From: Platts, Doris B.: The Pass Historic Teton Pass and Wilson, Wyoming, 1988.

Jim Deloney was present when Elias Wilson was caught in a slide on the Pass.

In the spring the snowpack on the road breaks up. The freighters had to relay their teams. That meant to hook all the teams to one load, pull that load to the top, leave the sleigh there, go back, and bring up the next sleigh, etc.

Elias was just about to hook up his team. The slide, not only hit Elias, but also swept several teams and teamsters down the mountainside. Everyone followed the slide downhill. Jim saw a halter in the snow. He gave it a pull and a horse’s head came up. Under the horse’s neck was Elias.

Everyone dug with anything they had. They got both the horse and Elias out alive. Also, another fellow.

However, one short fellow who was five foot six was found dead wrapped around a tree. “It broke every bone in his body and stretched him out until he was about seven feet long.”

(Several horses were killed in that slide and several loads of machinery were lost.)

Another tale tells how a mail driver appeared at Bircher’s Roadhouse. He had just escaped an avalanche that buried his team. Next morning he simply quit, refusing to go on, and started walking back to Victor, Idaho.

The travelers at the roadhouse went out and found the team partially buried but alive. They dug out the horses and shoveled and broke out the road to Jackson.