Wellington: The Deadliest Avalanche in American History
Near Stevens Pass Area, Washington
The ghost town of Wellington sits where the deadliest avalanche in United States history struck on March first, nineteen ten. Two Great Northern Railway trains sat trapped here for nine days during a savage blizzard. Just after midnight, a wall of snow swept both trains off the mountain into the Tye River gorge one hundred fifty feet below. Ninety-six people died. Only twenty-three survived.
The tragedy had a bitter footnote. Decades of clear-cutting and locomotive sparks had stripped the slopes bare, creating a perfect chute for the slide. The railroad quietly renamed the town Tye that October, hoping travelers would forget. A new cascade tunnel rerouted the line in nineteen twenty-nine, and the town vanished entirely. Today it is a trailhead on the Iron Goat Trail, the ruined snowsheds still standing in the trees.
