112 Years Ago
The April 18, 1912 Colorado Transcript described a terrible storm:
TERRIFIC WIND CREATES HAVOC IN ALL PARTS OF COUNTY - Mine Buildings Destroyed by Fire Which Follows Fierce Gale--Fire Also Threatens East Golden and Industrial School
The State Industrial School lost windows, two houses, and several roofs. A fire was discovered in the roof of the boiler house, but an employee and the boys extinguished it before it spread.
Many homes and businesses in Golden lost roofs, windows, chimneys, sheds, fences, and trees. One man lost a barn and had a horse badly cut. A bridge over Clear Creek at the Golden Smelter was blown away.
The electric commuter lines and the steam trains were all delayed because of the wind.
The School of Mines lost two big cottonwood trees, bricks, big windows, part of the roof on Guggenheim Hall (which was only six years old at the time), and sections of the fence around the athletic field.
Two houses in Pleasant View--fortunately unoccupied--were blown down and scattered.
So many telephone and telegraph pole and wires were blown down that the article provided details about the torturous rerouting required to make a call.
A message to Colorado Springs was carried in a three-quarters circle over nearly 300 miles of telephone wire via Salida, Leadville and Pueblo to Colorado Springs. Denver-Cripple Creek connections were made through Clear Creek to Georgetown over Argentine pass to Breckenridge, from there to Leadville and then to Cripple Creek,cover a distance of 250 miles for an ordinarily 90-mile stretch of wire.
In other disastrous news, that same issue announced that the Titanic had sunk after hitting an iceberg, and 1500 people had drowned
