Feared Lost in the Wellington Avalanche, a Newport Operator Writes Home
City Clerk Britton's brother was reported missing after the deadliest avalanche in U.S. history. He was actually in an Everett hospital and has returned to duty.
Harvey Britton, brother of City Clerk Britton, who was operator for the Great Northern at Wellington, scene of the big avalanche, and who, it was feared, was lost in the disaster, has been heard from. He was in a hospital at Everett at the time of the slide, but has now returned to duty at Wellington.
“He was in a hospital at Everett at the time of the slide, but has now returned to duty at Wellington.”
The Wellington avalanche killed 96 people in March 1910, burying two trains at Stevens Pass. This brief item shows how national disaster news reached Newport as a family worry—and how a local clerk's relief became public news. Today, regional disasters still bind small towns to distant mountain passes.
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