Rensselaer Democrat, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 June 1898 — A Letter from Alaska. [ARTICLE]

A Letter from Alaska.

Marcus Biinn formerl y of Carroll county writes a letter dated May. 2, from Copper City, Alaska, which is published in the Delphi SemiWeekly Times and will be of interest to our readers, the letter is as follows: “I wrote to you over a week ago but had no chance to send it on account of the terrible weather we have been having. A number are going back home, and I will send this by them to Seattle. We have been in a terrible snow storm since last Tuesday evening. The wind blew and the snow was very light until Saturday evening and then about three feet more of snow had fallen on top of the seven feet already on the ground. About six o'clock the snow began to fall in large flakes, the air was very still, and the snow was almost like water. We. went to bed about 9 o’clock, but in a little while a man rushed along crying for us to rush out as a snow slide was .coming. We were out of our sleeping bags and out of doors in a moment, but by this time, the worst was over and it had stopped a short distance from our tent. It was about 200 feet wide and when it crossed the trail it caught several hundred tons of provisions and 15 or 20 tents. Ppor fellows they were buried from ’Oto 15 feet. Soon hundreds of men were at work and in less than a half hour they were all out, but two of them were dead. We stayed up all night and as soon as it was light moved about half a mile further out on the flat. We had a hard time to find our provisions; the slide had covered them about 7 feet, but we put on snow shoes, took a long pole and hunted in the snow until we found them. This took us all day and when we went to bed that night we thought we were safe, but another snow slide came and covered the trail, the other one had mad£. with about 100 feet more on each

side. Six men were buried, but none killed. missed us about 50 feet. The camp was in a terrible condition this morning; l,«500 people in it. and no one knew -where to go for safety. The snow fell so fast it was blinding, and the slides rushed down the mountains, roarlike thunder. We couldn’t go ahead on account of the blinding snow, and to turn back impossible. Every tent was out of wood, and about half of them had lost their provisions and clothing. This is one time I woubl have sold my outfit—but I couldn’t have gotten ten cents for it. About 9 o'clock a m., the clouds cleared away and for the first time for a week we could see th? mountain that caused the trouble. We will be in the timber in a few days if it quits raining. But if it doseii’t I suppose we will have more slides before morning. I will write again as soon as possible, but it is awfully hard to get any mail sent from here.