THE WHITE DEATH by Will Sparks

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 7, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 32.

“THE WHITE DEATH.”

By Will Sparks

[Will Sparks in Ainslee’s.]

Of all the natural phenomena peculiar to the Rocky Mountain region none is more strange or terrible than the mysterious storm known to the Indians as “the white death.” Scientific men have never yet had an opportunity of investigating it, because it comes at the most unexpected times and may keep away from a certain locality for years. Well-read men who have been through it say that it is really a frozen fog. But where the fog comes from is more than any one can say. This phenomenon occurs most frequently in the northern part of Colorado, in Wyoming, and occasionally in Montana.

About two years ago a party of three women and two men were crossing North Park in a wagon in the month of February. The air was bitterly cold, but dry as a bone and motionless. The sun shone with almost startling brilliancy. As the five people drove along over the crisp snow, they did not experience the least cold, but really felt most comfortable, and rather enjoyed the trip. Mountain peaks fifty miles away could be seen as distinctly as the pine trees by the roadside.

Suddenly one of the women put her hand up to her face and remarked that something had stung her. Then other members of the party did the same thing, altho not a sign of an insect could be seen. All marveled greatly at this. A moment later they noticed that the distant mountains were disappearing behind a cloud of mist. Mist in Colorado in January! Surely there must be some mistake. But there was no mistake, because within ten minutes a gentle wind began to blow and the air became filled with fine particles of something that scintillated like diamond dust in the sunshine. Still the people drove on until they came to a cabin where a man signaled to them to stop. With his head tied up in a bundle of mufflers, he rushed out and handed the driver a piece of paper on which was written: “Come into the house quick, or this storm will kill all of you. Don’t talk outside here.”

“Of course no time was lost in getting under cover and putting the horses in the stables. But they were a little late, for in less than an hour the whole party was sick with violent coughs and fever. Before the next morning one of the women died with all the symptoms of pneumonia. The others were violently ill of it, but managed to pull through after long sickness.

“I seen you people driving along the road long before you got to my house, and I knowed you didn’t know what you were drivin’ through,” said the man, as soon as the surviving members of the party were able to talk. “That stuff ye seen in the air is small pieces of ice, froze so cold it goes clear down into your lungs without melting. If any man stayed out a few hours without his head covered up, he would be sure to die. One winter about eight years ago it cleaned out a whole Indian tribe across the Wyoming line. They are more afraid of it than they are of rattlesnakes. That’s the reason they call it the ‘white death.’”