1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



119 



almendro, a very springy dyewood. The 

 mahogany was found to be very disap- 

 pointing, and the uses and value of the 

 innumerable other woods still problem 

 atical. 



Utilization of Water Power. 



A company has been organized in 

 Clear Creek County, Colorado, for the 

 purpose of developing and utilizing the 

 water power in Clear Creek Canon. The 

 sum of $800,000 has been raised, all of 

 which will be expended in the construc- 

 tion of the plant, erecting lines for the 

 transmission of power and for the pur- 

 chase of the necessary real estate and 

 water rights. The contract has been 

 let for the construction of the central 

 plant which is to develop 2,000 horse 

 power. Its location has been so selected 

 that wire can be run to every part of the 

 adjacent mining district at a minimum 

 cost. While at all ordinary stages Clear 

 Creek will furnish enough water to oper- 

 ate the system, the company does not 

 propose to run any chances of loss on 

 account of low water, so it will construct 

 a reservoir above Empire that will have 

 a superficial area of 250 acres. Besides 

 its effect on the local mining industry by 

 supplying a cheaper and more conven- 

 ient form of motive power this enterprise 

 will benefit the ranchers below the mouth 

 of the canon, as the storage of water 

 during the spring floods and its use later 

 in the season by the power plant will 

 make it available for irrigation at a time 

 of the year when there is a scarcity of 

 water for that purpose. 



Snowslide or Landslide Next? 



At 3 o'clock last Saturday afternoon 

 there occurred in this town an accident 

 which was the cause of wonder to hun- 

 dreds of people who visited the spot 

 from that time until dark. 



Gus Wold and H. T. Foy were getting 

 wood on the hillside northwest of town, 

 near the top of the hill, when a dead 

 Pine tree which they had just cut down, 

 started down the slope with fearful ve- 



locity, and a few seconds later they 

 heard it go crashing through the houses 

 2,000 feet below. It ran along within a 

 few feet of B. Flaig's house, and thirty 

 feet below it struck the roof of Iver Ol- 

 son's kitchen, going through it just like 

 a bullet and passing out above and a lit- 

 tle to the left of the front door. Twenty- 

 five feet below this it struck the wall 

 of Mr. Nickerson's dining-room, passed 

 through that and through the floor of 

 the front room and through the base- 

 ment, which is used as a woodshed. 

 The next house in line was the one occu- 

 pied by Mr. and Mrs. William Presley, 

 seventy feet below Nickerson's. It en- 

 tered the back shed above the kitchen 

 door, through to the floor, finally plow- 

 ing up the floor half way across the 

 front room and stopping when it had 

 penetrated the frozen ground beneath. 



The log was fifty-nine feet long and 

 two and one-half feet in diameter at the 

 butt, yet the holes which it made through 

 the different buildings were but very lit- 

 tle larger than the diameter of the log. 

 It passed within two feet of a sash door 

 in the Olson building without breaking 

 the glass. But the most remarkable 

 and fortunate feature of the novel acci- 

 dent is that no one was killed or even 

 injured. The effect of such a projectile 

 striking a human being is almost too 

 dreadful to contemplate. Four children 

 were playing in the Olson home when 

 the log passed just over their heads, 

 covering them with snow and broken 

 shingles and scaring them half to death. 

 Mrs. Presley had just left the bedroom, 

 and the moment the log struck, she had 

 just moved to the fore part of the front 

 room the only safe place in the build- 

 ing. Mrs. Nickerson was at home also, 

 but out of the path of the destructive log. 



The men who were the unwilling cause 

 of the disaster were almost beside them- 

 selves until they rushed down the hill 

 and learned that no one was injured, 

 when they immediately set to work to 

 saw up the log and repair the dama 

 to the buildings. Wardner {Idaho) 

 News. 



