Today I Learned: Most Deadly Avalanche in U.S. History Was in Washington
On March 1, 1910 an avalanche half a mile long and quarter-mile wide slid down a slope in the Cascade Mountains not far from Stevens Pass Ski Area and knocked two trains off the tracks.
A recent forest fire had made the slope relatively smooth. The force of the avalanche pushed a passenger train and a mail train over the ledge and into the valley below.
96 people died -- the most of any avalanche in U.S. history. That same winter 63 died in a British Columbia avalanche.
The trains had been waiting at the depot for snow ploughs to clear the tracks after a heavy blizzard.