This riveting tale is part history, part outdoor narrative, and part legal thriller. Di Stefano, a history professor at University of Alaska, Fairbanks, crafted a tale of how early avalanches affected mining towns and railroads at the turn of the last century. This is not a treatise on the science of snow. Rather, Di Stefano discusses how avalanches changed the lives of miners, railroad workers, and skiing mailmen, and the struggles that ensued with widows and families left behind.

After an interesting and thorough overview of avalanches in mountain towns in the west, Di Stefano delves into fascinating medical-legal stories. A slide in 1899 in Rogers Pass outside Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada, killed 6 and a slide in 1910 in the same area killed 57. Topping v. Great Northern Railway Company centers on a massive slide in Wellington, Washington, that took out a stalled train and killed 96 people. Topping’s family lost both criminal and civil cases.

A fascinating sidebar is that these lawsuits formed the beginnings of labor and industries insurance, safe labor laws, and the development of strategies to mitigate avalanches including snow tunnels. The cases also break ground regarding litigating natural disasters. Di Stefano discusses the duty required by a company to be cognizant of and prevent avalanches—despite very little being known about avalanches during this time.

Di Stefano’s treatise is an interesting read, generously footnoted, referenced, and indexed.