The White Cascade

True to form, I was looking for more Non-fiction survival type stories and ran into this historical account entitled The White Cascade: The Great Northern Railway Disaster and America's Deadliest Avalanche by Gary Krist.  I had never heard of America's most deadly avalanche, so I picked it up and started reading.  Author Krist did a wonderful job researching this subject and the book includes numerous direct quotes from people who were there.  It all happened back in 1910 and I think it's pretty cool that the records still exist and that this story could be told. 

This tale is not for the faint of heart.  From reading the title, the reader automatically knows that people are going to die.  I liken this book to reading a book about the Titanic.  You know the disaster will occur and that most of the people you "met" through reading the book will die.  The descriptions of recovering bodies and how people died is rather gruesome, so beware.  Apparently, the early 1900s was full of disasters of epic proportions because the technology existed but it was still being tried and proven.  

I am always a little wary of Non-fiction because it is often written in a boring or academic way.  Not so with Gary Krist.  The entire book was engaging and from the very beginning I couldn't put it down.  It also includes some history of rail travel and history of the Pacific Northwest which is very interesting.