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You think you've got it bad trudging uphill in the snow every day to work and back? Just imagine you're stuck inside one of two trains trapped in the Cascade Mountains during a catastrophic blizzard... and then an avalanche hits! The only thing more astonishing than this little-known true incident that occurred in 1910 is Krist's spellbinding book about it. Just when you think you've read the most horrific, jaw-dropping, and intense page you'll ever lay eyes upon, you turn the page... and somehow it gets worse! A definite must-read for lovers of true disaster stories. Recommended by Hank, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
The never-before-told story of one of the worst rail disasters in U.S. history in which two trains full of people, trapped high in the Cascade Mountains, are hit by a devastating avalanche.
In February 1910, a monstrous blizzard centered on Washington State hit the Northwest, breaking records. The world stopped — but nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved minute by minute: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned without escape, their railcars gradually being buried in the rising drifts. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men — led by the line's legendarily courageous superintendent, James O'Neill — worked round-the-clock to rescue the trains. But the storm was unrelenting, and to the passenger's great anxiety, the railcars — only shelter — were parked precariously on the edge of a steep ravine. As the days passed, food and coal supplies dwindled. Panic and rage set in as snow accumulated deeper and deeper on the cliffs overhanging the trains. Finally, just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred: the earth shifted and a colossal avalanche tumbled from the high pinnacles, sweeping the trains and their sleeping passengers over the steep slope and down the mountainside.
Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a supremely dramatic and never-before-documented American tragedy. An adventure saga filled with colorful and engaging history, this is epic narrative storytelling at its finest.
Review:
"In a briskly paced and vividly written account, novelist Krist (Bad Chemistry) relates the tale of two trains, trapped on the tracks in Washington's Cascade Mountains in February 1910, that were subsequently swept away by the deadliest avalanche in American history. With a wealth of end notes attesting to the scope of his research, Krist complements his thorough recreation of events with telegrams, journal entries and newspaper clippings. He also does an elegant job of evoking the hubris that led to the crisis, the claustrophobia and panic of those who endured it and the misery of those left to deal with its aftermath, from the devastated relatives to the Great Northern Railway officials whose trains, Krist writes, were supposed to be 'the ultimate symbols of twentieth-century America's new mastery over its own geography and climate.' The tragedy gains resonance from Krist's avoidance of hyperbole, as he chooses instead to draw out the emotional toll by focusing on individual stories like that of Ida Starrett, who was the last person to be rescued but who was trapped in the snow atop her own dying baby. As a novelist, he also displays a keen sense for the telling of the story itself and the importance of balancing detail with pace." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"'The Wellington Disaster was not ... the "Avalanche That Changed America,"' Gary Krist concedes with appealing frankness near the end of his book about America's deadliest avalanche. After all, 'only' 96 passengers and crew died in the 1910 slide that descended on two snowbound trains in Washington's Cascade Mountains. In his first foray into nonfiction, novelist and short story writer Krist proves... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review) that you don't need an epoch-altering event — a Katrina or a Dust Bowl — to make an engrossing disaster narrative. In the hands of such a skilled and respectful writer, a weeklong, late-winter snowstorm, stalled trains, and a cast of ordinary, unlucky people are more than enough to keep us turning pages. Before letting things rip in the mountains, Krist briskly sketches in some useful background and context. At the time of the disaster, railroads 'still dominated the national economy,' he writes — and the man who dominated the railroads was the irascible old empire builder James J. Hill. It was Hill who insisted that his Great Northern Railway punch a route through the treacherous northern Cascade Mountains — at whatever cost in cash, engineering ingenuity and environmental hubris. 