The town of Wellington was swept away in 1910 due to the worst Avalanche disaster in United States. For nine days at the end of February 1910, the Wellington area experienced a severe blizzard. Up to a foot of snow fell every hour, and, on the worst day, eleven feet of snow fell. Two trains, a passenger train and a mail train, both bound from Spokane to Seattle, were trapped in the depot. As lightning hit Windy Mountain late in the night, it created an Avalanche that was making its way to the train depot and the town. The avalanche missed the Bailets Hotel (which also housed the town's general store and post office), but hit the railroad depot. Most of the passengers and crew were asleep aboard their trains. The impact threw the trains 150 feet (45 m) downhill and into the Tye River valley. Ninety-six people were killed, including 35 passengers, 58 Great Northern employees on the trains, and three railroad employees in the depot.[3] Twenty-three people survived; they were pulled from the wreckage by railroad employees who immediately rushed from the hotel and other buildings where they had been staying. However, the work was then abandoned because of the adverse weather conditions, and it was not until 21 weeks later (late July) that the last of the bodies were retrieved. After the disaster, the town was renamed to Rye ( to rid the town of its tragic past) but it would later become abandoned and left behind.
Today, we will be exploring the former rail line and discovering the remnants from over a 100 years ago. We will come across rusted metal from the trains still on the cliff side, along with two collapsed twin tunnels.
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