The Deadliest Avalanche in U.S. History: Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest

In 1910 two trains became stranded in Washington’s Cascade Mountains during a record-breaking snowstorm. After six harrowing nights, a massive avalanche swept them off the mountainside — the deadliest avalanche in U. S. history. More than a century later one question still lingers: could the disaster have been prevented? For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesListen to Watch Her Cook on Apple and Spotify! Follow us on InstagramFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to the week’s partners! IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shippingHarvest Hosts: For 20% off your order, head to HarvestHosts.com and use code NPAD. BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off. Ollie: Use NPAD to get 60% off your first box of meals when you subscribe today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:27Speaker 01

  It's that magical time of year when Designer Shoe Warehouse becomes your Designer Shoe Wonderland and you become everyone's favorite gifter because you know that good things come in shoe boxes like cozy slippers, on-trend kicks, boots made for snow stomping, and party shoes that sparkle and shine. Plus, stocking stuffers that bring joy from head to mistletoe. Who doesn't love more joy? Find shoes for you and yours at your Designer Shoe Wonderland. Shop in-store or visit dsw.com. DSW, let us surprise you.

• 0:58Danielle LaRock?

  Hey, it's Cassie. And I'm Danielle. And we're the hosts of Watch Her Cook. A podcast where we celebrate women who aren't just following the rules, but rewriting them. Watch Her Cook is about sharing stories of women throughout history who stepped up, faced impossible odds, and showed the world that their skills, intelligence, and aspirations go far beyond domestic duties. Join us every week to learn about the lives of women who faced the odds and changed history. Subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We can't wait to share these stories with you. Just a reminder, empowered women empower the world. Now, let's go cook.

• 1:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  Human history is marked by our attempts to dominate the natural world, to hold back rivers, to level mountains, and to build in the most inhospitable environments. Progress has often been measured by how effectively we can bend nature to our will with advancements in medicine, engineering, and technology.

• 2:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  But time and time again, it takes tragedy to remind us just how powerful nature really is. Nature isn't something we can conquer. It's something we're a part of. We experience natural disasters often today. Things such as devastating wildfires and floods continue to demonstrate how fragile the illusion of control really is. And in so many of these cases, the tragedy is compounded by the fact that we saw these things coming. At the turn of the 20th century, one such tragedy struck in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State. It was an avalanche disaster that to this day, 115 years later, is still the deadliest in US history.

• 2:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  But what makes the story even more haunting is the lingering question. Was it simply an unexpected event of nature? Or were the people involved responsible? Welcome to National Park After Dark.

• 3:24Danielle LaRock?

  Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. My name is Danielle.

• 3:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm Cassie.

• 3:29Danielle LaRock?

  And today, we're going to one of my favorite states of all time. And I am so, so excited that you're doing this story because it has been such a long time coming. And I feel like we keep saying that about episodes as of recently. But now's the time that we're taking everything from our back pockets and presenting them to you.

• 3:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, this has definitely been sitting in our back pockets for a long time. I actually downloaded the book that I'll go into more in this episode, but there's a book on it. And I downloaded this on my Kindle like a year ago.

• 4:00Danielle LaRock?

  Well, did you fly through it, though? Was it so good?

• 4:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was really interesting. It was very historical based, but yeah, it was a really interesting, interesting read. And this was something I think that you put on my radar.

• 4:13Danielle LaRock?

  I did.

• 4:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  You were the reason that I even downloaded the book.

• 4:16Danielle LaRock?

  Because the trail is popular in Washington. That goes up to this site. And I haven't read the book or anything, but there are certain stories that, and I know you can relate to this, there are certain stories that you really want your hands in and you want to be researching and kind of behind the storytelling of. But then there are some that you equally are interested in at that same level, but you want to be told the story.

• 4:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Right.

• 4:40Danielle LaRock?

  And this is the story that I want to sit back and hear you tell me.

• 4:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, you're in luck because I do have quite the story for you today. And it's a long one.

• 4:50Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, so let me.

• 4:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Settle right in because we're gonna be here for a while.

• 4:55Danielle LaRock?

  Let me kick my feet up a little bit better. Okay.

• 4:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Perfect. So today, like I alluded to in the intro is that we're going to be talking about the deadliest avalanche in US history. And when I, when you first think of that, you might think that it was at a, we've talked about on Patreon, we did a ski resort. The worst one at a ski resort, you think of the mountains on an expedition, things like that. But this was actually, this actually happened to a group of very unexpected travelers who were on a train, which makes this story just so much different because it wasn't someone expeditioning in the backcountry. It wasn't someone recreating in the outdoors. They were simply traveling through avalanche terrain and this happened. So we will dive into that story.

• 5:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was just before 2:00 AM on March 1st, 1910, when a railroad worker named John Wenzel heard a deep rumble. He stepped outside and looked up at the mountain towering above him. What he saw, he would never forget. He would later say, "It seemed as if the world were coming to an end. I saw the whole side of the mountain coming down, tearing up everything in its way. Trees, stumps, and snow were rolling together in gigantic waves. It was a..." Massive avalanche over half a mile wide. Wenzel could see right away that the little hotel he was staying in wasn't in the path of the destruction. But something else was. Two trains parked on the side of the mountain with a hundred and twenty five people sleeping on board.

• 6:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Powerless to stop it, Wenzel watched as the massive slab of snow got closer and closer. And then swallowed the tracks completely. The two trains and all the people on board plummeted down into the darkness of the canyon below. What might be the most shocking of all? The trains had been sitting in that same path of the avalanche on the edge of the Cascade Mountains for five days before it hit. You might be asking yourself, how could this happen? And to answer that, we need to backtrack a bit. Nineteen ten was the height of the quote age of steam. It was a time when steam powered trains absolutely transformed America. Previously, the only way to travel across the country was by horse.

• 7:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was a dangerous journey that would take months at best, as you can imagine, traveling across the entire US on horseback. And uncomfortable, I imagine.

• 7:14Danielle LaRock?

  I know, I'm good after like solid like six hours on a horse is.

• 7:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Even.

• 7:19Danielle LaRock?

  It's good, I feel like.

• 7:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm not as young and spry as I once was. I get off a horse after like two hours and I'm like stretching out my legs, my hips are tight, I'm like. I also don't ride very often, so.

• 7:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's kind of like, yeah, your body has to get back used to it. And I, because I've been taking, I got back in the saddle as they say. Recently, and I remember growing up, like I never thought twice about being sore or or anything. And then after a couple of lessons, I was like, oh my, this is a full body workout.

• 7:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 7:53Danielle LaRock?

  And you just think, you know, you sit on a horse and it does all the work. Oh ho, you'd be mistaken.

• 7:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's so much keeping yourself on. And you're not, when you horseback ride, it's mostly in your legs and your. And your abdomen, your core, yeah. And because really you're not supposed to use your arms that much at all. So it's really the lower half of your body that's taking it all. I definitely was sore as a child, but not in the same way.

• 8:19Danielle LaRock?

  I was ripped.

• 8:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sore today.

• 8:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, ah, the good old days.

• 8:25Danielle LaRock?

  I never looked better.