'Modern railroads like the Great Northern ... were supposed to be unstoppable,' writes Krist, 'the ultimate symbols of twentieth-century America's new mastery over its own geography and climate.' But, of course, in a disaster narrative, geography and climate, not technologies, have mastery — and whoever challenges them pays dearly. The passengers and crew aboard the westbound Seattle Express and the Fast Mail train from St. Paul, Minn., paid first with a long stretch of inconvenience. In the early hours of Feb. 23, 1910, heavy snow stranded the two trains near the top of Stevens Pass, Wash., and continuing snow and wind kept them stuck there. A glimmer of hope came a couple of days into the ordeal, when the conscientious superintendent James O'Neill ordered the trains dug out and hauled a few miles farther down the line to the tiny wilderness station of Wellington, where there was more food, and, O'Neill believed, a safe set of passing tracks. But hope died as the storm hung in, and repeated avalanches rendered the tracks between Wellington and Seattle unpassable. The passengers whiled away the time writing letters, entertaining their children, smoking cigars and complaining. A few got out by hiking and sliding down to the next station. Then, shortly after midnight on March 1, following a period of heavy rain, a freak winter thunderstorm dislodged a huge swath of cement-like snow. It plunged onto the trains, crushed them and swept them over a precipice. There was 'a grinding and roaring and crashing,' wrote one of the few survivors. 'We went down very rapidly.' Krist's chapter on the aftermath of the avalanche — the blood-reddened snow, the ever-fainter cries for help, the heartbreak of a mother pinned on top of the slowly suffocating body of her infant — is utterly gripping, all the more so for his restrained, unsensational style. Equally riveting is the courtroom drama that ensues as two juries followed by the Washington State Supreme Court determined whether God or the railroad was to blame. The main problem with the book is the pacing — the tight, clipped initial chapters setting the scene and period give way to a long frustrating lull when the trains stall and little happens but more snow, boredom and rather leaden attempts to build suspense. By the time disaster strikes, the victims have grown a bit fuzzy in our minds. The most memorable figure, and the most sympathetically drawn, is the tireless, beleaguered superintendent O'Neill — which also poses a narrative problem, since he was never on the trains when they were snowbound. By making O'Neill his flawed (if not quite tragic) hero, Krist shifts the emotional focus away from the victims. As a weather nut, I was also disappointed with how little meteorology there is here — no discussion of the genesis of the disturbances that piled up epic volumes of snow, nothing on what triggered the freak thunderstorm, no more than a passing glance at the physics of snow slides. Krist is clearly more fascinated by trains than by weather — and readers who share this interest will love his portrait of the despotic Hill and the many digressions into the challenges, dangers and arrogance of sending fast trains through untamed mountain passes. The Wellington avalanche, like all natural disasters, was compounded by human frailty. Perhaps the signal contribution of 'The White Cascade' is how deeply and delicately Krist probes the moral complexities of this fatal combination. David Laskin is the author of 'The Children's Blizzard' and 'Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather.'" Reviewed by David Laskin, Washington Post Book World (Copyright 2006 Washington Post Book World Service/Washington Post Writers Group)
(hide most of this review)
Review:
"Krist's story goes beyond the recounting of a tragic event and becomes a study of individual heroism and failure, corporate avarice and the era's misguided faith that humans and their technology could tame Mother Nature." Los Angeles Times
Review:
"Krist has avoided using any invented dialogue or other undocumented re-creations. The book is an astonishingly rich chronicle of this catastrophe." Booklist
Review:
"The White Cascade brilliantly recreates one of those terrifying moments when human ingenuity runs up against the fierce power of nature. Gary Krist doesn't simply describe the Great Northern Railway Disaster. He takes you up the mountainside, settles you into the trapped Pullman car, and makes you feel the fear closing in around you. That's storytelling at its finest." Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
Review:
"It is always a great gift when someone tells a long forgotten story, but it is especially so when the drama is this astonishing, and the writer this talented. Gary Krist weaves a spider web of a tale, drawing the reader in, until they feel as though they too are...trapped in one of the world's most dangerous places, in one of history's most savage storms. The White Cascade will keep you up at night." Susan Casey, author of The Devil's Teeth
Synopsis:
"Krist does wonders . . . [He] describes the frantic rescue efforts . . . and the malevolent, unending storm. In a thrilling, climactic chapter, he conjures forth the avalanche."--The New York Times
In February 1910, a monstrous, record-breaking blizzard hit the Northwest. Nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men worked to rescue the trains, but just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred--a colossal avalanche tumbled down, sweeping the trains over the steep slope and down the mountainside. Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a never-before-documented tragedy.
