The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-01
KILLED WHOLESALE
sPLINTERED CARS AND MEMS no.
DIES MINED IN CONFUSION.
MUCH WORSE THAN FEARED.
THIRTY-sIx LIVES LOST IN WRECK
ON GREAT NORTHERN.


Are Wounded - wild Freight
Caused the Wreck-Rushing at
lightning Speed Down Grade, 1t
Smashed Cars to Atoms.
Kalispell, Mont, Aug. 31.--Thirty-si
lives were lost and thirteen persons in
jured in the wreck on the Great North
ern Railway passenger train, No. 8, at
Nyack, thirty miles west of Kalispell
last night.
None of the passengers was injured,
the fatalities having been confined to
employees of the railroad company.
The dead:
P. T. Downs, assistant general SUI
perintendent of the Great Northern
lines west of Minot, N. D.
K. T. Downs, his son.
Henry Blair, cook aboard the pri-
vate car of Mr.. Downs.
Thirty-three Scandinavian laborers,
names unknown.
Injured:
Thirteen Scandinavian laborers,
names unknown.
The wreck was caused by the break
ing in two of freight train on the
steep grade of Rocky mountain foot
hill. The rear end of the freight tore
loose from the head end, dashed back
ward down the mountain and crashed
into the rear end of the passenger
train, which was just pulling out of
the passenger station at Nyack. The
car attached to the rear end of the
passenger train was the private coach
of Supt. Downs. He and his son, Kirk,
and their cook Henry Blair, were in
stantly killed. The car just ahead con-
tanned forty-six Scandinavian laborers
en- route from Duluth, Mimi, to Jen-
nings. They were killed wholesale.
Only thirteen were taken from the
wreckage alive.
Fire, Immediately following the col
lision, quickly destroyed the private
| car, cremating the bodies of those
within. The flames were quickly COM
municated to the car ahead, or rather
| to what remained of it, and the bodies
| of twenty-eight of the unfortunate Ia
| borers also were cremated. The third
| car from the rear was also burned, but
those within managed to escape when
the collision first occurred. The fire
| continued to spread through the mass
of wreckage caused by the destruction
of the dozen or more freight cars and
their contents of valuable freight.
Finally, the passenger train was cut
in two between the third and fourth
cars from the rear, and the balance
was was taken to a safe distance from
the fire. All telegraph wires on the
poles alongside the track were soon
melted and communication was thus
cut off soon after the collision.
Physicians were taken to the scene
from this city and all traffic was for
time suspended, while the wreck and
train crews endeavored to rescue the
Of ha Nla he
debris.
The Bodies Cremated.
The wreck was the worst in the
roads history, and one of the most
sanguinary in the annals of American
railroading. BY heroic efforts fifteen of
the bodies were taken from the wreck
ed cars. All the other victims were
cremated, including Supt. p. L. Downs
and his son, T. K. Downs. OF the thir-
teen injured, three will die.
There is 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
twenty-eight cars started down the
grade. The runaway train dashed down
the grade at frightful speed and crash
ed into the rear of the west bound pas
senger train. No. 3, near the siding at
Ny ack.
Superintendent Downs private car
was attached to the passenger train
and next to it was a day coach filled
with railroad laborers from Duluth. AS
the runaway train sped by the switch
it struck caboose and day coach on
the siding, wrecking them. Fire i'm
mediately started from the oil lamps
in the caboose. The point where the
wild train crashed into the passenger
was several hundred feet away and it
was two and a half hours before the
flames reached the main wreck
Meanwhile, frantic efforts were
made to take out the dead and injured.
The wreck was piled high and wedged
into almost hopeless confusion, and in
spite of superhuman efforts the flames
burst through the wrecked cars before
the work was completed.
j. H. Blair negro cook in Mr.. Downs
car, was taken out alive, but died in
a few minutes. 1t was impossible to
get at the bodies of Supt. Downs and
his son.
Came at Lightning Speed.
The runaway tore down the hill at
lightning speed, rounding the most Sc
we're curves as a speed upwards of
seventy miles an hour. where regular
trains barely crawled along. With a
roar il burst around the curve, jumped
a split switch which would have turn
ed it to the side track and crashed in
to the passenger There was neither
time nor opportunity for escape. Mr..
Downs car and that OF the laborers
were smashed into kindling wood, the
occupants of the private car meeting
instant death.
The wreckage and shingles and
lumber of the freight burned like tim
der. The train crew was forced back
from it's work of rescue by the flames.
One man penetrated as far as the pri-
vate car where he saw the 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 reached and
burned before the eyes of the specta-
tors. The fire was so fierce that the
rear sleeper could not be saved though
IL had not left the track. It's 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.
storm Kept Hack the News.
A severe storm greatly retarded tel
eRraphic news of the wreck. The first
message sent came to Kalispell whence
the wrecker and all the surgeons in
that town were ordered to the scene.