• 8:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, that tends to happen. Oh, okay, so going back into this, so trains are created. And this is this pivotal moment in history that changed American society, culture and the economy, of course, because trains allowed farmers and manufacturers to sell their goods nationwide for the first time. And the railroad industry itself directly employed about one out of every 12 adult men in the US at the time. So it really shifted the way jobs looked, farming looked, and it also opened up this whole new way of travel, like we mentioned with the horses and being on a train. The two trains in our story were part of the Great Northern Railway, which was one of the largest and most powerful railroad companies in the country.

• 9:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  By 1910, it operated around 8,000 miles of tracks running from St. Paul, Minnesota in the east to Seattle and Washington in the west. This was the Great Northern Railway's main line and was completed in 1893. The final segment of track was actually laid right near where the avalanche disaster would happen 17 years later, in the tiny railroad town of Wellington, Washington, in a stretch of the Cascade Mountains called Stevens Pass. The land around Stevens Pass became part of the Washington Forest Reserve when it was established by the government in 1897. The reserve was then divided into multiple national forests in 1908. So when the disaster happened in 1910, the town of Wellington was within the newly designated Snow Squallamy National Forest.

• 9:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Today, the area is known as Mount Baker Snow Squallamy National Forest after the two forests were combined in 1974. So we are talking about a national forest today. It counts for the podcast.

• 10:09Danielle LaRock?

  It's outside.

• 10:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's outside. If it's outside, it counts for the podcast.

• 10:13Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sick of explaining it to people.

• 10:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't think we need to. I think it's just something that I have to say because every time I say it, people are like, we don't care.

• 10:22Danielle LaRock?

  I don't think anyone has ever cared one time, but

• 10:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not a single time.

• 10:25Danielle LaRock?

  For us, it feels like we have to do it.

• 10:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, going into the, the National Forest itself. Today, the area is known as Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, after the two forests were combined in 1974. Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest stretches more than 140 miles south of the Canadian border along the western side of the Cascade Mountains. It covers an area of more than 1.7 million acres and is about an hour's drive from Seattle. In addition to beautiful mountain peaks, the National Forest has around 800 alpine lakes. It offers more than 50 recreation sites, seven downhill ski areas, and more than 1,500 miles of hiking trails, including parts of the famous Pacific Crest Trail.

• 11:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Stevens Pass is an area that gets heavy snowfall and is very prone to avalanches. The stretch of the Great Northern Railway that ran through it was known to be one of the most perilous stretches of the whole main line, built directly into the side of the mountains with snowy peaks towering above and rocky ravines down below. That winter in particular, the Cascade Mountains were hit by one of the most relentless snow seasons on record. February 1910 brought more than 11 feet of snow to Stevens Pass in just a single nine-day period. Also, much of the track through Stevens Pass ran directly beneath mountain slopes that were nearly deforested due to years of wildfires and clearcutting by loggers. This further increased the avalanche risk by removing natural barriers

• 11:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  that might have anchored the snow in place. James Hill, who built the Great Northern Railway, knew this. The company had spent millions of dollars to construct wooden snowsheds over the tracks in some high-risk areas, which were basically long-roof structures to protect trains from the falling snow. But these sheds were limited in coverage and not always effective, and the work was still ongoing. In fact, on February 21, 1910, the railroad announced that it was planning to spend an additional $2 million on improvements to the tracks in the Cascade Mountains. Of course, the area where the two trains were hit was not covered by a snowshed. Having all of that information, let's really get into this story.

• 12:41Danielle LaRock?

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• 13:24Danielle LaRock?

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• 14:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  We start just 24 hours after that announcement to improve the railroad, on the evening of Tuesday, February 22, 1910, at the train station in Spokane, Washington. Is it Spokane or Spokane?

• 14:25Danielle LaRock?

  I think it's Spokane.

• 14:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  I feel like it is too, but it's spelt like Spokane.

• 14:29Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like it's a Nevada, Nevada thing, but I'm almost certain it's Spokane.

• 14:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm almost certain it's also Spokane.

• 14:37Danielle LaRock?

  People will tell us.

• 14:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  But people shouldn't put an E on the end of it if they don't want me to say Spokane.

• 14:42Danielle LaRock?

  So think about that.

• 14:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  So I will refer to it as Spokane, Washington, though, out of respect.

• 14:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, right.

• 14:51Danielle LaRock?

  Unless we're wrong, then she meant Spokane.

• 14:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  Exactly.

• 14:56Danielle LaRock?

  You get it.

• 14:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thank you.

• 14:57Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I'm just trying to cover all the bases.

• 15:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  I appreciate that. A train called the Seattle Express made its final boarding call at exactly 7:30 PM, right on schedule. The train pulled away from the station with snow lightly falling outside, starting what should have been an 18-hour overnight ride west through Cascade Mountains to Seattle. Each passenger aboard the Seattle Express had their own personal reasons for making their journey that night. The book that I mentioned earlier is called The White Cascade by Gary Crist, and it tells the story of the disaster and it also tells it from the point of view of a lot of different people. And he really brings their stories into life in vivid detail. But for the sake of this podcast and this episode, I've kind

• 15:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  of honed in on just a couple of their stories, specifically a handful who were riding together in one of the first-class sleeper cars. The sleeper cars on the Seattle Express represented the height of luxury travel at the time, which is similar to flying first class today. The cars were steam heated with seats that converted into beds, elegant arch windows, and polished mahogany interiors. There was even a gentleman's lounge at one end and a lady's sitting room at the other. For the passengers that I'm going to talk about today, and they'll pop up throughout the story, first I'll introduce you to Ida Starrett. She was riding in the sleeper car with her elderly parents and her three children, nine-year-old

• 16:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  Lillian, seven-year-old Raymond, and her infant Francis, who was still teething. Ida was a young mother and was recently widowed. Her husband had actually worked for the Great Northern Railway as a freight train conductor and was killed on the job just a few weeks earlier. She had received $500 in compensation from the company. Ida was from Spokane, but her parents were encouraging her to move up to Canada, where they lived to start a new life. Seattle was their first stop along the way. Ida wasn't sure if she wanted to make the move permanently, but she did agree to make this trip to go. See them. A man named Henry White boarded a few stops down the line. Henry was a salesman for the American Paper Company and had come to the region to do business. Now he was heading back to his wife in Seattle.

• 17:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  Alongside Henry White and Ida Starrett in the sleeper car rode two other families with young children. Several lawyers heading to bring cases before the Washington State Supreme Court. A female freelance journalist on a reporting trip. A sixty nine year old grandmother of twenty two children. And many other people that were also in the car.

• 17:23Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, twenty, she had twenty two grandchildren?

• 17:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 17:26Danielle LaRock?

  And how old was she? Fifty nine?

• 17:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sixty nine.

• 17:29Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, still that's, she was busy.

• 17:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Busy.

• 17:33Danielle LaRock?

  Busy bee.

• 17:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Her children were busy bees.

• 17:35Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, yeah, that's true. But she had to be busy first.

• 17:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  She had, she had several children to have twenty two grandchildren, I hope.

• 17:43Danielle LaRock?

