Wellington Train Disaster - 1910 by Nancy J. Farrier

As winter weather envelops much of the United States, I am reminded of the Wellington Train disaster, one of the worst train disasters in U.S. history. This natural disaster remains the worst in Washington history.

Wellington before the Avalanche
Technical World Magazine, 1910
Wikimedia Commons

 

In late February 1910, snowfall in the Cascade Mountains delayed two trains traveling from Spokane to Seattle. The Great Northern trains were the Spokane Local, a passenger train, and the Fast Mail train. Between the two they had five or six steam and electrical engines, 15 boxcars, passenger cars, and sleepers. 

 

They were finally cleared to pass through the Cascade tunnel to the west side of the mountains, but were delayed once again when they reached Wellington, Washington. Heavy snowfall and a few smaller avalanches blocked the tracks. The trains stopped under Windy Mountain above Tye Creek. 

 

For six days, the trains waited in whiteout conditions. The weather made it impossible for the crews to clear the tracks. The telegraph lines went down on February 26^th, cutting off communications with the outside world. Then, on February 28^th, an electrical storm moved in, the heavy rain, thunder and lightning shaking the snow-laden mountains.

 

It was after midnight on March 1^st, when the snow on the slope above the trains became an avalanche. The snow picked up momentum as it tumbled down toward the tracks, taking everything with it. The trains were picked up and tumbled down the slope to Tye Creek. 

 

Train wreckage from avalanche, By B.E. Frazier
Library of Congress, Wikemedia Commons

Charles Andrews, a Great Northern employee happened to be on his way to the bunkhouse in Wellington when he heard the rumble of the avalanche. He later described what he saw as, “White Death moving down the mountainside above the trains.” He went on to say, “[The avalanche] descended to the ledge where the side tracks lay, picked up cars and equipment as though they were so many snow-draped toys, and swallowing them up, disappeared like a white, broad monster into the ravine below.”

 

With no way to contact anyone for help, the few Great Northern employees began the laborious task of digging down to the wreckage, which was buried under forty to seventy feet of snow. During the first few hours they were able to rescue 23 survivors.

 

Debris from avalanche, By John Juleen
Technical World Magazine, 1910
Wikimedia Commons

In all, there were 96 deaths from the avalanche, 35 passengers and 58 railroad employees. Recovery took time and the bodies were taken by toboggan to trains that carried them to Everett and Seattle. 

Names of those who died in the avalanche.

 

The town of Wellington was partially destroyed by the avalanche and was renamed, Tye, to distance it from the disaster. Within three weeks, Great Northern had the tracks repaired and trains resumed their travels. In 1913, Great Northern constructed snow-sheds to protect trains from more avalanches. 

Snow sheds in 1911-1913

Snow shed today on hiking trail.

 

What caused this disaster? It was proven in court that the fault was not the railway’s but a natural disaster. However, many believed clear cutting the slopes was a contributing factor, as was the sparks from the trains and the fires they caused. 

 

You can still see wood from one of the Wellington 
buildings destroyed in the avalanche.

A new tunnel was built in 1929, making the old railroad obsolete. Today, the old grade is a hiking trail, the Iron Goat Trail. It was so named after the Great Northern Railway’s symbol of a mountain goat standing on a rock.

Beautiful forest along the trail.

 

Last fall, I visited my daughter in Washington and she took me hiking on one of the Iron Goat trails. It was a beautiful area and there were markers talking about the tragedy of 1910. It’s hard to imagine the people stuck on those trains for days, only to be killed by an avalanche. 

Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.

Wrinkles Be Gone!

 

By Suzanne Norquist

For centuries, women have gone to great lengths to be beautiful. No one wants wrinkles to age their face. Or crow’s feet to accent their eyes. Or a double chin. Or a skinny face.

In the early 1900s, massage techniques and creams to solve these problems abounded.

Consider this advertisement for Pompeian Massage Cream. It challenged the reader to find the forty-year-old chaperone among the group of young women. She held onto her youth and beauty through regular massage with this cream.

The 1910 book Health and Beauty Hints by Margaret Mixter devotes an entire chapter to face and neck massage.

A woman could rub gently and use a flesh-making cream to increase the roundness of the cheeks. Alternatively, she could rub vigorously and use an astringent lotion to remove a double chin or extra flesh through friction.

If only it were that easy.

All that friction explains why witch hazel was an ingredient in the massage cream recipe at the beginning of the chapter. It could dull the pain.

