Reflections from the Saratoga Sun

100 years ago today

January 25, 1923

Strong wind blows Utah Into Wyoming

When terrific windstorm swept the Rocky Mountain region recently, according to Professor Samuel H. Knight of the University of Wyoming.

Knight examined minutely the particles of dust found in the vicinity of Laramie after the storm had subsided. He announced that the investigation disclosed that the dust is composed for the most part of minute grains of quartz and covered with a thin coat of iron oxide. No dust of a similar character is natural to Wyoming, he said.

"A reasonable estimate based upon studies during and following the storm," Knight said, "places the amount of material transplanted by the storm at 2,000 tons per square mile.

50 Years ago today

January 25, 1973

Deep Snow presents problems for traffic

With the severe winter weather we've been having, the railroad work crews have been busy trying to keep the snow plowed from the railroad tracks as the Wyoming Highway men have been spending so many hours trying to keep the highways open.

V.J. Allred, depot agent reported this past week the Encampment Valley Branch of the railroad was busy between Saratoga and Walcott with the snow plow train, the regular local and Seno rail grinding train trying to keep the rails open.

25 Years Ago Today

January 21, 1998

FS reports high avalanche danger

Avalanche danger is high in the Sierra Madre and Snowy Range mountains right now.

Curtiss Orde, a supervisory law enforcement officer with the Forest Service out of Laramie, said all slopes greater than 15 degrees pose an avalanche danger to winter recreationists.

A group of Forest Service officials including Orde and two avalanche experts investigated the Battle lake area where Ben Romios, 21, was killed and the general conditions in the area on Jan. 14.

There is a six-inch base of crystallized snow under 18 to 24 inches of relatively unstable snow with a top layer of about a foot of nice, light powder. Orde said movement anywhere on a slope of greater than 15 degrees could cause the middle, unstable layer to shift, causing the bottom layer of crystallized snow to as ball bearings and therefore an avalanche.

Orde encourages winter recreationists to be wary of such slopes until warm weather causes the middle layer to settle. A Forest Service employee was lost to an avalanche while snowmobiling in the Snowy Range 11 years ago, he said. They hope to prevent another catastrophe.