  One would hope. I just, I know this is gonna be awful, but just taking a moment to think about that train. And especially the first class area that you're describing. If I was meant for something, it was that and then the Titanic in quick succession. Like, just the, I-

• 18:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  The avalanche?

• 18:04Danielle LaRock?

  The train.

• 18:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  But you're saying you were meant for the-

• 18:07Danielle LaRock?

  Like a train like that.

• 18:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, okay. Not the disasters that happened on the Titanic and this train.

• 18:13Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like maybe, but that's a separate conversation. I'm talking about, yeah, just like the elegance of-

• 18:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is your vibe?

• 18:21Danielle LaRock?

  Ah, it's such my vibe. I would absolutely love to have been around at that time and experience. Like, they just don't make things like that with the detail and the mahogany like you were describing. And there are some pretty cool trains that you can still take around, you know, the US and stuff. And I know there's some historic ones as well, but like on average. I mean, the train we took in, uh, the last train I was on was in Egypt. And it was not like this at all.

• 18:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is not true. You were on a train in Peru, to Machu Picchu.

• 18:56Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, yeah. No, but I'm saying like a sleeper one, like we slept overnight.

• 18:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, right, right.

• 19:00Danielle LaRock?

  You know what I mean?

• 19:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 19:02Danielle LaRock?

  There was no mahogany in sight on that train.

• 19:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's really messed up.

• 19:06Danielle LaRock?

  I know, and I felt like I was-

• 19:10Danielle LaRock?

  Not where I belonged, but that's okay. Still an experience. Anyway, sorry. I just wanted to take a moment for the train because I

• 19:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  You should look into trains in Europe because there's a lot of historic, really beautiful trains that like cross in different countries in Europe and I feel like you would find a vibe there.

• 19:27Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 19:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  I've been on some really pretty trains in Europe before. I took one from Paris to Switzerland and it was a really, really pretty ride, not just because of the views, but also the train itself that we were in.

• 19:39Danielle LaRock?

  There's one in Vermont. I've sent it to you, I think. Did I send you the real? It's like a very art deco looking and it's a historic train and it runs through Vermont.

• 19:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, you have. I look, I, I've never had a reason to go on that train, but I, I currently have been looking at the train from Vermont to New York City because I'm like, oh, that would be fun. Like, what would that be like? But it's like a nine hour train ride and it's a four and a half hour drive. So.

• 20:04Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, but you're exchanging one thing for another. Like it's the experience, right?

• 20:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not really a nice fancy train though.

• 20:12Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, I'm talking, I'm not talking about like the Amtrak or the T. I'm talking.

• 20:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's the Amtrak. Yeah.

• 20:17Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, no, that's not part of it. Don't do that. Drive.

• 20:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  I will not be doing that.

• 20:23Danielle LaRock?

  Well, you have a reason to take that, that train in Vermont. I don't even know where it goes, but you're looking at her. You're staring at her right now. This is, that's your reason.

• 20:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'll book my ticket.

• 20:34Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I'm gonna stop talking because I know you just said this episode is really long and I just can't shut up. So.

• 20:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's okay. It'll just be.

• 20:41Danielle LaRock?

  I'm gonna mute my mic.

• 20:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Please don't. I'll feel alone.

• 20:52Danielle LaRock?

  I'm in the midst of gearing up for camping season. I just re-registered my camper and I'm planning out the weekends that I can go out with it this summer. And if you have a camper or an RV or are renting one, you need to listen up because this one is for you. This podcast is sponsored by Harvest Hosts. With a Harvest Hosts membership, you get unlimited no fee overnight RV stays at ninety-five hundred locations across the US and Canada. Simply sign up for seventy-nine dollars per year, book your favorite destinations and enjoy unique RV stays all year long. I have had my fair share of parking my camper at lackluster rest areas, but with Harvest Hosts, you can spend your overnights in such cool places.

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• 22:16Danielle LaRock?

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• 22:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay, going back into the story. At 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, February 23rd, the Seattle Express pulled into the town of Levin North in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. At that point, most of the passengers had been asleep for hours. The snow had changed from flurries to heavy snowfall. A helper engine was attached to the front of the train to prepare it for the climb through the mountains. A few more passengers boarded, bringing the total number of riders up to 55, not counting train crew members. A new conductor also came on board and took charge of the train for the overnight shift. His name was Joseph Pettit. He was a friendly man who loved his job and took his duty to his passengers very seriously. There was one more person who plays a central role in this story, and perhaps the most

• 23:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  central of all, the superintendent of the Great Northern Railway's Cascade Division, who was responsible for keeping all the trains moving in the western half of Washington State. His name was James O'Neill. He was 37 years old, a chain smoker. He was handsome and hardworking. He was born in Canada and moved as a child to the town in the Dakota. Territory before it had been split into ta- into states, North and South Dakota. So his father could work on the Great Northern Railway. O'Neill couldn't wait to do the same. And he didn't have to wait long because he got a job working for the railroad himself when he was just thirteen years old. And with that, he was promoted to conductor by the age of seventeen years old.

• 23:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  At the, at the time, that was practically unheard of, but O'Neill was this prodigy that joined the railway station. From there, he moved up quickly through the company's ranks, from conductor to train master to superintendent. This track record reflects his devotion to the job. He became famous within the railroad for working side by side with his crewmen to solve problems in the field, on the tracks, and in the snow, despite his seniority. This earned him popularity and respect among his crew. By February nineteen ten, he had been in the position of the Cascade Division Superintendent for three years. Bad weather and mountainous terrain made this a chaotic job, but O'Neill was good at it. In those first three years, there had been zero passenger deaths in his territory.

• 24:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Usually by late February, he'd been through the worst of the bad weather. But again, this was an exceptionally snowy season, and that day, the snow was coming down. To make matters more complicated, the railroad was also dealing with a strike of railway switchmen at the time, leaving them understaffed. O'Neill knew, looking at the storm, that the telegraph lines to his station in the mountains would probably go out. To stay on top of things, he would have to go out into the field to direct operations. So earlier in the day, on February twenty second, before the Seattle Express had even left Spokane, O'Neill kissed goodbye his young wife Bernice and their six-month-old daughter Peggy Jane, and took a train up to the most weather-vulnerable stretch of his territory, Stevens Pass.

• 25:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  And even more specifically, he went to the Cascade Tunnel, which connected the tracks on the east and western sides of the mountain range. He stationed himself at the first stop on the west side of the tunnel, a tiny town called Wellington, Washington. From his post in Wellington, O'Neill monitored the storm and the status of all the trains. The eastern edge of his territory was the Leavenworth Station, or the Seattle Express pulled in at one thirty a.m. on Wednesday, February twenty third. At that point, it had been snowing all day, but things were under control. Not far behind the Seattle Express was another train called the Fastmail. This was the highest priority train on the entire line because it was one of the most profitable.

