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The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche

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We hear of avalanches now and then, taking to their deaths skiers or climbers, but as disasters they are these days relatively small scale. That was not the case on the night of 1 March 1910, when bizarre weather in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State brought down an avalanche that was half a mile wide. In its path were two trains pinned in by the snowstorms, and the cars were hurled down a mountain. The official death count was 96, although the number is an estimate, and the toll on the wounded and on the rescuers cannot be tallied. Gary Krist, whose previous books have been fiction, has become a historian of this disaster, telling it with a novelist's skill in _The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche_ (Henry Holt). The disaster was not, as Krist modestly admits, the "Avalanche That Changed America", because it was in many ways just one aspect of changes that were happening in railroading at the time anyway. It remains, however, a gripping tale of human endeavor against natural forces; it is all historical fact, but Krist has produced a page-turner.

Krist dutifully sets up the scenes in the mountains with historical context. In 1910, railroads made the American economy, and they had changed the American Northwest forever. The representative of the Great Northern Railway, the Superintendent of the Cascade Division was James H. O'Neill, in many ways the flawed hero of the book. He was a lifetime railroad man, "a precociously shrewd manager with seemingly inexhaustible reserves of drive and will." His were the responsibilities of the tracks, stations, buildings, and the movements of the trains through his region, a major mountain crossing that got an average of fifty feet of snow a year. The late February snow was bad enough to stop two trains, the Seattle Express and the Fast Mail, in transit between Spokane and Seattle. The passengers on the trains were at first merely annoyed by the delay. The passengers were kept fairly well in their cars; there was no lack of food, and though there was worry about having enough coal to move trains around, there was always sufficient coal to keep the cars warm. They socialized, and the porters and conductor circulated, trying to keep the passengers' spirits up, but cabin fever eventually set in. The tracks at the little trainyard town of Wellington had never been subject to avalanches as had others in the area, and indeed, avalanches at other parts of the tracks soon sealed the trains where they were. Early in the morning of 1 March, an avalanche came down the mountain, carrying all the cars with it, and smashing them to bits. The chapter on the avalanche itself is only sixteen pages, but it is followed by descriptions of the excruciating steps that O'Neill and his team took to rescue the few survivors, and then to recover bodies. The press, which had taken an exuberant and morbid interest in the case, printed absurdities like reports of mountain lion or wolf packs patrolling for cadavers. Newspapers originally praised O'Neill's work, and then looking for someone to blame, turned to reproach.

The book winds up in the courts, as humans attempted to decide how fairly to assess blame against God or against the railroad in an overwhelming natural disaster. Not only is this a fine book about people in the middle of a looming catastrophe, but it is also strong on the history and day-to-day operation of the railroads of the time. There is little left to remind us of the great avalanche; the railroad changed the name of Wellington, and then made a tunnel that would safely bypass the area. Passenger service peaked in the 1920s, so that any similar disaster became less and less likely. We don't have any lack of disasters in our own time, though, and Krist's great theme of "the gaps between foresight and hindsight" is one with which any reader will sympathize.

I agree with the other reviewers. This book is historic retelling done with a novelists flair. There is amazing detail and the characters are presented with balance. The author does a good job of presenting the way of life in 1910. I appreciated the detailed notes on the source of the material .

Living in the foothills of the Cascades, I was dimly aware of this disaster, but after reading this book, I plan on hiking the original railbed - now part of the Iron Goat Trail - to Wellington this summer and see for myself what occured there nearly a century ago.

Gary Krist does a superb job of placing the reader everywhere the historical characters go, mentally and physically. His writing style is readable but academic at the same time, neither pandering to base instinct or even ability, nor inundating the reader with words that need constant referral. He also makes the social, economic, and political issues of the day seem real and as pressing as any of today's problems. Finally, the technical detail Krist parlays is succinct and historically accurate without boring one to tears. All in all a very nice piece of work.

Don't know why I was prompted to pick this book up...my husband is in a search and rescue group, so that was partly the reason. I read the info given on the back of the book, and having grown up in Northern CA and being a voracious reader, I thought I should have heard about this one transportation disaster. My father was born up in Washington, but somehow this one has faded from national consciousness.

