Glendive, MT

On April 7, 1899, ice on the Yellowstone River broke free and slammed into the piers of the Yellowstone River Bridge at Glendive, knocking out three sections of the bridge, driving river gauges there from 19 to 30 feet, and flooding thousands of acres upstream. At a ranch owned by R.W, Snyder a half-mile south of Glendive, five people were caught in the floodwater while fleeing for higher ground. They tried to climb a tree, but Nellie Regan and Rose Wybrecht could not get up and were tied to the trunk with suspenders. As Joseph Meyers climbed into the tree, he saw Eugene O'Conner and Mrs. Snyder being washed away. A large chunk of ice then broke the tree, Meyers lost sight of the young women, and he jumped onto a piece of ice. Men on the railroad tracks across from him warned him not to try swimming because the ice would crush him, so he grabbed a tree branch and remained there for seven hours until Sam Eaker, Andrew Larson, and a stranger rescued him with ropes and planks. Meyers recovered quickly at home, but Regan and Wybrecht were found drowned still tied to the tree, Eugene O'Connor's body was found the next day, and Mrs. Snyder's body was found several days later by her husband. Nearly the entire town watched the ice crush against the rock-filled structures in front of the bridge piers. The four-span bridge, built in 1895 with a swing-span for navigation, was then the Northwest's largest wagon bridge at 1,750 feet long with a 326-foot draw span, but the moving ice destroyed three spans and cut off transportation across the river. The ice jam and flooding killed 12 people and numerous livestock and washed away several homes, including James Sullivan, his wife, and their six children, who died in their beds. On April 7, 1916, another Yellowstone River ice breakup threatened Glendive when rising water trapped 30 horses on islands and all but one drowned. The surviving horse, owned by Peter Evans, rode a cake of ice for two days more than 35 miles until it settled on the flooded flats at Glendive, where the animal was rescued uninjured after reportedly standing throughout the journey and bracing its legs each time the ice struck other blocks.

Glendive, Montana · United States