• 26:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  It had been introduced the previous September with a promise to deliver mail across the country in less than fifty hours. O'Neill was under immense pressure to keep it running on time. From Leavenworth, it would have been possible for O'Neill to reroute the trains onto a different Great Northern affiliated track through the Cascades to avoid the dangerous weather. But doing so would have put them several hours behind schedule. The storm wasn't particularly intense at the time, and his team was used to storms, so this one wasn't raising any particular alarms. Plus, snowfall in that area almost never lasted more than a day. It had already been snowing since four a.m. Tuesday, so O'Neill figured it must be letting up soon.

• 26:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  He opted not to reroute the trains and instead sent a rotary plow to meet them at Levensworth. To give you a vision of what a rotary plow is, picture a train with a massive circular fan on the front, but with sharp blades that cut through deep snow and hurl it off the tracks as it spins. And that is exactly what a rotary plow is. As conductor Pettit was making the final preparations to leave Leavenworth, one passenger named Blanchett Painter abruptly requested to get off the train so she could spend the night in Leavenworth with some friends. Little did she know at the time, this spontaneous decision may have saved her life. Leaving Blanche behind, around two thirty a.m.,

• 27:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  the Seattle Express pulled out of Leavenworth Station behind the rotary plow and headed up into the Cascade Mountains. On Wednesday morning, passengers aboard the Seattle Express awoke to an eerie stillness. The train wasn't moving, and outside, snow was falling so heavily that they could barely see. They were supposed to be nearing Seattle, but something was clearly wrong because they were nowhere near their destination. Instead, they were stranded at the Cascade Tunnel Station, a small railroad outpost at three thousand three hundred feet on the eastern Side of the tunnel. Built around 20 years earlier to house rail workers, it was barely a town. Just a few buildings, not many residents, and a reputation for being harsh and unpleasant.

• 28:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  The train had been stopped because a rotary snowplow clearing the tracks west of Wellington had gotten stuck. These massive machines could handle snow up to 13 feet deep, but in the Cascades, snow could pile far higher after snow slides. When that happened, crews had to shovel manually. O'Neill, the supervisor overseeing the route, had around 300 shovelers. Most were temporary workers and often immigrants who would go out and hand shovel these big snow pits that would come from these avalanche slides. Conductor Pettit assured passengers the delay was temporary and arranged breakfast at the only place in town. A rundown eatery called The Beanery.

• 28:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Despite the humbling setting, the food was good, thanks to the cook, Harry Elker, and waiter, John B. Urson. After breakfast, passengers returned to the warm train. The fast mail train soon arrived as well and waited behind them.

• 28:57Danielle LaRock?

  How many passengers are there? Like 50 something you said, this point?

• 29:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  At this point, yeah, there's about 55. Just on this one train, there's also the mail train.

• 29:05Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I just, I got a flashback to our trip. Every trip we do, that's not like camping. And if we have to have a meal somewhere, I always like kind of send a silent thank you and prayer to the waitstaff and the cooks when we come in because we always have a group of like 20, 25 people.

• 29:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's so many people to feed and to serve and get the food out in a timely manner and make sure it's cooked well.

• 29:32Danielle LaRock?

  And that's not just, and that's not in a dilapidated, one-horse town in the middle of the mountains.

• 29:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  Expecting like a handful of locals to come in and not a whole train full of people.

• 29:42Danielle LaRock?

  God, I just got anxiety for them 100 years ago and more.

• 29:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  But from all accounts, the two of them were great. They were super friendly, welcomed everyone, brought them in, made them food, made them all feel comfortable.

• 29:57Danielle LaRock?

  Imagine they're like, look how much money we're about to make.

• 29:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 30:00Danielle LaRock?

  I haven't seen this many people in a long time.

• 30:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're like, please, come on in. We've got food. We need this. And locals at this time were already saying that this was the worst storm that they had ever seen. The Seattle Times that day called it, quote, "The worst storm of years." O'Neill still hoped it would pass by day's end, but conditions worsened. Around 9:30 a.m., he made the tough call to suspend all westbound trains, an expensive but necessary move as problems could easily snowball in storms like this. The storm was unrelenting, and by the afternoon, it was clear they'd be spending the night where they were. They returned to the beanery for meals, then settled into the train for sleep. O'Neill barely rested as he was outside at 2 a.m. weathering the storm and shoveling with his men. The stuck

• 30:45Cassandra Yahnian?

  rotary plow finally reached Wellington, but worsening conditions meant O'Neill sent it back to keep clearing. On Thursday morning, snow was still falling. Passengers again ate at the beanery, whilst shovelers cleared the buildup around the trains. O'Neill rode another rotary through the tunnel to assist, even grabbing a shovel himself again. Finally, by 5 p.m., the Seattle Express and the fast mail train started moving west again. Unfortunately, bad news was waiting for them. The rotary plow that had been stuck, freed, and then sent back west the previous night, had encountered another major snowslide and accidentally hit a tree stump buried in the snow, which destroyed its inner mechanism. So the train

• 31:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  line west of Wellington wasn't cleared up after all, and they couldn't go any farther. As they exited the tunnel, the Seattle Express moved to a passing track along a narrow ledge beneath Windy Mountain, waiting for the plow to clear the line ahead. Windy Mountain towered over 2,000 feet or 609 meters above them. Across from them was another track for the fast mail train to wait on, and on the other side was a sheer drop. It put them in a dangerous position. On one side, there was this steep mountain looming above them, and the other was a deep Canyon, but they had no choice but to wait for the railway to be cleared. That night, passengers dined at the Ballots Hotel in Wellington, a tiny settlement carved into the mountainside with just over a hundred residents.

• 32:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Compared to the Beanery, this place felt luxurious. Over dinner, the hotel keeper said it was the most snow he'd seen in the seventeen years that he had been there. The passengers spent a third night sleeping on the trains, and O'Neill spent a third night getting very little sleep. Temperatures on Thursday had risen ten degrees, which after heavy snowfall meant a recipe for avalanches. And sure enough, around four AM on that Friday, February twenty fifth, an avalanche hit Cascade Tunnel Station. Tragically, it ran directly into the Beanery. Its ramshackle wooden structure didn't stand a chance. Harry and John had been inside and they were killed instantly.

• 32:49Danielle LaRock?

  Oh my god. Oh no.

• 32:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Imagine, and they were just there and they had just spent so much time with them and they were so nice and they had just left. Barely missed this.

• 33:00Danielle LaRock?

  Oh no, I did not even consider that there was additional slides going on, which makes total sense, but.

• 33:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, this whole area is so dangerous.

• 33:10Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I just looked at myself. I feel like a train conductor.

• 33:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  I can see you as a train conductor.

• 33:15Danielle LaRock?

  No, like what I'm wearing.

• 33:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know. I can envision it.

• 33:18Danielle LaRock?

  Like, I think, cause this is like corduroy and like I have my little.

• 33:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  I feel like you need one of those smoking pipes. I picture train conductors with like a pipe in their hand, brother. But you're pretty close.

• 33:30Danielle LaRock?

  I'm on my way for sure. Anyway.

• 33:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Next career goal.

• 33:35Danielle LaRock?

  Not the Beanery.

