On March 1, 1910, an avalanche in the Cascade Mountains swept two Great Northern trains down the hillsides near Wellington, a small town near Stevens Pass in Washington state. Ninety-six people lost their lives, making this the worst train disaster in American history.

The trains had been stranded near Wellington due to excessive snowfall. During the early hours of March 1, an electric storm unleashed high winds, heavy rain, and lightning throughout the Cascades. Hundreds of feet above the railroad tracks an ice shelf broke loose, sending tons of snow, slush, and ice hurtling downhill. The engines, passenger coaches, and mail cars were swept up, along with trees, rocks, and anything else in the juggernaut's path. When it was all over, the trains had plummeted and rolled more than 1,000 feet and were buried under 40 feet of snow and debris.

Beginning on the day of the accident, most newspapers in Washington state carried news of the tragedy. The next day, papers across America related details of the sad event. Soon after, the story reached as far as Europe. News of the accident traveled fast, but much of it was inaccurate. Body counts rose and fell. The names of victims and survivors varied from newspaper to newspaper.

By mid-March the Wellington story had been played out. Another large avalanche in Canada had pushed the Wellington avalanche off of front pages from coast to coast. Seattle newspapers were busy covering a mayoral election and the first airplane to visit the city. Elsewhere, people became more interested in news of Halley's Comet, which would soon become visible in the sky for the first time in 76 years.

This website contains an indexed database of scanned newspaper articles published during the first days after the disaster. As well as providing historical information about the accident, these articles allow insight into early 20th Century journalism. By contrasting and comparing the articles, one can see how news traveled in 1910, both accurately and inaccurately.