Low water resulting from an 1889 drought in the Rogue Valley reduced water in the streams and curtailed mining operations. But by the second week of January 1890, snow began to fall and temperatures plummeted.
By Jan. 16, there was seven feet of snow at Union Creek and two feet in Jacksonville. Travel ground to a halt, shed roofs collapsed and trains stopped on their tracks.
Snow trapped a train in the mountains with 100 passengers aboard. Southern Pacific sent 125 men from Ashland to uncover a snowplow buried in the snow and to free the train.
When the train ran short of food, a courageous conductor walked twice across an icy 50-foot trestle to bring passengers something to eat. A Southern Pacific executive, Col. Crocker, who was in his private car attached to the snowbound train, opened his food supplies to the passengers.
Torrential rains fell for a week, melting the deep snow and leading to the worst flooding ever seen in the region – but that is another story for another day. Stay tuned!
Sources: "Here and There." Democratic Times, 16 Jan. 1890 [Jacksonville Oregon], p. 3. "Give the Devil Its Due." Daily Alta California, 30 Jan. 1890 [San Francisco].
