Buried by a Snow-Slide
Italian Miners in Colorado Swept Out of Existence
Sedalia Weekly Democrat, Feb. 16, 1899
Denver, Colo., Feb. 13. -- An entire Italian colony was swept out of existence yesterday morning at Silver Plume. An avalanche descended north of the town and buried six families. The number missing is placed at fourteen. The place is inhabited by miners, who work leased properties.
It is believed that two Swedes were also killed, as their cabin was carried off.
The avalanche started at 8:30 a.m. and in its course swept by the Cory shaft house, carrying off the machinery and a boarding house on the side of Pelican Gulch, 500 feet above Cherokee. On toward the little settlement at the base of the mountain the avalanche rushed.
From the town it looked as if the whole side of the mountain was dropping into the valley. Snow was thrown to a height of hundreds of feet in masses that resembled the smoke from a forest fire.
The gulch where the accident occurred separates Sherman and Republican mountains, on which are situated the Rich Dives, Pelican, Cory, and Seven Thirty mines, with thousands of dollars' worth of ore exposed directly in the path of the avalanche. The movement of snow was due to a heavy gale that blew all night from the top of the hills. It is estimated that the wind attained a velocity of seventy miles an hour through the night.
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