Jasper County Democrat, Volume 1, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1899 — SWEPT TO DEATH. [ARTICLE]

SWEPT TO DEATH.

Avalanche at Silver Plume, Colorado, Claims Twenty-four Victims. A snowslidc, one of the most disastrous over known in the Clear Creek country, occurred at Silver Plume. Twenty-four lives are believed to have been lost. The dead are Italian miners, with their families. The slide started two miles away, and came with terrific force, carrying along huge bowlders and immense trees. A short distance from the starting point the avalanche parted, one section coming down Cherokee Gulch, taking with it two cabins occupied by Italians and the shafthouse of the Cary City mine. The other slide came down Willihan Gulch, between the Pelican and the Seven Thirty mines. The intersection did the most damage. Settlements of miners, mostly Italians, were situated in both gulches. For several days the inhabitants had moved from place to place to escape threatened disaster, should the mountains of snow start down the mountain sides. Some lingered in their homes aud were carried away in the slide.