snow.
The slopes of Windy Mountain were bare due to a fire in 1893 which wiped out the forest. Without trees, there was very little help block the snow.
The Aftermath of the Wellington Avalanche
Wellington was re-named Tye, after the nearby Tye River, in October 1910 in an effort to disassociate from the horrible incident.
In October 1910, seven months after the avalanche, the Great Northern Railroad built a snow shed out of concrete in order to shelter the train depot. Snow sheds are now commonplace on mountain rail lines.
The depot was closed in 1929 when a new Cascade tunnel was built, thus making the old grade at Wellington obsolete. The town was abandoned because the population consisted of railway workers who were transferred elsewhere. It eventually burned down.
There are now stricter forestry laws which prevent clear cutting of forests above towns and rail lines. Replanting of forests is done quickly after forest fires.
The old grade at Wellington has been made into a hiking trail called the Iron Goat Trail. The name comes from the term Iron Goat which refers to the locomotives operating in the Rocky and Cascade Mountains. The corporate symbol of the Great Northern Railway is a mountain goat standing on a rock.
Hikers have an opportunity to view the remnants of the rail lines and snow sheds in the Wellington area.
Sources:
- The History Link
- This Day in History
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