Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1901-09-01
IH|RTY-S|N KILLED IN
GREAT northern WRECK.
FREIGHT TRAIN BROKE IN TWO on
A GRADE. AND REAR
PART RAN
BACK INTO PASSENGER TRAIN
THIRTf-THREE OF THE DEAD
WERE LABoRERs EMPLOYED
BY THE COMPANY.

KALISPELL, Mont, August ST.
Thirty-six lives were lost and thirteen
persons were injured in the wreck on
the Great Northern railway passenger
No. at Nyack. thirty miles west of
Kalispell
None of the passengers were injur-
ed. the fatalities having been confined
to employees OF the railroad company.
The dead
intendent of the Great Northern lines
west of Minot. N. d.
Kirk T. Downs, his son.
Henry oiair. cook aboard the private
car of Mr.. Downs.
Thirty-three Scandinavian laborers;
names unknown.
Injured:
Thirteen Scandinavian laborers;
names unknown.
The Wreck Was Caused
by the breaking in two of freight
train on the steep grade OF Rocky
Mountain foothill. The rear end of the
freight tore loose from the head and
dashed backward down the mountain
and crashed into the rear end of the
passenger train. which was just pulling
out OF the station at Nyack The car
attached to the rear end of the pas
senger was the private coach of Super
intendent Downs. He and his son,
Kirk, and their cook, Henry Blair, were
instantly killed. The car just ahead
contained as Scandinavian laborers, en-
route from Duluth. Mimi, to jennings.
they were killed wholesale. Only 10
were taken from the debris alive.
Fire Immediately following the col
lision quickly destroyed the private
car, cremating the bodies of those
within.
The flames we're quickly communi
Gated to the car ahead. or rather to
what remained of it, and the bodies of
28 OF the unfortunate
Laborers Also Were Crcmnted.
The third car from the rear also was
burned but those within managed TO es-
cape when the collision first occurred.
The fire continued to spread through the
mass OF debris caused by the destruc-
ton of the dozen or more freight cars
and their consignments of valuable
freight.
The wreck was the worst in the roads
history. and one of the most sanguinary
in the annals Of American railroading.
There is a severe grade near the scene
of the wreck. Two engines had taken a
train of twenty-eight freight cars up this
grade and drawn off to take water. While
doing this all the Is cars started down the
grade. The runaway train dashed down
the grade at frightful speed, rounding
curves at seventy miles. an hour
where regular trains barely crawl along
With a roar it burst around a curve
jumped a split switch which would have
turned it to the side track, and crashed
into the passenger. There was neither
time nor opportunity for escape. Mr.
Downss car and that of the laborers we're
smashed into kindling wood. the occu-
pants of the private car meeting instant
death. The debris and shingles and lum-
Der of the freight burned like finder. The
train crew was forced back from its
work of rescue by the flames. One man
penetrated as far as the private car, where
he saw the dead bodies of Mr. Downs
and his son and from where he dragged
the body of the cook. In the laborers car
many of the forty-six occupants were
so pinned in that they could not be res
cued and burned before the eyes of the
spectators.
The fire was so fierce that the rear
sleeper could not be saved though 1t had
not left the track. Its occupants were
hurried into the forward cars, which
were hauled ahead out of the reach of
| the fire. The flames extended to the
brush alongside the track and burned the
| telegraph poles.
Col Downs's death cast a gloom over
| the entire city. He was one of the most
popular railroad men ever stationed here.
He was 81 years old and has spent 80
years in railroad service. Tomorrow he
was to have assumed the duties OF vice
president OF the Spokane Falls & Koote-
mai Valley road at the personal request
| of j. J. HIill. He leaves a widow. now
| visiting in Bakersfield, VT, and one
| daughter. Mrs. Rupert Blue. of San Fran
|