The Willey Slide
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Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow from the Mount Washington Observatory and this is The Weather Notebook. Weather disasters sometimes transcend death tolls and economic disruption, to the level of religious and spiritual confusion about human frailty. In a tiny town in New Hampshire in 1826, rainstorm loosened rock careened down a mountainside and in seconds caused the most talked about weather disaster in the young country's history - the Willey slide.

Commemorative plaque at the site of the Willey House given by the Anna Stickney Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution in August 1926. Floyd Ramsey Photo.

Samuel Willey, his wife and their 5 children moved to Crawford Notch, NH in the autumn of 1825, a place not too far from here actually. The summer of 1826 started out dry. But on August 26, a powerful storm brought torrential rains to the area, enough to raise the nearby Saco River 24 feet.

The area had been prone to mud slides in the past. Each time there was a slide, the Willey family stayed put. Samuel argued it was safer in the house. This time, however, the Willey family, along with 2 hired men, decided to flee. But instead of running to safety, they fled right into the path of the mudslide. They all died. Ironically, the slide split in two, each half passing on either side of the home and leaving the house intact. Inside, on the table, sat a Bible, open to the 18th Psalm, Samuel Willey's glasses on the page.

According to writer David Schribman, the story of the Willey family became stuff of myth and legend. It raised questions about free will and the frailty of one's judgement, and about the cruelty and harshness of nature itself.

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