A version of this article first appeared in the Reno Gazette-Journal on Jan. 13, 2002.
While the City by the Bay was inundated with rain in January 1952, its namesake, a crack streamliner from Chicago, was snowbound with 236 passengers and crew in the Sierra Nevada. Some with a flair for the melodramatic styled the passengers another Donner Party.
In retrospect, there was a similarity between the 1952 marooned occupants of The City of San Francisco, who were caught in the sudden snowstorm, and the pioneer migrants of 1846, who were stranded in the Sierra snows. The 1952 ordeal, however, was shorter than that in 1846. Still, there were several casualties of the 1952 storm, including two deaths.
Winter of ’52
January 1952 was a winter of storms. On the East Coast and out into the Atlantic Ocean, furious storms battered the R.M.S. Queen Elizabeth as she brought Winston Churchill to address Congress. Another sea drama injected a new hero into American legend. Capt. Kurt Carlsen captured the headlines and the hearts of the nation in his vain effort to save his ship. Alone for almost two weeks, he stayed on board the cracked and listing S.S. Flying Enterprise after having seen his crew and passengers safely rescued. He leaped to safety minutes before his ship took her final plunge…