Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
SJO-069
Date(s)
- 1894-11-29 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
At 11:10 p.m. on November 28, 1894, a strip of land 250-300 yards long and 20-60 feet wide slid into Commencement Bay, carrying with it the home of H.H. Alger, 45 feet of the Northern Pacific Railway Co's Puget Sound warehouse, the company's freight office and the adjoining stockyards. The lack of light made rescue work difficult. Night watchman John Hanson and Emma, the 15 year old daughter of Alger, lost their lives. A second slide followed in a few minutes and another the next night. When the land stopped sliding, it was estimated that the Bay now covered 20 acres of previously inhabited land. Where the warehouses had stood, there was now 60 feet of water. The slide was attributed to a washing out of quicksand beneath the filled-in earth. (Hunt: "History of Tacoma" vol. 2, pg. 170-171) G27.1-098
Landslides--Tacoma--1890-1900; Disasters--Tacoma--1890-1900; Northern Pacific Railway Co. (Tacoma);