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

by Gary Krist

Book Overview

"Krist does wonders . . . [He] describes the frantic rescue efforts . . . and the malevolent, unending storm. In a thrilling, climactic chapter, he conjures forth the avalanche."--The New York Times

In February 1910, a monstrous, record-breaking blizzard hit the Northwest. Nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved:...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805083294
• ISBN13: 9780805083293
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Great historical perspective of a forgotten catastrophe...

Don't know why I was prompted to pick this book up...my husband is in a search and rescue group, so that was partly the reason. I read the info given on the back of the book, and having grown up in Northern CA and being a voracious reader, I thought I should have heard about this one transportation disaster. My father was born up in Washington, but somehow this one has faded from national consciousness. What really struck me about this book is the straightforward writing of the author, Krist. He doesn't sensationalize, as some other books on disasters tend to do. He is honest and reflective, gives the reader all the information on both sides, and lets them draw their own conclusion. I especially enjoyed the information about the court trials and the aftermaths. We can dislike the typical corporate image that continues to run big companies (only now they are the pharmaceuticals who could care less...), but we also recognize that the men who dealt at the closest part of the railway with this disaster most probably did as good a job that could have been done. Unlike the Titanic, where there were some very dismaying behavior by many who were at the helm of the boat and the company, most of the rail workers, especially the superintendant who oversaw the whole week of work around this avalanche were hardworking and gallant, who did make a few mistakes but nothing overt. By showing us how the courts handled this particular case, plus the information that came from the newspapers that did sensationalize this happening, Krist lets us see why we have come full circle to another place that if this case were tried today, it would have ended very differently for the company. Krist makes a good case for why the ending verdict was probably right (but probably would not have been reached in this era of lawsuits we are currently in). However, he also points out the impact that this case and other transportation disasters of that time had on labor and safety laws in this country. He draws a good diagram for the reader for why this trainwreck led to our current safety requirements and the change in attitudes of people towards corporations that were in control during that time period. Now we need to turn our eyes to the corporations that are currently out of control in ours...perhaps Krist would like to take some of them on? Karen Sadler

Well Done

I agree with the other reviewers. This book is historic retelling done with a novelists flair. There is amazing detail and the characters are presented with balance. The author does a good job of presenting the way of life in 1910. I appreciated the detailed notes on the source of the material . Living in the foothills of the Cascades, I was dimly aware of this disaster, but after reading this book, I plan on hiking the original railbed - now part of the Iron Goat Trail - to Wellington this summer and see for myself what occured there nearly a century ago.

History in the Novelist's Hand

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

The Great Train Disaster

We hear of avalanches now and then, taking to their deaths skiers or climbers, but as disasters they are these days relatively small scale. That was not the case on the night of 1 March 1910, when bizarre weather in the Cascade Mountains of Washington State brought down an avalanche that was half a mile wide. In its path were two trains pinned in by the snowstorms, and the cars were hurled down a mountain. The official death count was 96, although the number is an estimate, and the toll on the wounded and on the rescuers cannot be tallied. Gary Krist, whose previous books have been fiction, has become a historian of this disaster, telling it with a novelist's skill in _The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche_ (Henry Holt). The disaster was not, as Krist modestly admits, the "Avalanche That Changed America", because it was in many ways just one aspect of changes that were happening in railroading at the time anyway. It remains, however, a gripping tale of human endeavor against natural forces; it is all historical fact, but Krist has produced a page-turner. Krist dutifully sets up the scenes in the mountains with historical context. In 1910, railroads made the American economy, and they had changed the American Northwest forever. The representative of the Great Northern Railway, the Superintendent of the Cascade Division was James H. O'Neill, in many ways the flawed hero of the book. He was a lifetime railroad man, "a precociously shrewd manager with seemingly inexhaustible reserves of drive and will." His were the responsibilities of the tracks, stations, buildings, and the movements of the trains through his region, a major mountain crossing that got an average of fifty feet of snow a year. The late February snow was bad enough to stop two trains, the Seattle Express and the Fast Mail, in transit between Spokane and Seattle. The passengers on the trains were at first merely annoyed by the delay. The passengers were kept fairly well in their cars; there was no lack of food, and though there was worry about having enough coal to move trains around, there was always sufficient coal to keep the cars warm. They socialized, and the porters and conductor circulated, trying to keep the passengers' spirits up, but cabin fever eventually set in. The tracks at the little trainyard town of Wellington had never been subject to avalanches as had others in the area, and indeed, avalanches at other parts of the tracks soon sealed the trains where they were. Early in the morning of 1 March, an avalanche came down the mountain, carrying all the cars with it, and smashing them to bits. The chapter on the avalanche itself is only sixteen pages, but it is followed by descriptions of the excruciating steps that O'Neill and his team took to rescue the few survivors, and then to recover bodies. The press, which had taken an exuberant and morbid interest in the case, printed absurdities like reports of