A face massage took at least fifteen minutes. Although, a massage to reduce a double chin took half an hour.

“With attention, the homeliest neck may be made pretty.”

One didn’t even need to buy a book to stay up on the latest beauty tips. Newspapers dispensed similar advice.

In 1907, the Las Animas Leader included a Woman’s Realm section. It shared a variety of articles for women, even beauty tips. It recommended a cheerful disposition and a massage with good skin food (which appears to be a skin cream) to reduce wrinkles. It suggested “expert facial specialists” would use electricity. Yikes!

Barber parlors also offered facial massages to beautify the complexion.

An exciting array of creams promised results. In the February 4, 1894 edition of the Pueblo Chieftain, I found an advertisement for Mrs. Harold’s Marshmallow Cream. It would fill in the hollows in the cheeks and around the eyes. “It is magical in its results and so harmless you could eat it.”

My favorite find was a “machine,” which was basically a rubber straw with a suction cup on the end. A lady would put the cup on her face and suck through the straw to create a vacuum, which was a way of massaging the face to get rid of wrinkles.

“The cup is moved from the center of the face outward and upward while sucking.”

Another device for sale was a massage ball because “No woman wants crow’s feet and forehead wrinkles.” It could make all parts of the face beautiful.

As much as I laugh about these old beauty tips, I must remember what we do today in the name of looking young. When I Googled “massage for double chin” for this blog, I found that I could purchase chin straps with massagers from many big box stores.

Nothing much has changed.

***

”Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection

Four historical romances celebrating the arts of sewing and quilting.

Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist

Rockledge, Colorado, 1884

Sarah seeks a quiet life as a seamstress. She doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers, and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?

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Suzanne Norquist is the author of two novellas, “A Song for Rose” in A Bouquet of Brides Collection and “Mending Sarah’s Heart” in the Thimbles and Threads Collection. Everything fascinates her. She has worked as a chemist, professor, financial analyst, and even earned a doctorate in economics. Research feeds her curiosity, and she shares the adventure with her readers. She lives in New Mexico with her mining engineer husband and has two grown children. When not writing, she explores the mountains, hikes, and attends kickboxing class.

She authors a blog entitled, Ponderings of a BBQ Ph.D.

Where's Dorothy?

Socialite Dorothy Arnold had everything going for her, or so it would seem.

In 1910, the wealthy young woman went shopping on Fifth Avenue in New York City, ostensibly to buy a new dress for her younger sister’s debut ball. She was never seen again.

Dorothy was the daughter of perfume importer Francis Arnold, and she was the niece of Supreme Court Justice Rufus Wheeler Peckham. Her family moved in the highest circles of society. She had a monthly allowance of $100, which was quite a lot in 1910--about $2,500 in today's money. The day

Photo of Dorothy Arnold widely circulated after she disappeared

.

before, she had withdrawn $36 from her account and met some girlfriends for lunch.

Dorothy walked a lot, and the day she disappeared was no exception. From her parents’ home on East 79th Street in Manhattan, she walked about twenty blocks to a candy shop, where she bought a small box of chocolates and took it with her. Then she walked another distance down Fifth Avenue and stopped at a bookstore, Brentano’s, where she was known as a frequent customer. She purchased a book and left.

Just outside the bookshop, she ran into a friend, Gladys King. Gladys had been invited to Dorothy’s sister’s debut, and she was carrying her response card for the event and gave it to Dorothy, joking about the postage she had saved by running into her. They chatted for a few minutes, and Gladys said she was late for a luncheon engagement.

At this point, Dorothy left her and crossed the street. Gladys later said she’d told her that she intended to walk home through Central Park. Gladys set off on her way. At the corner, she looked back and waved. No one ever admitted seeing Dorothy alive again.

When she failed to return home by dinnertime that evening, Dorothy’s parents and siblings were alarmed. They made some discreet telephone calls to friends, but no one could tell them where their daughter was. Being upper-crust social denizens, they didn’t want any publicity. They were worried, but they weren’t ready to involve the police.

Instead, they asked the family lawyer to make some inquiries. When he turned up nothing substantial, they hired a succession of private detectives. Eventually they even hired Pinkerton detectives and plastered the city with notices bearing a picture of Dorothy, but that wasn’t for six weeks.

