Mount Oldfield slide still stirs memories for one Rupert family

Last Thursday we went back to 1957 and the memorable Mount Oldfield slide of November.

The Daily News had an interesting look at that slide in its Friday paper, with a review of the events from the perspective of a couple that had their wedding plans coincide with the regions best known natural disaster.

Anniversary of tragic day still a fresh memory for local couple
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, November 23, 2007
Pages one and two

Although you wouldn't guess by the sunny weather, yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of one of the worst natural disasters in Prince Rupert's history, when a mudslide down Mount Oldfield claimed the lives of six people.

The North Coast of British Columbia is famous for its November storms, but few inflicted such damage and took as much from the city as the storm that blew through Prince Rupert on Nov. 22, 1957.

In the 18 hours leading up to the noon hour slide, 3.9 inches of rain had fallen with the accompaniment of gusting winds, a combination that eventually brought trees, mud and rocks down the hillside in what witness Jack Krug described "as [if] the whole mountain was moving".

In less than six minutes, the slide had killed four men and two women, including 64-year-old George Henderson. Young married couple Tom and June Perry perished, along with fisherman John Jordan Vandal, as well as longshoreman John Murray, and his wife, Merle. The Murray's 18-month-old daughter, Selma, was the lone survivor, and, after being treated at the Prince Rupert General Hospital, she was adopted by her uncle, Gene Rheaume.

Two Prince Rupert residents who remember the day well are Norman and Madeline Craddock, whose wedding day was scheduled for the day before that catastrophe. During that horific, but typical, Rupert storm, Madeline had a hair appointment at the House of Beauty that she diligently kept.

"Peggy, just put my hair in pin curls. I'll comb it out before the ceremony," she said to her stylist. "If this weather keeps up, my hair will be as straight as a poker before the night is over."
Her home phone was ringing when she returned with calls from friends asking if they were going to cancel the wedding due to the weather.

"Of course not!" she replied. "Since when did a little Rupert rain stop a wedding?"

The day had more obstacles than simply weather to throw at them. Mrs. Husoy had agreed to bake the cake and mistakenly thought the wedding was on the Saturday, instead of Friday, and Norman's best man had a allergic reaction that would keep him from being in the wedding party.
Fortunately everything came together and the ceremony at the Sons of Norway Hall proceeded as scheduled.

"During the ceremony, the minister would pause as the gale would try to snatch our words away," said Mrs. Craddock in a story she recently wrote about her wedding day. "Norm seemed to think the storm outside was tame in comparison to facing the crowd. He tried to hurry me out."

After a sleepless night in the Savoy Hotel, acting as an alternative to their original destination, the Parkside Motel, at which the manager had somehow "forgot to reserve a room," the happy couple were escorted to the plane that was supposed to whisk them away for a honeymoon. But it wasn't meant to be, as the airline attendant explained, the cloud ceiling was so low that no planes were landing. Not even a bus driven by Freddie Switzer could get the newlyweds past Kloiya Bay and on to Terrace, where there was some hope of catching a flight. The bus gave out, leaving passengers Maddy, Norm and his mother (who was supposed to 'see them off') to hop in a truck that took them and their soaking wet luggage to Miller Bay, where a city taxi then took them the rest of the way home.

"Well, that was a short honeymoon!" joked Madeline's father when they walked in the door.
By noon of that day, a thick fog had fallen and suddenly there was a terrible roar, leading everyone to believe that in fact a plane had taken off. But later in the day when the fog lifted it was clear that sound was that of mud sliding down Mount Oldfield, smashing through a small cabin and continuing down to Wantage Road.

"It smothered homes and shanties," said Madeline. "Several lives were snuffed out, but miracle of miracles, someone had found a wee babe."

After much discussion, it was decided they would travel to Vancouver by steamship on the SS Coquitlam for their much-needed honeymoon. They booked two rooms, one of which was supposedly the 'honeymoon suite,' and boarded at midnight.

"To this day, we will never know if there was a honeymoon suite, or if Norm's mom was given our cabin, but when we opened the door we were overcome with giggles; our honeymoon suite had two single beds!" Madeline remembers. "Needless to say, when the room steward came to do the cleaning, he had only to make up one bed!"

