The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1889-06-06
UTTER DESOLATION.
The Receding Waters Bring to View the
Extent of the Great Disaster-Wreck-

Necedins waters Bring to View the
Extent of the Great Disaster-Wreck-
age of the Express Trains
JoHNsTowN, PA, June 5.-The Wood
vale Valley is strewn with wrecks of rail-
road cars and tenders, which protrude from
the sand just below the narrow defile.
There are four tenders here, two of which
are numbered 9 and 437. The other two are
so deeply buried that their numbers can
not be seen. Four cabooses are In
the woods near the detle ten feet above the
old track. Eighteen sets of car trucks were
counted there alone, more than half covered
with sand. Again the valley narrows and
the way over rocks and across gullies is pain
full. If the reader has perused "Dante' 8
He'll" he will remember some of the
poets most arduous toilings in tor
tuous and labored ways Such
are the passages up this valley
of death. Above the de6le there is another
wide valley circular in form. Three days
ago it was green and fertile, but now 1t is a
waste desert and sandy. 1t is strewn with
rocks and the wheels and timbers of cars.
ON Its northern side stand some of the
furnaces OF the Cambria Company The
walls are erect, but the machinery and great
pipes and wheels are scattered along
the slope below. Five engine
tenders peep from the sand.
Here and there are bent steel rails often dec
grated with tattered pieces of raiment. Near
the upper ead OF this valley is the wreck of
an extra freight-train of about forty cars.
Twenty cars still stand in line, broken and
crooked. In front of the engine is a huge
mass OF logs and other debris. The engine
Is 1909, run by George Henderson. He
and his crew saw the wave and
escaped to the hills not far
protected by the pron1ontories of the north
ern hills IS the village of Conemaugh. Its
houses are standing and nearly all the peo-
pie safe. The torrent was DETECTED bv the
promontory to the south side and the village
got only the mild eddy of the current.
No trace of 'Conemaugh station remains
and where it stood there is gully and a
riyulet in the sand. Seven bodies were found
in this valley and taken to the city. Not
one has been identified.
Above this 1 reached the scene of what
alone would have been a catastrophe to ap-
pail the world. A Pullman vestibule train
caught in the fluid avalanche and then
burned to the wheels would have been
enough, but within one mile it was repeated
thrice. First there was found in the sand
the truck of a parlor car marked Whining
ton, This is all that remains of the
pullman car swept away and entirely lost
with all its passengers Close to it on a
tangle of roots, is woman's black Jacket.
A few feet away pulled out of the sand a
girls white skirt and beside that mans
coat. Fifty feet further is another truck and
the smoke-stack of locomotive One hun
dred feet above there is a tender, number 76.
Upside down. Then I reached two engines
SO covered with wreckage that their NUM- bers
are, indiscernible. Beyond that there is an
other engine, 437, its side. Over two
ravines and there lies all that remains of the
second section OF No. s. the Day Express.
which left Chicago at o'clock Friday after
noon. 1t consisted of two mail cars,
numbered II and So, an express car
and four vestibule cars. One of
the latter is gone as stated. The other three
caught fire and are burned to the wheels.
Each Is skeleton of iron frames rods and
light fixtures Underneath the tangle are
heaps of ashes and melted glass. How many
people drowned and were burned in this
place no man knows. and no one ever will
know accurately.
The mail cars are whole. The mails were
yesterday packed across the mountains.
This wreck has been visited by anxious peo-
pie from East and West looking for lost
friends. The engine in front is half covered
with timbers. 1t was number 1904. One
cannot look upon the remains OF this once
luxurious train without imagining the scenes
which occurred in the elegant cars when the
wall Of water leaped upon it. will not try
to say 1t in words. Every man can think it
Tor himself