What really struck me about this book is the straightforward writing of the author, Krist. He doesn't sensationalize, as some other books on disasters tend to do. He is honest and reflective, gives the reader all the information on both sides, and lets them draw their own conclusion. I especially enjoyed the information about the court trials and the aftermaths. We can dislike the typical corporate image that continues to run big companies (only now they are the pharmaceuticals who could care less...), but we also recognize that the men who dealt at the closest part of the railway with this disaster most probably did as good a job that could have been done. Unlike the Titanic, where there were some very dismaying behavior by many who were at the helm of the boat and the company, most of the rail workers, especially the superintendant who oversaw the whole week of work around this avalanche were hardworking and gallant, who did make a few mistakes but nothing overt.

By showing us how the courts handled this particular case, plus the information that came from the newspapers that did sensationalize this happening, Krist lets us see why we have come full circle to another place that if this case were tried today, it would have ended very differently for the company. Krist makes a good case for why the ending verdict was probably right (but probably would not have been reached in this era of lawsuits we are currently in). However, he also points out the impact that this case and other transportation disasters of that time had on labor and safety laws in this country. He draws a good diagram for the reader for why this trainwreck led to our current safety requirements and the change in attitudes of people towards corporations that were in control during that time period. Now we need to turn our eyes to the corporations that are currently out of control in ours...perhaps Krist would like to take some of them on?

Karen Sadler

Although man tends to ignore nature in his desire to build things, once in a while Mother Nature has a way of coming back and slapping man upside the head. This is one such story.

The Great Northern Railway cut through the Cascade Range of mountains in Eastern Washington state. In February of 1910 the snow came in such amounts that two Great Northern trains were first trapped and subsequently destroyed by avalanche. 96 people were killed including women and children passengers.

This is a story of that disaster as told by an experienced novelist. In it he is able to keep the story moving even as we all know of the doom that is approaching. He does an excellent job.

This is not the only avalanche that has hit trains. Forty two years after the Great Northern disaster, in 1952 the Southern Pacific's 'City of San Francisco' was caught in a snow storm just west of Donner Pass in the California Sierra mountains. And as late as last week Amtrak service over Donner Pass was interrupted as so much snow fell that the line could not be kept open.

This book is the best kind of non-fiction. The historical rigor doesn't get in the way of the narrative flow of the story, but the narrative flow doesn't water down the historical rigor, either. I think the main reason for this is that the author is primarily a novelist; this is his first non-fiction book.

As he unfolds the story, it becomes an edge-of-your-seat tale of suspense. You can almost hear ominous soundtrack music welling up in the background as the snow falls and falls and falls, the railroad workers make nearly superhuman attempts to clear the tracks so the stranded trains can get off of the mountain, and the passengers sit at the base of a thousand-foot high mountain with millions of tons of unstable snow above them.

While he's telling the human stories, he also explains the background of mountain pass railroading, the economics of the industry, and the technological limitations the equipment of the day created. At the end of the book, he explains the legal issues that arose as a result of the disaster. Most important, he makes it clear that nearly everyone involved made the decisions he made for the best of reasons, even though some of those decisions turned out to be disastrously wrong.

Though the Wellington avalanche is the worst such disaster in US history-- and one of the worst train disasters, too-- in the hundred years that have passed, it has faded into oblivion. The site of the disaster has, too, having been abandoned by the railroad since 1929.

On the one hand, that's just the way it goes; new events push old events into the past. On the other hand, that's a real shame. There are lessons in the Wellington avalanche about corporate responsibility, technological hubris, and government oversight that we might well benefit from.

This book is nearly perfect non-fiction. It's a fast, entertaining read that also teaches the readers important lessons. I recommend it most highly.

I grew up in the state of Washington, where I was part of a railroad family: my grandfather worked for the Milwaukee Railroad and my uncle for the Northern Pacific. I lived and traveled in Washington for over 50 years, going over Stevens Pass a number of times, though never on the train.

But not until the release of Gary Krist's book The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche was I aware that the deadliest avalanche in American history and one of railroading's great tragedies had taken place in my home state right on Stevens Pass almost 100 years ago.