• 33:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Not the Beanery. When this news made it to the passengers later Friday morning, they were obviously very horrified. It was not lost on them that if they hadn't come to Wellington, when they did, their train would have been part of the avalanche and they could have been caught in it as well. The vibe at that point shifted from annoyance because people were just annoyed at the delays to an extreme fear that they were now actually in a really dangerous situation. With the avalanches on their mind, some of the women on the train began to raise questions about whether the trains were stationed in the safest place. That a huge bank of snow had accumulated on the mountainside above them. Some asked conductor Pettit whether it would be safer to move the train into the tunnel. He replied that it wouldn't be because there was no ventilation in the tunnel.

• 34:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  So it would have filled up with toxic smoke from the coal that they were burning to keep the cabins warm. Based on his knowledge, the safest position for the trains was where they were standing. He told them that, quote, "Never in the seventeen year history of the Great Northern Rail Line through Stevens Pass has there been a snowslide at the place where the train now stood."

• 34:41Danielle LaRock?

  There was, well, doesn't mean that it could never happen. I hate when people do that.

• 34:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's never happened before, so it can't happen. It's like, no, not, not super true.

• 34:51Danielle LaRock?

  Makes no sense, but okay.

• 34:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And to know there was no snowshed protecting the tracks there. And part of that was because they thought that no protection was needed because nothing had ever happened there in the past.

• 35:04Danielle LaRock?

  Gotcha. Okay.

• 35:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  Meanwhile, O'Neill was faced with another issue because they were running out of coal. A delivery had been delayed due to the strike and the plows had burned through supplies trying to keep the railway lines clear. By Friday night, frustration was growing. A group of passengers, including lawyers and the paper salesman named Henry White, who I mentioned earlier, formed a committee and requested a meeting with O'Neill. He never showed. Instead, he worked through the night again, attempting to clear the snow and only napping in brief intervals. So he basically said, "I have work to do. I can't meet with you guys and I know you're frustrated, but that's not my problem. I have to try and get you out of here." But each time a rotary plow made any progress, another snowslide blocked the way.

• 35:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  By Saturday, February twenty sixth, after four nights on the train, some shovelers paid just fifty cents an hour for dangerous labor began quitting. That night, the final working rotary plow became trapped between two slides, effectively ending any chance of clearing the track at all. O'Neill was met with an ultimatum: raise wages to their requested fifty cents an hour or lose his remaining shovelers. He offered twenty cents and the workers refused.

• 36:15Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, how much were they getting paid before?

• 36:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Fifteen.

• 36:18Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 36:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  And they're demanding fifty and he's offering twenty.

• 36:21Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like in this circumstance, you can't give a little more.

• 36:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Can't really bargain and it's like, maybe, maybe it's a temporary solution because they're working in these grueling conditions. They're in the middle of a blizzard shoveling. The snow is falling faster than they can shovel. They're asking for more pay because what they're doing is worth more pay. And O'Neill says no. O'Neill says, you know what? Both of our rotary plows are broken. We can't do anything anyway. So why even pay you since we can't really do anything? And he dismisses them.

• 36:56Danielle LaRock?

  I, I mean, I don't want to say like, I get it, but at the same time, if they're legitimately just not able to make any sort of meaningful progress, then

• 37:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, huh?

• 37:08Danielle LaRock?

  Like, would it, would they have been able to? Because you said a bunch of them were quitting. So with the people remaining, would they have been able to actually do anything to get them out of that situation at the time? Probably not.

• 37:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 37:21Danielle LaRock?

  So.

• 37:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I think the idea was that if he raised the pay, then no one would quit because the people quitting are still stuck there too, right? They're just going into town like, sorry, we're not working. Um, they were just locals that lived in the town. So.

• 37:34Danielle LaRock?

  So, yeah, he was being, um.

• 37:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  But that being said, the snow is falling faster than they can really move. So how much work with it they have gotten done? Who knows? But it wasn't given an opportunity to find out because he just dismissed everyone.

• 37:48Danielle LaRock?

  He just said, no, we're good?

• 37:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. He's like, it's fine. The storm will stop.

• 37:53Danielle LaRock?

  It's never done this before. So.

• 37:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's never done this before. It'll be over soon. Everything's fine. Um, but boy, he was wrong.

• 38:05Danielle LaRock?

  This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Recently, it's felt like we are kind of backtracking a little bit as a society, but there's something that we've got to give flowers to. And that's our collective understanding of how important maintaining our mental health is and how much more accepted it is to speak openly about therapy. They say awareness is the greatest agent of change and with growing awareness surrounding mental health, we are starting. Starting to see that positive shift, but there's still progress to be made. Twenty-six percent of Americans who participated in a recent survey said that they have avoided seeking mental health support due to fear of judgment. And that hesitation may not just affect them, it can easily impact their loved ones and those around them. The world is better when people are healthy and happy.

• 38:47Danielle LaRock?

  So this Mental Health Awareness Month, let's encourage everyone to take care of their well-being and break the stigma. And therapy is such a helpful place to start breaking that stigma. By reaching out for help and support, you are empowering yourself to become the best version of you. And the best version of you can possibly be the version of you that someone else may need to lean on during their time of need. So are we seeing the positive ripples here? If you're thinking of starting your therapy journey, try out BetterHelp. It's entirely online and designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. We're all better with help. Visit betterhelp.com/NPAD today to get 10% off of your first month.

• 39:31Danielle LaRock?

  That's better help, H E L P dot com slash N P A D.

• 39:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  The following day, feeling utterly trapped by the news about the last rotary, passengers started to explore the idea of hiking out of Wellington by foot. Local residents strongly discouraged it because even though the hike was only four miles down the train line to the next train station in a place called Scenic, the stretch was highly prone to avalanches and the storm was raging on. It would be a very, very dangerous hike and the locals were just saying, wait it out. It'll, it'll stop, just wait it out. It's too dangerous to go. A group of male passengers nonetheless became set on the idea once they heard that O'Neill had made the same hike himself. One of the snow slides had taken out one of the telegraph wires

• 40:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  and O'Neill had to hike the same path to Scenic by foot earlier that morning to send out an update about their situation. Once they found that out, they were determined to do the same and five male passengers set off shortly after nine thirty a.m. The hike proved more treacherous than they expected. At one They seriously considered turning back, but they pressed on. Finally, after almost four hours on the trail, they reached an area where an avalanche slope led directly from the trail, one thousand feet down into scenic. It was steep, but they had made it too far to give up at this point. The five men tucked their coats under their butts and slid down the mountain, surprised to reach the bottom totally unharmed.

• 41:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just a few hundred yards away was the scenic hot spring hotel where they found O'Neil. From there, the passengers were able to board a new westbound train from scenic, and they arrived in Seattle around midnight. So they had made the right decision.

• 41:17Danielle LaRock?

  They gambled and came out on top on that one, for sure.

• 41:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, and I can just imagine being a thousand feet up in the air and being like, all right, let's slide down this thing.

• 41:25Danielle LaRock?

  We gotta send it. What else are we doing?

• 41:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  The ultimate tubing adventure.

• 41:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yep.

• 41:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  I imagine you move a little bit slower, though, on your jackets versus a tube. Like, you can stop yourself a little better.

• 41:36Danielle LaRock?

  Especially that type of jacket that they were likely wearing.

