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Leadville
Fri Mar 07, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Today on The Weather Notebook, producer Becky Rumsey has a Colorado avalanche story, from 1881
taken from “Tales of early Leadville” by Renee Coquoz. It's a typical tall tale that ascribes
unbelievable powers to those things of which we are most afraid.
“It begins one December night, six miles from the Colorado mining town. Four men were in a
cabin. One lay on a bunk, two played cards at a table, and Albert Morrison was writing a
letter to his mother. ‘Dear mother, I trust you will not form an opinion as to my latest
venture until you have learned all the facts...' He may have made a mistake, he said,
leaving home to join his companions at the mines, but he hoped to make some money soon and
return home to marry his fiancee, Charlotte. ‘An old clock is about to strike twelve; so, for
tonight I will content myself with wishing you, dearest mother and Charlotte...' The letter
stopped there on the ‘E' at the end of Charlotte. In March, 50 men dug the cabin out from
under 50 feet of snow. ‘I need not tell you, my dear Madame, how your son died...'
Leadville's Postmaster wrote to Morrison's mother. ‘Some scientific mind will explain to you
the effects of creating a vacuum by a sudden fall with such force of thousands of tons of
snow upon a frail inhabitation like that... death was instantaneous.' According to legend,
there was no snow in the cabin when the searchers entered. The men inside were still. One on
the bunk, two at the table with cards in their hands, and Morrison, his pen on the letter ‘E,'
bent over his letter. The clock had stopped at one minute past twelve.”
Underwriting for The Weather Notebook comes from Subaru, The Beauty of All-Wheel Drive, with
major support provided by the National Science Foundation.
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