The Cascade Mountain Range is one of the major mountain ranges running through North America. Inside this mountain range are some pretty famous points of interest, including Mount Saint Helens volcano, Three Sisters, and Mount Rainier. (Being from Tennessee and never having traveled that far west, I thought this was revolutionary information.) Travel across this mountain range has been notoriously difficult during winter, especially in the days before paved roads, snowplows, and salt. In 1910, the region was hit with a massive blizzard, causing passenger trains and supply/mail trains to become trapped in many feet of snow. The relentless amount of snow made shoveling out virtually impossible. Once they were finally able to make some headway with that, an avalanche took them out. The onslaught killed nearly everyone, crushing them beneath ten acres of snow. Rescue operations in the aftermath were grim.

I actually picked this book up at the used book store and then wound up buying it on Audible too. I gave the book to my sister and kept the Audible version, which I just finished up late last night. I had never heard of this particular incident, and I am not very familiar with the Northwest region of the United States, so I learned a great deal from this book. In addition to what I learned about the disaster and the mountain range, I learned a good deal about rail companies and rail transportation in the early 1900s. I thought it was well researched, and very interesting and informative. I generally love a good disaster book, probably because I am a morbid person, so this was right up my alley. I was not disappointed at all.