Massive Landslide Blocks Black River Junction
A major mudslide, nearly forty feet long, halts railroad traffic near the Black River, forcing passengers to transfer around the site during a heavy rainstorm.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A very large landslide about three-fourths of a mile north of Black River Junction last evening completely blocked railroad traffic for several hours. The slide was from thirty to forty feet long, twenty feet wide, and from six to ten feet deep. A close estimate placed the amount of mud on the track at 1,500 to 2,000 yards. The Northern Pacific got a gang of fifty or sixty men at work, and made good progress clearing the track. All trains had to transfer their passengers around the slide. Both Black river and White river are bank full, and are likely to get over the bank during the night.
“It was raining hard, and the outlook was that more of the hill would come down.”
The geology of the Puget Sound region remains notoriously prone to landslides, especially during the heavy autumn and winter rains. Infrastructure projects still frequently face the same challenges of slope instability that interrupted transit at Black River Junction over a century ago.
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