The story of the Oso mudslide is being followed around the nation.  What many people don’t realize however is that this area was hit by a similar mud slide in 1951, thankfully non-fatal.  The pictures accompanying this post show an aerial view of the recent mudslide which is slightly to the west of the 1951 slide, the area of the slide in 1949 and a plan of where the 1949 Hazel slide occurred . (The two early pictures are found in the first document on the list below)

As interest in the historiography of the Oso Mudslide grows, the Washington State Library Digital and Historic Collections Unit has identified and made available online the following titles:

Report on slide on North Fork Stillaguamish River near Hazel, Washington  [1952]

Stillaguamish slide study : summary of data obtained by Research Division during 1952 , [1953?]

Stillaguamish slide study  : report on siltation experiment and report on flow correlation (North Fork Stillaguamish River) [1953]

Hazel/Gold Basin landslides  : geomorphic review draft report  [1999]

We will continue to digitize background material on this area as we can and make it available for online viewing.