The Craddocks have since moved back to Prince Rupert for their retirement after spending many years on Vancouver Island, and Wednesday marked their 50th wedding anniversary, although they celebrated over the weekend with friends and family.

"Over the past 50 years, we have learned to dance through the storms together, knowing the One who watches over us has promised to take us to the other side."

The Daily News would like to thank the happy couple for sharing their wonderful story of that day that they've entitled The Torrential Tango for Two, as well as honour the memory of the six souls who perished in the tragic mudslide 50 years ago.

Fifty years ago: A mountain slid

November is famous on the north coast for the storms that lash the coast over the course of the thirty days of nature’s most unstable month. But few storms have wrought such damage as the winds and rain of November 22, 1957.

Today the Mount Oldfield slide is commemorated in Prince Rupert, it was fifty years ago during the noon hour of a normal Rupert day, that a massive slide of mud and debris flowed down the city side of the mountain along Wantage Road. A rumbling that caused more than a few to look up and upon its completion laid waste to a tract of land and unfortunately a number of lives

It had been a typical November in 1957, the rains as always a constant topic of conversation, but in the previous day before the slide it was an unusual pattern that settled over the city.

In 18 hours, 3.9 inches of rain had fallen over Prince Rupert, a pattern that brought with it high winds in the previous days of rain, a saturation that finally had the mountain surrender to Nature. Trees, mud, rocks all cascaded down in less than six minutes and claimed a recorded six victims, while leaving one child, 18 month old Selma Murray, as the sole survivor of the tragedy.
Traces of one of the more memorable of natural disasters in Prince Rupert history can still be seen on the mountainside, by a noticeable change in the vegetation pattern on the slopes towards Mount Oldfield.

November is famous on the north coast for the storms that lash the coast over the course of the thirty days of nature’s most unstable month. But few storms have wrought such damage as the winds and rain of November 22, 1957.

The Prince Rupert Library site has a link to the news of that most infamous day.

The Day the Mountain Fell

Prince Rupert Daily News

November 1957

On Friday Nov. 22 1957 it was blowing and the rain was beating down as it had done for days. At five minutes past 12 in the afternoon, Jack Krug shut off the engine of his power shovel to reach for his lunch pail. Digging out a pit on old Wantage road like he had done for days, Jack was feeling a little relief that the weekend was near. Chances were he could enjoy his wife's sandwiches and the hot coffee that was in his vacuumed packed thermos. "A poor day to be working outside", Krug reflected.

Suddenly he heard a rumble, looking up he saw Mt. Hays tumbling upon him 1,000 feet above. With no time to think Jack was out and running, fearing for his life. "It was as the whole mountain was moving" Jack recalled."The sight of it nearly made me freeze."

At 12:11 PM that Friday, the heavy duty cable strung along Wantage road to the C.N.R.'s vital communications repeater station snapped beneath the tremendous mass of earth that started tumbling down 2,300 foot Mt. Hays six minutes earlier. It was Prince Ruperts last link to go. In the previous 18 hours 3.9 inches of rain had fallen, not to mention the high winds that accompanied the rain in the past few days.

No one was quite sure who lay beneath the massive slide. When the rescue effort was complete, four men and two women were dug up from the murky grave. George Henderson, 64 year old millworker. Tom Perry, an unemployed laborer, found not to far from his 31 year old wife, June. Longshoreman, John Murray, his wife Merle and their two small children had just moved in days prior. A Fisherman, John Jordan Vandal, who happened to be walking across a bridge to visit the Murray's.

Selma Murray, the lone survivor, was unaware that she had cheated death at just the young age of 18 months. In the days that followed the slide, an out pour of telephone calls came into the hospital wanting to adopt the young girl. Gene Rheaume, laid claim to the young girl, as she was his niece. Gene was a welfare supervisor in Yorkton Saskatchewan, arrived in Prince Rupert to discuss the future for his niece. On December 1st 1957, the nurses at Prince Rupert General Hospital, dressed Selma in a new outfit and Gene was to take her with him.