TRIUMPH, Idaho — “Tragedies In The Wilderness Of White,” one headline read.
On Feb. 25, 1917 a powerful avalanche turned a mining bunkhouse at the North Star Mine near Hailey into splinters of wood.
Dr. Steve Barrett and the Idaho State Historical Society says it hit at 3:30 in the morning so the building was likely filled with miners and other staff.
“Most of the fatalities were in the bunkhouse. It was a two story structure, everyone on the second floor survived. Some of those people later reported that when they felt the impact of the snow it actually pushed them off the floor into the rafters above the second floor and then the entire structure collapsed. Everyone on the first floor was killed killed immediately as far as we can tell. The living and the dead were all pushed down the slope at that point,” Barrett said.
When the mining company moved in it took precautions before building the bunkhouse. Company officials asked long-time residents where the safest spot was.
“People said ‘you don't want to put it along the west slope, because that slides every year the north slope has only slid once or twice and when it did they were small and the east slope has never slid. So this is the best spot for the bunkhouse.’ So that's where they built the bunkhouse.
A decision that turned out to be a deadly one. At least 15 people were killed, sixteen others hurt and at least one went missing. There are conflicting reports on the final numbers. In the days to follow, the numbers turned into faces in the newspapers and their personal stories were told.
“There was one gentleman who had just been in Los Angeles, he went to visit his family. He just returned back to work and then was killed that night within hours of getting back to work. And another gentleman was going to leave the next day to visit his family back east and was in the bunkhouse that night and he was killed. There are a lot of stories like that. Some of the miners did have wives and children. Of course families never recover from something like that,” PhD Barrett said.
On Feb. 25, 1917 a deadly avalanche slammed into the North Star Mine bunkhouse killing at least 15 people. It's a tragic story a century ago that’s worth keeping alive today.
“The Wood River Times, the following day on the 26th had a headline that had to be an inch and a half or two inches tall on the paper and it simply said ‘Appalling Calamity,’ which I think says it all. I think the editor chose his words wisely when he described what had happened,” Barrett said.
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