1892 Storm Washes Out Northern Pacific Rail Lines
A catastrophic deluge wrecks infrastructure and bridges across the Cascades, isolating Yakima as the Yakima River rises three feet in a day.
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.
For several days during the past week through trains on the Northern Pacific have been tied up, owing to landslides, washouts and bridgeless streams, the result of a rainfall, the like of which has never been known by the oldest settler. The first intimation that there was trouble with the railroads was received on Friday through the non-entrance of the eastbound train. A big slide of a thousand yards of dirt on the west side near Stampede tunnel was the reported cause of the detention. The loss on the west side is incalculable, as the railroads were not only heavy losers, but county bridges were carried off and great stretches of country were transformed into lake beds, notably the Duwamish, Snohomish, White, Black and Stuck river valleys.
“The loss on the west side is incalculable... great stretches of country were transformed into lake beds.”
This event highlights the precariousness of early mountain transit and irrigation infrastructure. The 1892 floods serve as a reminder of the historical volatility of the Yakima River, an ongoing concern for modern flood plain management in the valley.
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