Excerpts from the 1911 Pacific Service Magazine
I do not know that I can make this article more interesting, than to give an account of the big storm of January 9 to 20, 1911...The storm commenced on the 9th with rain, and after a few hours turned to snow, accompanied by a terrific gale. The snow, which stuck to the trees, was very damp and many of these after becoming weighted down were broken, falling into the ditch and over the telephone line...it was two days before the lines were working.
On the 13th, a huge snowslide occurred above Bear Valley, coming from the high bluff above the flume, and carried six boxes into the river one hundred feet below. At that time, the snow had reached a depth of ten feet on the level, and it was still snowing. Lumber to repair the break had to be taken up the flume on trucks. It was necessary to keep the snow shoveled off to run the trucks, and to keep one man on watch so that the men could be warned in time to escape from their perilous position should another slide occur. It required five days to repair the break, and during that time the main ditch, from that point to the big tunnel, a distance of fifteen miles, was completely blocked with snow, also the Cascade system of nineteen miles...
Men were sent from Grass Valley, Nevada City and Washington, and arrived at Bear Valley on the 18th...only those that could use snow shoes were employed...
It is necessary that the snow be all cleared from the ditch before commencing on a new section, as any snow left will run down and fill the trench and the work will have to be done over...
I will state that on the 13th, when the storm was the heaviest, the slush in the Cascade ditch was one solid mass one foot in depth, that is, it covered the entire surface of the ditch a foot deep, moving with the water...The snow fell to a depth of ten feet on the level in sixty hours.
During the winter of 1890, there was a larger fall of snow, it being sixteen feet on the level along the line of the main ditch, but it extended over a much longer period, being from Christmas, 1889, to the middle of January, 1890...
The blockade of 1911 was raised in ten days, after the break at Bear Valley had been repaired, while in 1890, the main ditch was blocked from the middle of January to the first of April....
After it had been raining for several days, eighty feet of the Chalk Bluff ditch slid away, and no water had been in the ditch from the beginning of the storm.
Comparing the two winters, the writer thinks a record has been made for the year 1911 in clearing thirty-six miles of ditch in ten
days.
The Pacific Service Magazines are available at the Placer County archives for research. Contact
cbarry@placer.ca.gov for appointment.