The White Cascade; The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Bob Pratt (Maps). xv, [3], 315, [3] pages. Author's Note. Maps. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Gary Michael Krist (born 1957) is an American writer of fiction, nonfiction, travel journalism, and literary criticism. Before turning to narrative nonfiction with The White Cascade, a book about the 1910 Wellington avalanche, City of Scoundrels, about Chicago's tragic summer of 1919, and Empire of Sin, about the reform wars in turn-of-the-century New Orleans, Krist wrote three novels--Bad Chemistry, Chaos Theory, and Extravagance. He has also written two short story collections--The Garden State and Bone by Bone. His latest book is The Mirage Factory: Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles. He has been the recipient of The Stephen Crane Award, the Sue Kaufman Prize from The American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Travel Journalism. "Empire of Sin" was named one of the top ten books of 2014 by The Washington Post and Library Journal. Derived from a Kirkus review: Novelist Krist turns to nonfiction for a familiar tale of Man-vs.-Nature. Nature wins. The avalanche that killed 96 Great Northern Railway passengers and crew on March 1, 1910, was the result of a freak late-winter storm combined with an even rarer winter thunderstorm that triggered the slide. It's doubtful any human effort could have prevented it, so the narrative has an inexorable feel. The author holds our interest with thorough reporting and easy, readable prose. The tragedy unfolded high in the treacherous snowbound Cascade Mountains of western Washington State. A Seattle-bound passenger train was stranded by a three-day blizzard that dumped more than 30 feet of snow on the steep mountain slopes. Great Northern's 37-year-old Cascade Division superintendent, James H. O'Neill, a railroader since he was 14, personally rushed to the scene to supervise the rescue dig. But not even the railroad's massive snow-plowing locomotives could clear the line, and eventually, the snow pack gave way, sweeping most of those on board to their deaths. The most memorable character is O'Neill, who remained haunted by the tragedy despite his dogged rescue efforts.