| Show t qETALTAHOKEtOR I The DIeOver Ajalanclie J Sweeps Over the Town lw If KILLING iSIXT EN PERSONS in the the Houses DemolishIng all Tlace but Seven A Terrible Disaster This > city was thrown into the greatest fever of excitement yesterday it bas experienced ex-perienced for years by the receipt of the startling intelligence that the town I of Alta had been visited by a suowslide the like of which had never before swooped I swoop-ed down upon the people of thatillfated camp The first intimation Tcceivcd was a dispatch from Wasatch sent by H C Wallace of the firm of Tncker Wallace to the folio wins effect Wvsvrcir February UAta quarter quar-ter past 8 last night snowslide through Alta destroying thre fourths of the town and killing sixteen persons including in-cluding five children Full particulars I tonight H C J WMUCK Eager iiiquines were at once begun by people having friends in or about Alta ana their fears and anxiety increased as the day wore on and no furtherinformn tion had been received further than the dispatch above noted A short time after the receipt of the first dispatch another one from Mr Wallace was I brought to the store of Kahn hires which read Send word to Mrs Wallace at once that I am all right will be in tonight by the Utah Central train A snowslide came last night and destroyed Alta Sixteen persons were kiled The Emma and Vallejo are gone Our store was slightly damaged Strickleys the same also Sicklers 2he balance of the town is gone > In addition to the above the names til those known to have been killed by the I slide were also sent They are James Watson Andrew 3 White Barney Gilson Mrs Ford arid child Jerry Reagan David P Vance Tim Madden Fred Cullinan Matthew Hickey four of Ed Ballous children and two Chinamen I A reporter of THE HERALD awaited the arrival of the Utah Central depot last evening anxious to learn from Mr Wallace on his arrival as many of the particulars of the dire calamity as possIble That gentleman accompanied by George Moore and Leonard Merrill stepped off the trains as soon as it stopped and Allj three were instantly surrounded by anxious people who plied them with inquiries thick and fast concerning the condition and whereabouts of friends at the scene of the disaster Rapid and confused questions and replies were mingled and mixed so that none aside from those putting and receiving them could gain any satisfactory idea of the true status of affairs at Alta Thathree gentlemen soon boarded a conveyance and were driven to the Clift House where Moore and Merrill put up and Mr Wallace proceeded to Ins home Later in the evening a HERALD reporter called upon the gentlemen at the hotel and learned from them the following details which 15 understood by those who have been interested in similar disasters in times gone by will furnish an idea of the immensity of the avalanche The gentlemen mentioned Alta on snow shoes yesterday morningat 930 oclock reaching Wasatch soon after 2 from which point they traveled in a sleigh to the railroad The first intimation Mr Moore had of the slide was while he was at work in the Emma being on the night shift The wind occasioned by the descent of the snowwas of such force that it ex inguished the light which he carried while at work He knew afr oncewhat was the matter having passed through n similar experience in the slide of a year ago The extent of the avalanche covered more ground than any before known of in that district Starting below the Flagstaff it stretched up as far as Grizzly and nothing in its wake was left Qn the hillsides except u the Emma works tile smoKestacK oniy 01 wiai institution being carried away Otherwise Other-wise it was a clean sweep for a distance tlr t about a mile It was dark and stormy when the deathanddestruc tion < dealing mass descended and nothing could be done until morning At daylight yesterday morning the spectacle of devastation and rum Beggared description Of the many buildings in the main part of the town only seven were left standing I These were Strickleys store Rowe s butcher shop Charles Collins house Dr Simmons house Wallaces store Charles Sicklers saloon and Fitz geralds house The Vallejo tramway the railroad office and sheds ore houses I and other buildings on the Emma hill were swept off and carried to the opposite I op-posite side of the canyon Albert Thomas was in his hotel together with Morgan Richards a man named Fuge and his cook but all except the last mentioned miraculously escaped the slide striking his house and badly crushing it The only two bodies taken out before I our informant left were James Watson t 1 and Mrs Ford both dead Mr Ford managed to extricate himself from bet be-t neath the snow but was very badly I bruised aboutthe head andface having been struck by the timbers of ins dwelling dwell-ing At the time the trio left they counted thirtynine survivors and sixteen dead Ten men were engaged in digging for those buried beneath the snow but a 1 large force would be on the ground by noon yesterday from the mines on the i Emma hill and Grizzly flat A meeting was talked of last evening among property owners in the devastated devas-tated district but it was thought it would not be held until JMonday The object would be the raising subscriptions subscrip-tions for those who suffered loss by tne i calamity furnish means to bury the j dead and prosecute the search forthose 1 buried by the slide The tale of horror of those who have I witnessed similar catastrophes in the past in that camp will not equal those I I which will be heard of the dire event of Friday evening The II magnitude of the slide the extent I of ground swept over tbr destruction of property and the hniyinc into I eternity of men women anti children with all their imperfections on their heads are themes which a simple recital re-cital of will start the tears to the eyes of hardy stern men who realize the I effects of an avalanche like the one a1 = just dhronicled The destnlcuon of mining property will doubtlessretard operations in some of the leading properties 1 pro-perties the district for sqme time |
