Snohomish Historical Society, Quarterly Newsletter for Members Winter 1998 pp 2, 3 QUOTED AS FOLLOWS: BIG SNOW?!. . . . . If you've heard anything about this coming winter, you've probably heard that it is going to be bad. Some reports had this coming winter being "the worst in 40 to 50 years." I was curious just how bad the really bad winters of the past hjad been. One report had them as delivering 6 to 10 feet of accumulated now! I delivered myself to the Northwest Room of the Everett Public Library on a mission. There are several notably bad winters on record in this area: 1879, 1893, 1916-17, and 1949-50. Dave Dilgard* indicated the winter of 1916-1917 had captured the bad news headlines for several reasons. He directed me to the specific articles then I sat down to read about them, and news in general, in the December 1916 through February 1917 editions of the Everett Daily Herald. Winter starts out mildly enough with nothing much out of the ordinary in December. Beginning with the first of the new year however, cold moved in along with snow. The novelty of the white stuff was reported good naturedly, at first. The papers report skating on the Snohomish River, and bobsledding parties; and there are instructions to motorists on how to manage traction, skids and hills. But in general, it appears people enjoyed the novelty of a chage of scenery. And the snows were not deep. Reports had the several snow falls that occured in the valley between a light snow, up to 6 inchjes, with slight warming and melting between storms. By the fourth week of Janu8ary 1917, the snow and cold is being reported with a certain impatience. Snow was reported graciously as "the beautifu" and "the fleecy flakes" where today these desciptions would cast doubt on the reporter's objectivity. But there is a less charitable undertone as well. On January 24 the Herald is full of bad winter news. In Snohomish's "Special to Daily Herald" report, the headline read "Winter's Big Comeback Proves Big Surprise." The reporter wrote "Snohomish might as well be called 'snow home' for the flaky substance began falling at 8 o'clock yesterday morning and when it ceased in the afternoon it was five inches deep, though considerable had melted before the snow stuck to the ground." In addition, the temperatures dropped to 13 degrees (F) and at noon was still several degrees below freezing. Pipes burst, sleighs were brought out. . . again, and people shovedled the walks. With every snowfall, people were being regularly reminded to remember the birds with seed. One story from Snohomish reported "a little song bird seemingly knew that food could be secured at Sydman's, although the grain there is only for game birds, and flew against the door stunning itself. The little feathered creature was taken inside, where it has regained its strength and still makes its home, roosting in a large rubber tree in the ice cream parlor." The big news on January 24th, however, was from the Cascades where several avalanches of immense accumulations of snow closed the rail lines and derailed a Burlington Northern train, killing 8 passengers. It was two days before the lines were cleared for train traffic, and three before the last body was recovered. January 31st delivered a final storm for the month. Skating ceased until the snow could be removed from the lakes. And, good news; at the close of January there were no fuel shortages expected. One novelty was reported from Gold Bar on January 31. "The Valley lSuppy company has finished cutting and storing 40 tons of ice. A number of residents have filled ice houses also. The ice is cut from the Gold Bar Lumber companys mill pond and has an average thickness of ten inches, perfectly clear." Most residents had never cut and stored ice before and "the Valley Supply company found difficulty in securing the services of men who know anything whatever about the business." The month of January closed with a tabulation of weather statistics. Snow falls totalling 2 feet, a low temperature of 7 degrees (F) above zero, and a high of 37 degrees (F). "On only two days was the lowest tempoerature above the freezing point." February 1st brought more snow to an existing base in Snohomish. A twenty foot bobsled, carrying "15 younk folk" hit the streets towed by an automobile. The snow ruined skating, but there was some speculation the Snohomish Rover would freeze again which would provide fresh, smooth ice. This snow fall also brought record breaaking snowfall to the Cascades. Seven feet of snow fell in twelve hours. Trains discontinued service because slearing the track was futile. At its highest point in the Cascades there were 19 feet of snow on the Great Northern line. More snow on February 2nd was adding to a growing accumulation and people were being warned to remove snow from building. Buildings were beginning to collapse under the weight of 15 inches of new snow over an existing base. Snohomish was recalling the deep snow of 1879 which had a recorded depth of 3 feet. On February 2 there was 3 feet on the ground in Snohomish and piles of cleared and drifted snow over 5 and 6 feet lining both sides of the streets. "Traffic has stopped. A Northern Pacific train is expected, from Seattle this afternoon. It may come, it may not. Attempts made to run the Skykomish local on the Great Northern have thus far failed. . . Schools are closed. All mills and logging cmps are shut down. A fuel shortage has made ita appearance. In some cases, families are 'doubling up'." The trouble was not fuel supplies, but delivery. On February 3, slightly warmer weather was expected. On February 4 this along with a flood tide delivered a spectacular know out punch: "Almost the entire mosquito fleet on the Snohomish River was wiped out early this morning when the flood tide, swept up the river, carrying with it the ice and logs which have jammed the stream above the Everett Avenue bridte for three days, stripping both shores, carrying before it boats and boathouses with resistless force. "Between 20 and 30 fishing boats and pleasure launches were crushed to kindling, some sinking in the river and others caught in the jam. ... The tide swept up the river about 3 o'clock this morning, and on the ebb between 6 and 7 o'clock this morning, the huge mass of ice, snow and logs, and wrecks of boats and boathouses was swept back again. The jam held again, and early this afternoon about a quarter mile of ice, logs and snow with several wrecks visible above the surface, was jammed above the bridge, awaiting the flood tide lat this afternoon which would send the mass up the river again." This was winter in early 1917. It didn't make 6 to 10 feet of accumulated snow but it probably made 6 to 10 feet of total snowfall. Whatever, it was certainly bad enough. Can we beat it this year? Let's not try. END OF QUOTED ARTICLE, UNSIGNED, but may have been written by Jan Lengenfelder, Pres. of SHS. * Dave Dilgard, very proficient Librarian at Everett Public Library's Northwest Room; historian extraordinaire of Local and NW ,and Indian (Nat. Amer.) History - a veritable goldmine of resources for history and anthropoligy of Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest. Dave was very helpful to me when I was doing gen. research in the 1980s, finding the NW Room to be full of excellent sources for research, as well as the Library's historical resources other than the NW Room. It was really the History, and the NW Room of the older library that I was able to really get going and have success "playing clues" and discovering my Clark Family, since I had no brothers or sisters, no living relatives that I knew of - as far as I knew they were all buried in the Kent, WA cemetery. Shortly, I was able to find 130 of them down along the Columbia River who met annually since 1934 when I was 10 yrs old, yet I did not know of them. Everett Public Library was very helpful in allowing me find my roots, some buried, many alive. The 1983 Clark- Sorensen Reunion on the Columbia River meets annually. If I had been able to go this year, I would have been the only Clark by that surname there, as they are Clarks by birth - females. The last Clark elder to me died this past year in his 90s. Carroll of Snohomish, member in good order. * * * 30 * * * ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]