Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1901-09-06
TERRIBLE WRECK OF G. \.
TH1RTY-s1x REPORTED DEAD.
Loaded Freight Train, without En-
sines or Men Came Over the Noun
tain Side and Crashed in Rear End
of a Passenger Train-superin-
tendent Downs Among the Killed.


Thirty four dead, three fatally injured
and 10 more or less seriously hurt-that
is the result of the terrible train wreck
and holocaust on the Great Northern rail-
way at Nyack, Mont, Friday evening.
The wreckage instantly took fire and
burned fiercely for over two hours and
half before reaching the passenger
coaches in which over two score human
beings lay buried. Some were mangled,
some were dying and many were dead.
Their mutilated remains were never re-
covered, but were cremated in the awful
furnace heat which consumed every vestige
of the wrecked cars except the iron and
steel.
In this fearful holocaust the bodies of
Assistant General Superintendent p. 7.
Downs and son, T. Kirk Downs, were
consumed, together with the remains of %
laborers whose names could not be learn
ed
Ten freight cars loaded with shingles
and lumber, one boxcar loaded with
SdIliOI llltc COdCuCS Ou bhC
passenger train, including standard
sleeper, day coach and the private car
of Superintendent Downs, were burned in
the contlagration.
The wreck occurred at Nyack, Al miles
east of Kalispell, Mont, at $3.50 O'Clock
in the evening. The passenger had just
passed caboose and a day passenger
coach, standing on sidetrack, and was
running about six miles an hour, when the
rear end of our train was crashed into
by runaway freight train of % cars,
which had started from a siding near the
summit of steep grade. These cars were
heavily loaded and when the crash came
We're running fully 20 miles an hour.
Eyewitnesses say that the freight cars
came down the mountains with roar like
a tornado, carrying great clouds of d.t-t
and withered vegetation in their wake.
The roar of the runaway train was heard
above the noise of the passenger train
by man who was in the detached caboose.
The point at which the collision occurred
was just beyond sharp curve, which, to-
gether with the moving passenger train,
prevented any attempt at warning, had
such thing been possible.
To those on the train not a single mo-
ment's warning was given. The first we
knew was fearful crash followed by
sickening, crunching grinding, tearing,
iolting sound This was fonowed by the
violent oscillation of the coaches, a sud
den jerk and all was still.
The cause of the confagration was not
from the stove of the superintendent 5
private car, as at first announced, but
from lighted oil lamp in the caboose
which was standing on the sidetrack and
which was overturned when the collision
occurred. The point from where the ca
boose was overturned to where the vic
tins were buried beneath the wreckage
was at least five car lengths distant. That
accounts for the considerable lapse OF
time before the sleeper and other wrecked
cars were burned. No fire originated in
the passenger train at all.
The wreck was not caused from a
freight train breaking in two, as first re-
ported, but in the following manner: East
bound freight train No. l6 had taken the
siding near the summit of the grade neal
Essex, 10 miles from where the collision
occurred. 1T consisted of % loaded cars
| two engines and a caboose. A helper en-
CINE is used at the rear of freight trains
over the Essex grade. The caboose fol
lows the helper engine.
After the train passed both engines o.
the freight were detached and taken tc
Essex for water and coal, leaving the q
cars on the siding. 1T is supposed the all
brakes which had been set leaked, thus
allowing the tension on the brakes to re
lax, with the result that the % cars begar
to go down the hill, gathering momentum
at every mile, until the point of collision
with the passenger train, when it is vari
ously estimated that the runaway car
must have been going at the rate of 20 tt
100 miles an hour.
The real loss of life is variously est
mated. The conductor in his report to thu
physicians said that the day coach carry
ing the laborers left Havre with AZ men OF
board. Between Havre and NyaclS foul
left the train, leaving 43 on board in thu
coach when the collision occurred. OF tn,
l6 rescued, three were dead and one die
shortly afterwards, making total of B.
dead and missing. These, with the thre'
passengers in the private coach, make
total of "a who are known to have los
their lives at the time of the accident. 1
the conductor was mistaken about fou
men leaving the coach between Havr
and Nyack, then there was a total of 81
men killed.
The laborers were being taken to Jen
nings by Guthrie & Co., contractors. :
member of the firm was on board the train
The life of this man whose name was no
learned was saved by simple game o
cards.
at is believed that nothing furthe
could have been accomplished toward thu
saving of life, as all indications of any on
yet remaining in the wreckage alive ha'
long ceased. There was no lack of aid
Fully a hundred men, who were passenger
on the train, and a gang of Japs worked
heroically, covering every part of tn