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Leadville
Tue Mar 15, 2005
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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