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 JANUARY y, 189a 
 
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PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEWS 
 
 ...OF THE. 
 
 Great Cyclone at Fort Smith 
 
 TUESDAY NIGHT, JANUARY 11, 1898 
 
 GIVING A GRAPHIC AND ACCURATE RESUME OF ITS DEADL\>/J^^^ '^^ '^'"'■^-"/V^>\V' 
 AND DESTRUCTIVE WORK / '-^' OI^FiCE OF THE -^.v\ 
 
 ( 0537 J/1M9 1898 
 Price 25 Cents xr^^/^r^'^ — >--^'^ 
 
 PUBLISHED AND PRINTED 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS ARE BV j / gy 
 
 QANNAWAY THRASH-LICK PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 TAKEN ESPEC1.-\LLV FOR THE PUBLISHERS FORT SMITH ARK 
 
3521 
 
 Copyrighted, 18<)8. By 
 THRASH-LICK PRINTING COMPANY 
 
 FORT SMITH, ARK, 
 
Cyclone, carrying' deatli and destruction in it.s wake, visited Fort Smith at 11:1") ]).ni. 
 on Tuesday. January 11, 1IS98, and even at this writing- it is ini])ossible to estimate 
 tile loss of lite and property to her citizens. It was the most disastrous storm 
 ever experienced in the southwest, and the destruction it worked was far more ap])alling- 
 than pen can tell. Block after block of business and i-esidence ])roi)erty was leveled to 
 the ground; houses were demolished to the fomidations; others were left with but 
 fragments of wall, or with the fractions of the floor of the first story remaining. Miles 
 of electric and te]e])hone wires and dozens of their poles were dashed to Mother Earth, 
 adding not only to the damage and wivckage but increasing to an alarming extent the 
 danger to life; and to avoid this im])endingdanger it was necessary to cut off the current 
 from the electric i)ower house, thereby throwing the business portion of the city into a 
 darkness that seriously interfered with the working of the relief cori)s, which had im- 
 mediately gathered to render assistance to the hundreds of injured. Trees of half a 
 century's growth were u]»rooted and carried a great distance; heavy masonry, at the 
 approach of the terrific strength of the storm king, i-eleased its connection, for the time 
 being, with earth, and, in fact, nothing movable was sti-ong enough to resist the ])itiless 
 fury of the awful wind, which attained a velocity of sixty miles an hour. 
 
 One of the peculiar features of the storm is that the barometer gave no warning of 
 its coming. After looking over the ground. Weather Observer O'Donnell has reached the 
 conclusion that ^he tornado Wiis distinctively of local origin. The first indications of its 
 approach became aiii)arent shortly after 10 p. m..when the atmosphere, laden with ii 
 
depressed and sultry condition, showed that at least a heavy rainstorm was brewing. 
 No one who observed the vivid and eontiaual flashes of lightning- in the west thought 
 for a moment that a cyr-lonif condition would follow the atmospheric depression, but 
 su<-li proved to be the fact, lamentable in its every feature. The lightning's flashes 
 increased, and by 11 o'clock the wind was blowing a decidedly threatening gale. It Avas 
 but a few minutes later when the peculiar sound of what proved to be the cyclone was 
 heard in the west, and in the twinkle of an eye it was upon the sleeping city. 
 
 A heavy rain followed the horrible (yclonic visitation, and it was ])robably twenty 
 minutes before the city awoke to the fact that it was wrapped in the folds of a fearful 
 calamity. The fire de])artment was called out and in less than thirty minutes the ruined 
 ])oi-tions of the city, and especially that vicinity known as "Texas Corner," was crowded 
 with willing hands and inquiring friends, ready to render all the aid that was in their 
 ])ower. The scene around "Texas Corner" was something too horrible even to imagine. 
 Hatless and shoeless men. women and children, many clad only in their nightclothes, 
 from the neighboring hotels and boarding houses, were seeking sheltei' and calling for 
 aid for some of their missing relatives or friends who failed to escape from the wreckage. 
 
 Following close in the wake of the cyclone appeared the fire fiend. As was inevit- 
 able, there were several fires, some of them serious in charactei", esi)ecially that of the 
 Smith block. Several fii-es, causing great alarm, were put out by the rain which followed. 
 The rainfall, in this case, was a Godsend, but on the other hand the damage done by it 
 was very great, deluging furniture and household effects which had been blown ovci' 
 streets, alle3's and yards, to the extent of which no one can estimate. 
 