Odd, you say, to wait six weeks? A lot of people thought that.  When the news broke in January 1911, the media had a feeding frenzy. Sensational headlines appeared across the country. Mr. Arnold offered a $1,000 reward for information that led to finding her. The police followed up on hundreds of supposed sightings of Dorothy--she was kept drugged in Mexico; she was basking on the beach in Hawaii; she was hiding out in disguise. Dorothy seemed to be everywhere, and yet she was nowhere.

Due to space constraints I can’t go into all the details of the case, but I’ll share with you a few of the

Dorothy Arnold--public domain photo

theories on what happened to Dorothy Arnold.

1. She was found to have a boyfriend, George Griscom, Jr. Her parents were very strict with Dorothy, even though she was 24. She managed several trysts with George, and had even spent a week with him in Boston a couple of months earlier, while her parents thought she was visiting a girlfriend. Could she have run off with George? George was still in New York and living with his parents, but once Dorothy’s disappearance made the news, he went to Italy with his folks. Dorothy’s mother and brother traveled to Italy in hopes of finding her there with him, but to no avail. All they got was a packet of love letters from Dorothy, which George handed over to them amid insistence that he knew nothing of her whereabouts.

2. Could she have disappeared intentionally, to start a new life on her own? There’s some basis for this idea. Dorothy was an aspiring writer. She had recently written and submitted two stories to McClure’s Magazine, but they had been rejected. Her father later said he burned her manuscripts. She had mentioned to her father that she would like to move to Greenwich Village and take an apartment there and pursue her writing. Her father forbade it. Was Dorothy determined to get out from under Dad’s thumb and live the Bohemian life?

3. Could she have been kidnapped and/or murdered as she walked through Central Park? Possibly. But no ransom demands were ever received. Among the false leads police received were tales of murdered women. When these were followed up, they were found to be hoaxes or concerned other victims, not Dorothy.

4. Could she have committed suicide? This was a popular theory. Although Dorothy appeared cheerful and upbeat to those with whom she spoke that day, including Gladys King, she was known to have been rejected by the magazine, thwarted by her father, and teased about her writing by her family. Her father also made it clear he had “no use” for men like George Griscom, Jr. George was more than a decade older than Dorothy, considered a playboy who lived with his parents and did not work. Francis Arnold didn’t want him courting his daughter. Was all of this enough to put Dorothy in despair? If so, why did nobody say she seemed depressed?

5. Could she have died as the result of surgery? Some speculated that Dorothy had undergone a back-alley abortion and died as a result. Six years after she vanished, a Rhode Island convict claimed he’d been paid $150 back in December 1910 to dig a grave for a wealthy young woman who had died after a “secret operation.” He said a wealthy young man had paid him. Police searched for the grave but never found Dorothy’s remains. Most people concluded the burial story was another hoax.

One thing that has always left people wondering was a sentence Dorothy penned in a note to herself which said something along the lines of “Mother would always think it was an accident.” Was this a foreshadowing of suicide? Of disappearing from her unhappy home life? Or did it refer to something more innocuous, such as the possibility of being published in an upscale magazine? The mystery of Dorothy Arnold’s disappearance remains unsolved. Much more about this case can easily be found online.

My novel The Priority Unit involves the disappearance of a man. To enter a drawing to win this book, comment below and be sure to leave your contact information. Since this is Book 1 in a series, if you’ve already read The Priority Unit, you can choose any later book in the series if you wish.

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than seventy novels and novellas. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and two Will Rogers Medallions, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. A Maine native, she lived for a while in Oregon and now lives in Kentucky. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com , where you can sign up for her occasional newsletter and read a short story on her romance page.

Ranch Photos Women and Chores

As promised, this post continues my series of early 1900 photos of an Alberta ranch, all photographed by the ranch owner, Hugh Beynon Biggs and available for online viewing through the Glenbow Archives in Calgary. You can see the other posts in this series here:Feb 5, 2016 - Alberta Ranch Winter Photos
Mar 5, 2016 - Riding Side Saddle

While going through the collection, I found that Mrs. Mabel Biggs is the subject of most of the photographs, although she is not officially named as such. The photos on this post show women working, mothering, and relaxing on a ranch in the Drumheller region of Alberta.  

I've always been fascinated with the way women cared for their children through the years before all the safety features were introduced. Of course, there were many dangers, but parents did what they could with what was available at the time. In this first image, you see the woman I suspect to be Mabel Biggs and her daughter on the doorstep of their ranch house. (This canyon will turn out to be a 1970's location shoot for one of the Superman movies, which I'll expand on in my next post.)