• 41:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, they probably weren't moving too fast.

• 41:42Danielle LaRock?

  No.

• 41:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like a slow slide.

• 41:44Danielle LaRock?

  It's like, hold on, guys, and they're like going super slow.

• 41:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Five hours later. And back in Wellington, morale was at an all-time low as the threat of an avalanche loomed overhead. A second group of passengers decided that they would also try to hike out the next day, and conductor Pettit decided to join them. Food was starting to run short at the Ballots Hotel, and he knew that a relief train carrying supplies had made it to scenic. Pettit also figured that this trip would allow him to judge the possibility of evacuating the passengers by foot. So they wouldn't feel abandoned. He promised he would make the trip there and back within the same day. Everyone aboard the Seattle Express tucked in for the sixth night, listening to the rumble of avalanches coming down around them in the distance. Despite the worsening weather, the hike went smoother.

• 42:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Pettit and the others reached scenic in under ninety minutes, far faster than the first group. Pettit sent a telegram saying, "Tell the passengers they can come out over the trail." But the message was never delivered due to down Wires. Still, Pettit returned with food and reassurance that the hike was doable. Meanwhile, after six nearly sleepless days and nights back on the Seattle Express, passengers were at their wits' end. Petty conflicts were arising. Some were feeling claustrophobic as the trains had become practically buried in the absence of snow shovelers. And to make a bad situation worse, the train was starting to smell. The toilets were clogged and nobody had showered in nearly a week. The mood improved when conductor Pettit returned that afternoon with the news that the hike was doable.

• 43:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  However, it was too late for another group to leave that day, but many passengers started making plans for the morning. Henry White, the paper salesman and active member of the passenger committee, was skeptical.

• 43:31Danielle LaRock?

  Wait, there's a passenger committee?

• 43:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, remember when I mentioned they formed like a passenger committee to request O'Neill's presence to speak with them? Henry was like the leader of that.

• 43:42Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 43:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  But he was skeptical of this idea to evacuate passengers out. Uh, he thought that it was gonna take a lot of effort and he also thought that it didn't really. It wasn't including the people who are not physically capable of hiking four miles. There were elderly people on board. There were people who had physical limitations that were on board and he's saying, wait a second, you're gonna evacuate everyone except for. Who, how are you gonna evacuate these people?

• 44:06Danielle LaRock?

  Right.

• 44:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  He also was upset at this like loose string evacuation plan. When he thought that the Great Northern Railway should, should send word of an official evacuation that they would be executing. And making sure that the passengers were safe and including everyone if that was the route to take. So he was like, this is very unofficial. What's going on here? This isn't inclusive of everyone. He was just overall not stoked with the plans. That were, that were happening.

• 44:34Danielle LaRock?

  And valid points.

• 44:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So that afternoon, he helped draft a petition that was signed by thirty four passengers. Addressed to O'Neill directly, requesting he meet them on the train that night to discuss possible solutions.

• 44:48Danielle LaRock?

  This is very formal.

• 44:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so formal and like, it's eloquent. It's just like, he's like, alright, if we're gonna get things done, we're gonna make a petition. We're gonna form a committee. Like, you know, this guy was like on top of this stuff back home. He was.

• 45:01Danielle LaRock?

  You know this guy was a Capricorn.

• 45:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, had to have been.

• 45:07Danielle LaRock?

  I like his style regardless.

• 45:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, so he sends his formal petition to O'Neill, but O'Neill still didn't show up and it was because he was busy. He was trying to get the rotaries back on course. He was trying to get the trains to be able to get moving, so he never showed up. Uh, but instead he sent someone else, the second in command at Wellington, a train master named Arthur Blackburn, eventually did show up to address them. He initially refused the passenger committee's request for men to be brought up from scenic to help the passengers evacuate on foot. So they had asked for people to come down to help them. He still believed that there was greater risk of being hit by an avalanche um on the trail more than there was where the train was parked. He's like, this train is the safest place to be. Don't go out there.

• 45:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  He was especially resistant to allowing women to undertake the risk. But he did ultimately agree to let a handful of crew members already in Wellington assist male passengers who wanted to hike out the next day. And he promised to take care of the sanitation problems on the train to make people feel happier about their stay there. Even this felt like a victory to the passenger committee. Having finally been heard out by someone in authority, they had lifted spirits and they decided to throw a party. They finally had a plan. They were gonna make it out. And for hours into the night, passengers of all ages played cards, sang and told stories. And it just morale was up. It was like, okay, there's an end in sight. We've got through to him. Like, things are gonna happen.

• 46:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  And many were also making plans to hike out in the morning, ignoring Blackburn's ban on women. There were specifically two solo travelers named Nellie Sharp and Libby Latch, who searched for men's clothing that they could wear to make the trip because they said, no, just because we're women doesn't mean we're gonna sit in a train. Like, we're, we're out of here too.

• 46:54Danielle LaRock?

  Like, we're also gonna get away from here, so.

• 46:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's like we're women and we're totally capable. By 1:15 a.m. on March 1st, everyone had turned in for the night. Around 119 people slept aboard the two trains, including some local workers who believed the trains were safer than their cabins. Then, what felt like out of nowhere, a rare thunderstorm rolled in. The rain and warming temperatures destabilized the snowpack above them. At exactly 1:42 a.m., a massive avalanche broke loose from Windy Mountain and thundered down the slope directly towards the trains. Most passengers were still asleep when the avalanche hit, but some, like Henry White, remembered the exact moment. The shrill sound of all the windows imploding at once, the weightlessness when the avalanche first lifted the trains up,

• 47:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  and then the chaos of plummeting down the mountain into the canyon below. Many of the train cars burst open. Some people miraculously were thrown out of the tumbling cars on the way down and landed unharmed in pockets of snow. Henry White was one of them. But most weren't that lucky. When the tumbling finally stopped, seconds or minutes later, Henry recalled saying, "Everything was still. I expected to hear cries and groans, but I heard nothing. And I knew then that the death toll would be appalling." Townspeople from Wellington were awoken by the loud roars of the avalanche and almost immediately started descending into the dark canyon to help the survivors. The first two were railroad engineers,

• 48:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  who were in such a rush that they forgot to grab any digging tools. They came upon a man and a woman who were still alive, but buried up to their necks in snow. They started frantically trying to dig them out by hand, but in the rainstorm, the snow was quickly becoming hard and compacted. The two engineers climbed back up to Wellington as fast as they could to get shovels, but by the time they had returned, both the man and the woman had died. Other workers came down to help, digging where they saw outstretched hands from the snow or heard people's voices under it. It was a harrowing scene, with detached body parts strewn about the snow. The rescuers were able to save some people, but many others died buried in the canyon. When you're hit by an avalanche, you might think it's hypothermia. would kill you. But if you've listened to some of our other episodes on that,

• 49:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  you would know that a third of avalanche deaths are actually from trauma from hitting things on the way down or being caught in snow and having some type of trauma in that. But often, more often than not, it's actually from suffocation, either being trapped under the snow and running out of oxygen, or having the pressure of tons of snow on your chest, making it impossible to breathe. But in this case, the train wreckage created some large air pockets under the snow that made it possible for some passengers to find a safe space even buried underneath the snow. Back up in town, the sound of the avalanche had woken up the couple that owned the Ballots Hotel. When they came outside, they saw a man climbing up from the canyon, carrying a young boy. It was Ida Starritt's seven-year-old son Raymond.