The course of the storm seems to have been almost due west to east, and tlie first 
 place it visited was the National Cemetery, on our western limits. This, the most beanti- 
 ful spot in onr State, was left the most desolate. The five foot brick wall of over a mile 
 in length was lowered to the ground as though it had been made of tin rather than solid 
 masonry : the stately oaks are laid low. the shrubbery rolls before the wind, the lodge so 
 badly damaged that it can scarcely be recognized. All this the work of about sixty 
 seconds. After leaving the cemetery it took a direct eastern course, damaging Belle 
 Point School house to a considerable extent. Next in its path were the cotton yards, 
 three in number; here it seems to have displayed a most wonderful peculiarity by liter-ally 
 blowing the entire contents of bales of cotton from out of the hoops which held them, and 
 leaving the empty shell of the sacking and ties to represent a bale of the fleecy staple. 
 Then came the business portion of Garrison Avenue, between Eighth and Twelfth streets. 
 and two blockson Towson Avenue. Here the winds seem to have had aslittle opposition 
 as in the thinner settled parts of the city, and large stone and brick houses were piled 
 one upon another in huge masses of debris. Here also was wei-e death laid claim to more 
 victims than in any othei- ])ortion. All night and the following days, scores of strong 
 arms were delving in the ruins for dead and injured bodies, and not without success, but 
 their efforts were mostly rewarded by the recovery of those already gone beyond the need 
 of aid from charity and science. When it would ajipear that all damage possible had 
 been done in this inn'ticulnr locality, the tornado still continued its course east, striking 
 the wagon yards adjacent, and then taking in a more densely ])oi)ulated district. 
 
Although not so many t'ataHties. this portion was left in utter ruin : pianos, furniture, 
 buggies and everything were strewn as though so much chaff had been thrown to a sum- 
 mer's breeze. The Central Methodist and Ba])tist Churches are as com])lete wrecks as 
 was p(issible to make them, and Brownscombe ^lethodist badly damaged. The new 
 High School building, costing over .f 50,000, and only occupied about three months, was 
 so badly damaged that school will probabl.v not be held in it again this year. Now, for 
 some few blocks there was very little to oppose the fury which would brook no opposition, 
 and not until it reached Home Addition did it end its career, as far as the (.'ity of Fort 
 Smith was concerned. 
 
 The mo]-niug of the 12th broke upon the unfortunate Border City with cloudless 
 sky and the lovliest of spring weather, and but for the suffering and desolation within its 
 limits, one would have thought it the brightest and happiest city in the south. The 
 mayor and his assistants, the chiefs of police and fire department did everything in their 
 power to render aid and protect the city from further damage. At 10 o'clf)ck a. m. a 
 mass-meeting of citizens was called to provide means for the relief of the unfortunate- 
 Here was shown tlie magnanimity of Fort Smith's citizens, by the raising of a large sum 
 without even leaving the l)uilding in which the meeting was held. 
 
 The following ])ages of illustrations will give to the reader some faint idea of the 
 awful effect of the cyclone, but the " Art Preservative" will never i-each that ])erfection 
 which will enable it to despict to the bi-ain tlic liorror of one minute's work of such a hor- 
 rible visitation as this one. 
 
Corner Twelfth and A Streets— Lookin,i( North, sliowinji tiestruction of many nice homes, and where 
 two li\es were lost. 
 
Looking Northeast from Corner Thirteenth and B Streets — Showiiii; destruction of nice ^esidence^ 
 tlie vicinity oi Central Methodist cliurcli, wliicli was totally demolished. 
 
Garrison Avenue — Taken from corner of Tenth street, looking West. 
 
Locking West from ''Texas Cornsr " — Showing; th:it part ot Garrison avenue that suffered most. 
 
Looking North on Reserve Addition — Showing the ruins ot a wagon-vard, one of the cotton warehouses 
 and rear of daniaiijed business houses. 
 
Looking East from North Thirteenth and D Streets — .Showing total wreck of Fir~-t Baptist church, 
 and High .School biiilciint; in the distance. 
 
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 Exciting Scenes at the Morgue — Anxious crowd.; searching for dead relatives and friends. 
 

 Ruins of the Brogan Building, on Towson Avenue— This huildins was used as a hotel, and here ei.ijlit 
 dead hodies were leetnered. 
 
Looking North from "Texas Corner" — Sliowing wreck of fntire block between Garrison avenue and 
 A, Tenth and Eleventh Streets. 
 
i$ : 
 
 Looking Northeast from "Texas Corner "—.Showing ruins of Cutliolic liall and near-ln- residenc 
 
I -11 la '^* 
 
 
 
 Ruins of the High School Building — As seen trom Peabody school. 
 
New High School Building — As it appeared when the day faded into night.