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Plowguy #1
Wed Apr 13, 2005
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton and this is The Weather Notebook. In the next few days, we're
going to spend some time with the gods of snowy roadways. Of course you know I'm
referring to Snowplough drivers. Even now in some high elevation areas, they're are
working to keep the thoroughfares cleared. Correspondent Robin White reports on one
such "diety" who is considered the lifeline to a small community in California's Sierra
Nevada.
When you head into the gold mining town of Allegheny in winter, one of the first things
you might see is a big yellow snowplough coming down the road towards
you.
Jim Buckbee's the keeper of the winter roads here. The town's home to the oldest hard
rock gold mine still operating in the United States. And also to 145 people who need to
get to work and to school. The road into town goes over a ridge 5200 feet
high.
JB: So you can look off to the canyon there off to the side and it's pretty much straight
down there...
RW: You're tellin me!
JB: (Speaking into radio) 106/111 go ahead...
(Radio sound) Yeah we've got a car off the road up here. Guy wants us to give a hand
pulling it out...Use the big truck for this one?
JB: Goin too fast...
RW: With the nearest towing service 64 miles away, Jim Buckbee doubles up doing
roadside rescues. A pickup truck has slithered off the road in the snowy weather. It
takes Buckbee and his snowplough just moments to pull the gold miner's truck free of
the culvert. For him it's all in a day's work.
Tomorrow on The Weather Notebook correspondent Robin White explores the risks of
a "plough guy's" life. Our program is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory
and is supported by Subaru and the National Science Foundation.
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