Woman with baby, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1907-1910 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Washing clothes was essential, but also a danger when parents didn't have older children or baby gates to keep little ones from falling into wash or rinse tubs. This image is quite different as it shows a wringer washer in parts. However, the woman in this photo is not wearing the fashionable clothes we see in the other photos and I wonder from the look on her face in the photographer got in a spot of trouble for taking this one. 

Woman washing clothes, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1910 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

This next posed image is one of several which show ranch life in action. In this one, the woman is feeding some chickens on the ground, while the one in her arms ignores the corn kernels on her lap and goes right for the bucket beside her. I would have liked to see this in color to check the breed, but I'm guessing the chickens are of the dual-purpose Barred Rock (also called Plymouth Rock) variety which originated in the New England area of the United States.

Woman with chickens, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Although there isn't a woman in this next photo, I wanted to show that they also raised Narragansett turkeys, a heritage breed developed in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and one which is still common with heritage breeders today. 

Chickens and Turkeys, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Cutting wood into firebox-size lengths was a real chore and a job carried out by both genders as the need arose. Most wood was harvested in the winter months and left to season for a year before cutting. Although I've never used a bucksaw like the woman in this photo, I am quite adept at using an ax to chop my share of wood and kindling. Note what looks like a full-cover apron as she tackles this chore. 

Woman cutting wood, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Here we see the whole family berry picking. Looks like the flies or sun might be bothering the child in the middle, but it's the infant's tongue that makes me smile. This is a great photograph of an early 1900's ranching family.

Family group berry picking, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1910 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Here's another image I wish we could see in color. The caption reads that the woman is cutting hay, but it looks like a crop of oats to me. Therefore, she's either cutting the oats when they're green to use as green-feed, or they are a golden color and ready to be harvested. Regardless, this is a job either gender--and most ages can do. Last summer as I drove through a community where horse power was still in use, I saw several people mowing hay and more than one person was nodding off as the horses plodded along. 

Woman haying, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta. 

ca 1907 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Usually, the woman would ride with the children in the wagon, but a few of the images show women riding what appears to be heavy horses usually reserved for driving and field work. The 2 women are riding sidesaddle and are not wearing hats. I wonder if they rode onto the ridge or stayed in the valley.

Women on horseback, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta.

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

This next image of the woman posing on a buck-and-rail fence shows the beauty of the landscape. What's interesting in this photograph is where the right side shows a parasol or umbrella and a chair or two. 

Woman on fence, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta.

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

I debated whether to include this image because it is so obviously posed and simply shows a man taking a photograph of a woman, yet it seems so personal. They could be alone with no one around for miles and who knows what they've seen, what they've been doing, or what they talk about...but they'll always have this image to remember the day. 

Woman, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta.

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Finally, I need your help on this last one. At first I thought the woman was gardening, except the ground appears too rocky. It looks like the top right corner of the image might be showing a fallen over tree so that we're looking at the root system, but if that's the case she can't grow anything with all those roots. And look at the wooden bucket beside her...what is she collecting? I thought perhaps mushrooms, but they don't look the right shape. Or maybe she's planting something?

Woman, Springfield (Biggs) ranch, near Beynon, Alberta.

ca 1900 Courtesy of Glenbow Museum Archives, Calgary, Alberta

Does anyone want to guess what she is doing in the above photo? There are no wrong answers and I'd sure like to know.

Okay, that's it for this installment of images featuring women (and turkeys) on the Springfield (Biggs) Ranch in Alberta.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on any of these pics, and I'll be back next month with some cowboy shots. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anita Mae Draper's stories are written under the western skies where she lives on the prairie of southeast Saskatchewan with her hubby of 30 plus years and the youngest of their four kids. When she's not writing, Anita enjoys photography, research, and travel, and is especially happy when she can combine the three in one trip. Anita's current release is Romantic Refinements, a novella in Austen in Austin Volume 1, WhiteFire Publishing, January 2016.  Anita is represented by Mary Keeley of Books & Such Literary Management. You can find Anita Mae at  www.anitamaedraper.com

Austen ~ in ~ Austin Volume 1

WhiteFire Publishing

Discover four heroines in historic Austin, TX,

as they find love--Jane Austen style. 

Each of the four Texas-set novellas is based on a Jane Austen novel. 

Romantic Refinements by Anita Mae Draper

is the Texas-style version of

Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility...

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A  misguided academy graduate spends the summer falling in love . . . twice.