Following the Iron Goat Trail: The Tragic History of the Wellington Disaster

The trail is an excellent example of railroad archaeology as it follows the former rail grade and snow sheds that date back to before the 8-mile Cascade tunnel that opened in 1929. It's important not to forget the tragic events that have occurred along this picturesque corridor. The town of Wellington, now known as Tye, shares a tragic past with the Iron Goat Trail, as it was the site of the Wellington Disaster.

Gary Krist's book, "The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche," offers a detailed account of the tragedy. The Great Northern Railway's Cascade Line, completed in 1893, was considered a marvel. The switchbacks and tunnels that cut through the snowiest region in the Lower 48 were the handiwork of John F. Stevens, who would later become the Panama Canal chief engineer. Watching over this line was his valued employee, James O'Neill.

In late February 1910, two Great Northern trains, the Spokane Local passenger train No. 25 and the Fast Mail train No. 27, were traveling towards Puget Sound from the eastern side of the mountains. Due to heavy snowfall and avalanches blocking the tracks, the trains were forced to stop near Wellington, a small-town housing mostly Great Northern Railway employees. On February 26, an enormous snowstorm hit that forced the trains to a halt. The situation worsened as the hours and days passed, telegraph lines snapped that cut communications, and coal supplies dwindled. Due to a thunderstorm with lightning flashes and strong winds, a series of avalanches occurred, making it impossible for the trains to continue their route beyond the Cascade Mountains. The trains remained trapped for four days.

On March 1, a massive avalanche struck the two trains in the middle of the night, plunging the trains 150 feet down into the Tye River Valley, and later named the "Wellington Disaster”. The avalanche caused the death of 96 people, making it one of the worst train disasters in US history and one of the deadliest natural disasters to have occurred in the state of Washington.

The Great Northern Railway took three weeks to repair the damaged tracks before it could resume train services over Stevens Pass, and it took several months to recover all of the victims. The 23 injured survivors were sent to Wenatchee and Everett, while the bodies of the deceased were transported on sleds down the west side of the Cascade Mountains to trains that carried them to Everett and Seattle. Later on, the Wellington Disaster led to the renaming of the rail town to Tye to improve the perception of the Great Northern Railway and minimize the impact of this disaster and its loss of reputation.

To prevent the recurrence of such tragic events, the Great Northern Railway stopped producing wooden train cars and replaced them with large riveted-steel cars. Additionally, the Cascade Tunnel, an 8-mile-long tunnel that runs through the side of the Cascade Mountain range, was constructed. The tunnel was completed in 1929 and is still in use today, regularly carrying passengers on the Empire Builder Route from Seattle to Chicago and freight throughout the United States.

The Great Northern & Cascade Railway Productions is working on a video production and a documentary about the Wellington Disaster called "Avalanche," which will be released in the summer/fall of 2024. Visitors can also stop by the Great Northern & Cascade Railway Museum in Skykomish to ride a scale train and learn more about the Railway's history in the area. The museum is open every weekend from May through October.