On Today's Date: Train-Trapping Northwest Winter Storm

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Winter storms aren't exclusively a mountain phenomenon in the West. Those that happen in lower elevations of the Pacific Northwest can unleash travel chaos in areas that don't typically pick up nearly as much snow.

On Nov. 19, 1921, 103 years ago today, a major storm hammered Oregon and Washington's Columbia River Gorge with up to 4.5 feet of snow, and the city of Portland with accumulating ice.

Snow slides along the Columbia River highway were reported to be 4 to 6 feet deep. But one of the most eye-popping impacts of the storm was the nine trains trapped for several days in the Columbia Gorge.

And it took amazing efforts to keep both heat and food supplied to passengers and crews of one marooned train east of Portland.

According to The Oregonian , a three-quarter-mile-long pipeline was laid from the Bridal Veil Lumber Company to supply the steam train's boilers with enough water to heat the cabin.

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The train's conductor hiked to the only store in the area to buy up as much food for his passengers, which was then distributed by the crew.

And if that wasn't enough, one of the lumber company's employees provided a phonograph for entertainment. As long as the train was still stuck, "there was dancing almost continuously."

Snow and ice storms are typical in the Columbia Gorge and Oregon's Willamette Valley, despite their lower elevation and proximity to the milder air of the Pacific Ocean.

That happens when cold air from the interior Northwest or Canada surges westward through the gorge and valley and becomes trapped in place as a wet Pacific storm moves in.