100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: Deep snow causes havoc in train travel

From our archives,

100 years ago

The region’s nasty winter kept getting worse. In fact, the railroads were declaring it to be the worst winter in their history.

Trains were “half-buried” in snow drifts all over the region. One freight train was stalled for 18 hours at Creston, Washington. Another was stalled at Reardan awaiting a rotary snowplow.

A snowplow was stuck in a deep drift near Fairfield. When a railroad crew attempted to dig the plow out, two men suffered frostbite. The entire crew had to retreat into the warm train cars “until the weather changed” or another rotary plow arrived.

Trains were delayed for many hours south of Spokane.

The mountains east of Spokane were also hit hard. The Milwaukee Road trains through the Bitterroot Mountains (through the St. Paul Tunnel) were running up to 12 hours late. A Great Northern train became “blockaded” in the mountains and arrived 16 hours late.

On most routes, “schedules were entirely disrupted and a good many passenger trains did not operate.”

Adding to the problems, many of the telephone and telegraph wires were down in the Bitterroots. A massive slide buried tracks near St. Regis, Montana. Helena reported a temperature of 35 below zero.

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(From the Associated Press)

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