Gary Krist is the prizewinning author of the novels Bad Chemistry, Chaos Theory, and Extravagance, and of two short-story collections, The Garden State and Bone by Bone. His stories, articles, and travel pieces have been featured in noteworthy magazines, including National Geographic Traveler, GQ, and Esquire. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and daughter.
The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche
Used Hardcover
Gary Krist
0 stars -
0 reviews
$7.95
In Stock
Product details
352 pages
Henry Holt & Company -
English9780805077056
Reviews:
"Staff Pick"
by Hank,
You think you've got it bad trudging uphill in the snow every day to work and back? Just imagine you're stuck inside one of two trains trapped in the Cascade Mountains during a catastrophic blizzard... and then an avalanche hits! The only thing more astonishing than this little-known true incident that occurred in 1910 is Krist's spellbinding book about it. Just when you think you've read the most horrific, jaw-dropping, and intense page you'll ever lay eyes upon, you turn the page... and somehow it gets worse! A definite must-read for lovers of true disaster stories.
by Hank
"Publishers Weekly Review"
by Publishers Weekly,
"In a briskly paced and vividly written account, novelist Krist (Bad Chemistry) relates the tale of two trains, trapped on the tracks in Washington's Cascade Mountains in February 1910, that were subsequently swept away by the deadliest avalanche in American history. With a wealth of end notes attesting to the scope of his research, Krist complements his thorough recreation of events with telegrams, journal entries and newspaper clippings. He also does an elegant job of evoking the hubris that led to the crisis, the claustrophobia and panic of those who endured it and the misery of those left to deal with its aftermath, from the devastated relatives to the Great Northern Railway officials whose trains, Krist writes, were supposed to be 'the ultimate symbols of twentieth-century America's new mastery over its own geography and climate.' The tragedy gains resonance from Krist's avoidance of hyperbole, as he chooses instead to draw out the emotional toll by focusing on individual stories like that of Ida Starrett, who was the last person to be rescued but who was trapped in the snow atop her own dying baby. As a novelist, he also displays a keen sense for the telling of the story itself and the importance of balancing detail with pace." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review"
by Los Angeles Times,
"Krist's story goes beyond the recounting of a tragic event and becomes a study of individual heroism and failure, corporate avarice and the era's misguided faith that humans and their technology could tame Mother Nature."
"Review"
by Booklist,
"Krist has avoided using any invented dialogue or other undocumented re-creations. The book is an astonishingly rich chronicle of this catastrophe."
"Review"
by Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age,
"The White Cascade brilliantly recreates one of those terrifying moments when human ingenuity runs up against the fierce power of nature. Gary Krist doesn't simply describe the Great Northern Railway Disaster. He takes you up the mountainside, settles you into the trapped Pullman car, and makes you feel the fear closing in around you. That's storytelling at its finest."
"Review"
by Susan Casey, author of The Devil's Teeth,
"It is always a great gift when someone tells a long forgotten story, but it is especially so when the drama is this astonishing, and the writer this talented. Gary Krist weaves a spider web of a tale, drawing the reader in, until they feel as though they too are...trapped in one of the world's most dangerous places, in one of history's most savage storms. The White Cascade will keep you up at night."
"Synopsis"
by Netread,
"Krist does wonders . . . [He] describes the frantic rescue efforts . . . and the malevolent, unending storm. In a thrilling, climactic chapter, he conjures forth the avalanche."--The New York Times
In February 1910, a monstrous, record-breaking blizzard hit the Northwest. Nowhere was the danger more terrifying than near a tiny town called Wellington, perched high in the Cascade Mountains, where a desperate situation evolved: two trainloads of cold, hungry passengers and their crews found themselves marooned. For days, an army of the Great Northern Railroad's most dedicated men worked to rescue the trains, but just when escape seemed possible, the unthinkable occurred--a colossal avalanche tumbled down, sweeping the trains over the steep slope and down the mountainside. Centered on the astonishing spectacle of our nation's deadliest avalanche, The White Cascade is the masterfully told story of a never-before-documented tragedy.
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