Wellington: The Deadliest Avalanche in American History
Near Stevens Pass Area, Washington
In late February of nineteen ten, two Great Northern trains sat snowbound in the mountains west of Leavenworth near a station called Wellington, trapped by a slide that had blocked the tracks ahead. A blizzard had been pounding Stevens Pass for days. As the passengers waited for the tracks to clear, eight feet of snow buried the stalled trains.
Shortly before two in the morning on March first, a massive slab broke loose from the slope above and swept both trains off the tracks and down the mountainside. Ninety six people died, the deadliest avalanche in United States history. Rescue crews dug through the wreckage for days.
In the aftermath, the Great Northern reportedly renamed Wellington to Tye, apparently hoping the change would distance the location from its catastrophic association. The disaster made clear that the original mountain route was untenable in severe winters. The railroad had already begun planning a longer tunnel.
The Cascade Tunnel, completed in nineteen twenty-nine and eight miles long, buried the tracks through the mountain entirely, bypassing the avalanche-prone slope above Wellington. At eight miles it remains the longest railroad tunnel in the United States. The ghost town of Wellington is gone, and the old tunnel mouth is sealed, but the site of the disaster is preserved in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and can still be visited by those who know where to look.