• 49:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  And remember, I mentioned her at the beginning of the episode. She was traveling with her family. Um, she was going up to Canada because she had recently been widowed and she was thinking about starting a new life in Canada. Her son Raymond had a three-inch piece of wood sticking out of his forehead. He was half-conscious and clearly in pain. The Ballots decided to turn their dining room into a makeshift hospital. A telegrapher, who happened to be the son of a doctor, sterilized a razor and boiling water and cut the wood out of Raymond's head.

• 50:22Danielle LaRock?

  Was it in his skull? I'm confused. How was it three inches long and in his forehead? It's the thinnest skin on your.

• 50:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it seems like it was like lodged into his, like, I don't think it was like fully through his skull. But it was like stuck in it.

• 50:37Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, it was three inches long, but stuck it, not three inches into his.

• 50:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it was three inches long, not three inches into his skull.

• 50:45Danielle LaRock?

  That makes sense.

• 50:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  So that's happening. And then they turn this spot in their hotel into makeshift hospital and it's not long before more people start coming in and they're injured. And they start catering to all of the people who are coming in. People in town knew that they had to get the word out about the avalanche as soon as possible, but all the telegraph lines were down. The only way was by foot. The route to scenic would be especially dangerous in the storm at night as more snow slides threatened to come down at any time. Nonetheless, a train engineer named J J Mackey volunteered and set off. Word of the snowslide finally reached O'Neill and the others at scenic around 8 a.m. Six hours after the avalanche had come down. O'Neill immediately sprung into action, rounding up a group of forty men to hike to Wellington and assist in the rescue.

• 51:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  The telegram lines were down in scenic as well because of the storm. So they also had no way to count to contact outside sources either. Because of this, as soon as O'Neill got this group together, he set off on foot in another direction, taking a nine mile hike to the next town and down the line in hopes of reaching help there. He did arrive at around eleven a.m. and was finally able to send a telegram out for help, unknowing exactly how catastrophic the damage was at that time. By the late morning, back in Wellington, the rescuers had been working tirelessly to pull out survivors from the wreckage, but as the hours continued to go by, the hope of finding more people alive dwindled. It was eleven hours after the avalanche had struck and they had switched gears to make

• 52:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  this a recovery mission. But it was just as they were switching gears that they suddenly heard a cry from underneath the snow and they quickly began digging. Shortly after, they discovered Ida Starrett. She had been pinned beneath a big tree trunk with her infant Francis underneath her, totally buried under the snow. She could barely wiggle her fingers, but she had enough air trapped around her that she didn't suffocate. Tragically, at some point while she was trapped, her baby died in her arms. Ida was going in and out of consciousness during the eleven hours, suffering from hypothermia. It took rescuers several more hours to saw apart the tree Ida was pinned under. Finally, in the afternoon, they freed her. Ida was the last of twenty-three people rescuers found alive.

• 52:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  After that, it turned into a recovery operation.

• 53:02Danielle LaRock?

  So she lost her infant and her other older son? Because Raymond is good, but she had three kids, right?

• 53:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 53:09Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 53:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mm-hmm. And I'll get into that a little bit, too.

• 53:20Danielle LaRock?

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• 54:05Danielle LaRock?

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• 54:50Danielle LaRock?

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• 55:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  At the time, nobody knew exactly how many bodies there would be in the canyon because at the time, they didn't know how many people were asleep on the train that night. Because, as I mentioned earlier, some of the train workers decided to sleep there. So they weren't sure the exact number. To prepare, they turned Wellington Station's baggage room into a makeshift morgue. Some bodies they found were identified right away. Others were mutilated beyond recognition. When the forty men from scenic arrived, they were impressed to find that the survivors in the makeshift hospital were mostly in good shape. Even seven-year-old Raymond was stable despite his head injuries. Perhaps the biggest concern was actually Ida's mental state. Though she was recovering from her hypothermia, she was practically catatonic from shock and trauma.

• 55:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  In addition to feeling her infant Francis die beneath her, at the hospital, she learned that her father and nine-year-old daughter had perished in the avalanche as well.

• 56:07Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, wait, oh.

• 56:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  So her son Raymond is alive.

• 56:12Danielle LaRock?

  Right. Oh, sorry, maybe I thought she had three sons and I was confused. So her daughter and her dad died.

• 56:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes.

• 56:19Danielle LaRock?

  And her infant, and she almost died, and her husband had died like a couple of weeks before.

• 56:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 56:25Danielle LaRock?

  God.

• 56:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's awful. It wasn't until the following afternoon, Wednesday, March 2nd, that O'Neill was finally able to make it back to Wellington to assess the scene himself. At that point, the record-breaking winter storm had finally stopped, but the threat of another avalanche continued to loom overhead. Pushing his emotions to the side, O'Neill joined the rescue efforts down in the canyon. By Thursday afternoon, twenty-nine bodies had been recovered. Over the next week, the number of deceased continued to climb, including in that number was conductor Pettit. Most of the survivors were actually in good enough condition to hike down to scenic to evacuate, but nine of them had serious enough injuries that they needed to continue waiting in Wellington for the railway to be cleared so they could evacuate by train.

• 57:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  Finally, on Thursday, March 10th, the eastern side of the line was cleared and the first train reached Wellington after the avalanche. More than two weeks after leaving Spokane, the nine remaining survivors were brought back to Spokane to be properly Hospitalized. It took another two days before the westward line was finally cleared too. In the days after the accident, journalists and family members of passengers also began to arrive on the scene. The excruciating details of the real story would become known to the public before long. That ninety-six people had perished in the avalanche. On March eighteenth, a formal coroner's inquest was held in downtown Seattle to officially determine whether human fault played a role in the disaster. The survivors were split on whether O'Neill was the hero of the story,

• 57:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  doing the best any man possibly could in impossible circumstances, or if he was the villain who should be personally blamed for every death. The loudest voice in the latter group was Henry White, who adamantly believed that O'Neill could have prevented this tragedy. Ultimately, a jury ruled that the snowslide was beyond human control. However, they added three points of criticism to the verdict, all of which reflected poorly on O'Neill and the Great Northern Railway itself. They thought the trains could and should have been moved to a safer location. They blamed the Great Northern Railway for not having sufficient coal to deal with the emergency. And they believed that the snowshoveler should have been kept at Wellington throughout the crisis regardless of their wages.

• 58:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  So the verdict was basically half blame and half saying it was nature.

• 58:44Danielle LaRock?

  I think I align with that pretty well.

• 58:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I think, I think that if he had at the beginning, if O'Neill had made the call to send them on the longer route, that would have made them delayed. It would have avoided this entire thing, that he sent them through a dangerous spot. But at the same time, he didn't know how bad the storm was gonna be. So, and it wasn't unusual for snow. I do think he should have made the call and not sent them there to begin with. But I also don't think he could have ever known that an avalanche was gonna hit them directly where they were sitting.

