Скачать или смотреть They Knew What Could Happen — And Went Anyway

The telegram arrived at 11:47 a.m. on September 14, 1906, and was filed without comment in the expedition ledger kept by Dr. Harold Moss, surgeon and second-in-command of the Whitney Geological Survey party then camped along the upper Clearwater River in northern Idaho. The message, routed through three relay stations from Lewiston, advised that barometric readings suggested unsettled weather approaching from the northwest. It recommended the party consider descending to the railroad camp at Elk Creek, approximately eighteen miles southwest, within forty-eight hours. Dr. Moss read the telegram aloud to the group during their midday meal. Several men looked up at the cloudless sky. Someone made a joke about desk-bound meteorologists. The telegram was placed in the document case, and the meal continued.