A Hillside Fell Into the Columbia—and Took the Railroad With It
Forty acres of mountain slid into the Columbia near Marcus, wrecking miles of the Spokane Falls & Northern and cutting Stevens County off from its markets.
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.
MARCUS, June 20.—[Special.]—The Columbia River at this point is gradually getting back to its former self, but the path of destruction along its shores has proved to be wide and deep. In many places the hillsides have been washed under, and many acres of earth have been launched into the river. About one mile above this place, at the time the flood was at its highest, about forty acres of the mountains went into the river at one fell swoop, carrying a large section of the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway with it. At this point over three miles of the roadbed has been destroyed more or less in this way, and so utterly impracticable has it rendered the roadway at this place that it may be necessary to build about fifteen miles of railway to get around the difficulty. It has been a very unfortunate thing for Stevens County that the Spokane & Northern has been also unfortunate, for the reason that the Canadian Pacific has been so seriously damaged by the Fraser floods that it will have to draw largely from the Colville valley for supplies while in course of reconstruction. The same will be true of the mining regions of the Kootenai country, but the Stevens County farmers will have to haul forty miles to the steamer landing at Northport or miss the chance to market their produce. The approaches to the great Spokane Falls & Northern Railway bridge at Waneta have been swept out by the high water, and the iron bridge itself has been seriously injured. The railway company will have to wait until the waters in the Pend d'Oreille River go down before the bruises and track can be repaired. Between Waneta and Northport the river has washed down a large section of the railway track, and the roadbed will have to be established over an entirely new route. It is probable that Mr. P. C. Corbin, the president of the road, will put on a system of transfer boats from Metaline to Waneta, a distance of about forty-five miles, and thus keep up connection with the northern mining regions.
“About forty acres of the mountains went into the river at one fell swoop, carrying a large section of the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway with it.”
The 1894 Columbia flood did more than wash out track: it cut off Stevens County farmers and miners from markets and forced a railroad to consider a long detour around a vanished hillside. Modern Washington still plans around the same tension between river, rail and rural access.
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