• 59:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I, it feels very like, not very, but to me, because I can always connect things back to the Titanic in like a really uncanny way. And I feel like, like, I know, but it's kind of like how captain, the captain. You know, had the iceberg warnings like right in his hand and he pushed forward. And there was like some peer pressure going on with Bruce's May and like a couple other people of like really making headlines and stuff and wanting to push forward at like a high rate of speed regardless of the dangers and there were some other things and stuff and they so they basically had the information but chose to ignore it to try and save time.

• 1:00:00Danielle LaRock?

  And it's the same type of thing. It's like, okay, we know the risks here, but I don't want to delay operations. So we're gonna

• 1:00:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Right.

• 1:00:09Danielle LaRock?

  You know, so it's kind of like that parallel that I

• 1:00:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And if you remember from before O'Neill, this railway, the mail train was this new operation that was hugely profitable and it was their reputation was on the line because they promised under 50 hours and that had been drilled into O'Neill like get this, make sure this train gets here in under 50 hours because that's what's promised.

• 1:00:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So I don't know. When they were kind of going over his, his fault and guilt and the whole thing, he was clearly working hard to deal with the situation and combat it in the ways that he felt he could. And I know there was definitely some, uh, he dropped the ball on a few different things and I wasn't there. But I feel like he, he did the best that he could once he was, I don't know. I don't know then because then he was like, yeah, everyone can go except the women and he lost me there, I guess.

• 1:01:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:03Danielle LaRock?

  So I don't know. I, I just feel like it's hard to pin anything on anyone a hundred percent when there's an element of a natural disaster within it.

• 1:01:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. I mean, they could have never predicted that the avalanche was going to hit the train at the time that they were there and they were sitting there for five days

• 1:01:21Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  in that exact same location. And you know, if they had moved everyone into the hotel, they would have been okay. You know, it's just like, but there's no way that they could have known that. But I think that the biggest part where they really dropped the ball here was when the storm. Was when the storm was in and they had an alternate route that they could take that wasn't through Stevens Pass, which was known for avalanches, which was very well known for avalanches. That wasn't a secret that he decided to still go that way because it was faster. Yeah. And I think that that is the moment where he really dropped the ball. And after that, he did everything he could to mitigate and, and help the situation, but The damage was done. The damage was done. Yeah. The Great Northern Railway offered small sums of money to the families of the workers

• 1:02:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  who had been killed. They offered $1,000, which amounts to about $33,000 in today's money for families of married men and $500 for families of unmarried men. In exchange for signing away their rights to sue or ask for money, they gave them this. It was like, don't sue us. Here's your payout. Conductor Pettit's wife, who now was caring for five children with no source of income, petitioned to increase her payment to $2,500, but the company refused. From the families of the deceased passengers, Great Northern Railway was hit with multiple civil suits alleging negligence. Most of the cases were quietly settled out of court, but one case finally went to trial in 1913, seeking to cast blame on the railway and O'Neill. O'Neill,

• 1:02:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  who at that point had been promoted to Assistant General Superintendent for a much larger territory of Great Northern Lines, um, so he was promoted after the fact of this tragedy, provided a very matter of fact and convincing testimony in defense of his decision making. But Henry White's testimony also made a big impact. The jury ruled in favor of the plaintiff that the victim had died, quote, "through the negligence of the Great Northern Railway and its officers." However, this decision was overturned shortly thereafter in an appeal. So the Great Northern Railway ended up walking away from the deadliest avalanche event in American history without any criminal charges or formal liability. Ida Starrett did end up moving to Canada with her son Raymond and her mother, Mrs.

• 1:03:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  May, who suffered no permanent injuries and lived healthily into her eighties. Ida later moved back to the Seattle area where she ran a grocery store, got remarried, and eventually moved out onto a chicken ranch. She refused to even talk about the accident. She lived to a ripe old age like her mother, but did spend the last years of her life in a wheelchair due to lingering issues from her Wellington injuries. Raymond grew up tall and handsome with a successful career in the Puget Sound Power and Light Company. He had only a few scattered memories of the saga, one being a clog dance that conductor Pettit had performed to entertain the restless kids during their fourth day stuck on the train. But he carried it with him every day in the form of a permanent scar on his forehead.

• 1:04:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Following the disaster, the Great Northern Railway constructed a new cascade tunnel at a lower elevation, bypassing the dangerous stretch of track altogether. It was completed in 1929. The town of Wellington, which has been renamed Tai in an effort to distance it from the tragedy, was eventually abandoned. Nature gradually reclaimed the area. Today Wellington is a ghost town, but the remnants of its history remain, most notably through the Iron Goat Hiking Trail, which traces the Old Northern Line. A few remnants of the town are still visible near the trailhead, but that might not be the only thing that the Wellington tragedy left behind. Some visitors swear that the ghosts of the 96 people who died there on March 1, 1910,

• 1:05:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  still haunt that stretch of Stevens Pass. Hikers have allegedly heard screams and whispers and even felt ghostly hands grabbing at them when they pass through the area. And that is my story of the deadliest avalanche in US history.

• 1:05:18Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, thank you for finally telling it. It's just as terrible as I imagined it would be. And I know that we've gotten a couple people right into us with trail tales of that particular trail. And I think somebody, did we read it? We must have read it years ago. And they attached a photo, do you remember the photo? The of in the looking into the tunnel? And it looks like there's a silhouette of somebody with like, at first it looks like they're swinging something, like an axe or something, but now I'm thinking about it, maybe it's a shovel.

• 1:05:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I do kind of remember that. It was a really long time ago. It was an old, it was probably. Like in our first original email.

• 1:06:00Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, maybe I'll never find it.

• 1:06:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  It was a, I feel like it was one of our beginning trail tale episodes, but I do remember that. Um, and we've gotten a few trail tales from that trail itself.

• 1:06:10Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And it's just, it's a, that's such a crazy story. And I think that it's really unique that you can still hike up to the area where that happened. And I know there's some interpretive signs and stuff up there about the disaster, but of course not in any sort of, um,

• 1:06:30Danielle LaRock?

  grave detail. Yeah.

• 1:06:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:32Danielle LaRock?

  Well.

• 1:06:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. It was a tough one for sure. It's a interesting story and I felt like, I mean, it's one of the worst disasters in US history. I felt like it needed to come onto the podcast at some point. So. All right. Well, thank you everyone for tuning in this week. We hope that you enjoyed. That feels like an awful word to say. But hope you liked learning about this tragedy that happened. Stay safe out there and in the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:06:59Danielle LaRock?

  But watch your back.

• 1:07:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye, everyone.

• 1:07:01Danielle LaRock?

  Bye. Thank you for joining us again this week. If you love National Park After Dark and want to hear exclusive bonus stories, join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. Patreon subscribers have access to our National Park After Dark Book Club, live streams, Discord and much more. If you prefer to watch our episodes, video episodes are now available on YouTube. If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review and subscribe on your favorite listening platform. And to follow along with all our adventures, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X at National Park After Dark.

• 1:07:46Speaker 04

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