Two trains headed west to Washington's Puget Sound were caught in an unexpectedly powerful winter storm at the Wellington station, high up in the Cascade Mountains. The White Cascade tells the story of how and why the trains were caught in what turned out to be a fatal situation; of the attempts to rescue the passengers; and of the inquest afterward in regard to the Great Northern's liability. The book is well-researched and documented and features a number of photographs as well as a list of those who died.

Krist focuses on the stranded passengers and on James H. O'Neill, who was responsible for railroad operations in that area. Drawing on letters, diaries, memoirs, newspaper accounts, court records, corporate archives, and contact with family members of some of those involved with the accident, Krist reveals the reasons why some of the passengers were on the train, and the way they interacted during the long and ultimately futile attempt on the part of the railroad to rescue them. We meet and get to know a number of them: some who will live, some who will die. We see families ripped apart, survivors whose lives will never be the same again. We follow James H. O'Neill's all-out attempt to save the doomed trains, the media treatment of the incident, and the Great Northern's defense against those who held it responsible for what happened.

This is an engrossing book for anyone interested in railroads, disasters, history, or any combination of the three. Krist's style is easy to read and puts you right there with the passengers, as their frustration with the inconvenience of what initially seemed a short delay turns into apprehension, fear, and foreboding; with the rescuers, as they work at clearing track in blizzard conditions, racing against time and ultimately losing the battle; with O'Neill, as he gives his all, only to see the Great Northern criticized for not giving enough.

This is a powerful story, all the more powerful for being real. Approximately 100 people were killed and dozens more injured: passengers, railroad workers, hired laborers. As a result of the tragedy, the town of Wellington was renamed Tye; ultimately a railroad tunnel was built that bypassed it, and it ceased to exist. In an interesting personal twist, after reading the book, I discovered that one of my best friends lost a relative in the disaster. The White Cascade is a fitting tribute to his memory, as well as those of the others who died at Wellington.

My grandfather was an engineer that died working for the Great Northern probably a decade or so after this event. This book gave me insight into the life of a railroadman--the dangers, the challenges, and the pride. The book is well-written and an enjoyable read.

The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche, by Gary Krist chronicles the events surrounding the killer storm of February, 1910 in the Northwest's Cascade Mountains.

A record-breaking blizzard delays two Great Northern Railway trains as they cross the Cascades near Stevens Pass: a passenger train, the Seattle Express, and a mail train, the Fast Mail. At first it doesn't seem so serious, but as time wears on, the storm's intensity increases. Although Superintendent James H. O'Neill and his men work around the clock, they are unable to clear the way for the two trains to get through. Stranded near the tiny railroad town of Wellington, passengers can do little more than wait it out, hoping their various destinations and projects won't be too inconvenienced by the delay.

But the storm doesn't abate, it only gets worse. It leaves so much snow on the tracks that the equipment can't carry it off fast enough. Passengers get edgy as the days pass without relief. Over a six day period enough snow has fallen to bury a two-story house, and still there's no letup.

As the weather warms, conditions get more dangerous with the threat of avalanches. Forests surrounding the trains have been thinned from fire, making conditions for avalanche even more likely. Thunder and lightning heighten the danger as the snowfields disintegrate.

Gary Krist does a remarkable job keeping suspense high throughout the book. With skill and meticulous detail he weaves local history, the personal lives of passengers and workers, newspaper accounts and meteorological conditions culminating in a killer avalanche, and finally the inquest resulting from the tragedy. Steam railroad buffs will find this book fascinating with its vivid descriptions of the ins and outs of railroading in early twentieth century. But you don't have to be a railroad enthusiast to enjoy this book-it's a piece of history skillfully presented.

I ordered this book at the request of one of our genealogy society members. It came soon after I ordered it and I have not had time to read it myself because some of our patrons are waiting to read it. The woman who requested that I order it said it was the best of any of the books ever written about that disaster. We have several other books about the disaster as it happened in our area but it appears this one is the very best as it has been well researched and is well written, keeping the reader's interest to the very end. It is particularly interesting to genealogists searching this area.