When a winter at Alta meant living in the "jaws of death"
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On Valentine's Day 140 years ago, terrible news began to trickle down to Salt Lake City: A massive avalanche had killed 16 people and wiped out almost the entire town of Alta.
- This is Old News, where we tiptoe onto the cornices of Utah's past.
The big picture: Avalanches were so common at Alta during the late 1800s that the catastrophe was described as almost an inevitability for the few dozen people who spent winters in the mining camp.
- The Salt Lake Tribune called Alta a "death trap," while the Evening Chronicle called it a "doomed place." The Deseret News described a winter at Alta as "living almost in the jaws of death."
- "The same old story from Alta is told again this morning," the Herald-Republican reported.
The intrigue: Salt Lake's newspapers reported anger and judgment was growing in the city against the "foolhardy" people who lived at Alta year-round — right after almost a third of them were killed.
What they said: "The poor men and women who have been ruthlessly stricken down were not in Alta because they preferred the isolation, the discomforts and dangers of the snow bound camp to the pleasures and safety of city homes. … They were there for the bread that they must have," the Herald-Republican argued.
- "It is necessity that takes them there," the Deseret News agreed. "It is not the lack of sense, nor perhaps a want of appreciation of the presence of a great danger … which has probably brought untimely death to 100 persons within a comparatively few years."
Yes, but: Five children and one woman were among the victims; even the miners' defenders said they should have found accommodations in the city for their families.
By the numbers: All but seven of Alta's buildings were swept away in the Feb. 13, 1885 avalanche — about three-fourths of the town, the Evening Chronicle estimated.