Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1904-08-12
WORLDS FAIR FLYERWRECKED
TRAIN GOES THROUGH BRIDGE
INTO FLOODED RIVER.
Scores Of People Were Killed Near
Pueblo, col,--NearIy 30 Bodies
Have Been Recov-
cred.

Pueblo, Col, Aug. 9.-The wreck OF
the worlds fair flyer on the Denver C
Rio Grande railroad near Eden, seven
miles north of Pueblo, Sunday even
ing, proves to have been one of the
greatest railroad disasters in the his
tory of the country. Two crowded
passenger cars and a baggage car
were engulfed in the torrent that tore
out trestle spanning Dry creek, and,
so far as known, only three of the oc-
cupants of these cars escaped death.
Fortunately two sleeping cars and
diner remained on the track at the
edge of the abyss and none of their
occupants was killed or injured.
AT s O'Clock last evening 76 bodies
had been recovered and of these so
had been identified. During the day
bodies were recovered all the way
along Fountain river from the scene
of the wreck to this city. At 1 o'clock
Monday afternoon two bodies were
taken from the stream at First street,
Pueblo, more than eight miles from
the point where the disaster occurred,
and it is probable that some may be
recovered even further down stream.
Oil tilC lOOhOuJ lOl udHStl, MdluCu
by the squally clouds and heavy rains
/ to the north, Engineer Charles Hind
man was running cautiously, about 10
miles an hour, as he approached the
arroyo, which was spanned by the
bridge, SO feet in length. The condi-
tion of the bridge was not known until
the engine had nearly crossed. Fire
man Frank Mayfield, with torch
that the engineer and the fireman had
burning to ascertain the condition of
the track, was in the gangway. When
Engineer Hindman felt the tremor in
the great machine and caught glim-
mer on the water, he shouted his last
words:
Put out that TORCH" evidently
thinking that in the accident he felt
certain was coming the flames would
spread fire.
But before Mayfield could obey,
while the words were still on the lips
of the doomed man and his hand seek
ing the mechanism controlling the air,
the bridge gave way as though it had
been a stack of kindling wood and the
locomotive dropped 80 feet to the bot
tom of the arroyo, crosswise to the
track.
The baggage car, smoking car and
chair car followed the locomotive into
The stream and were swept away. All
the occupants of these cars eXcept
three men perished and had not the
roof of the chair car burst asunder,
none would have escaped. The fire.
man, as the locomotive went over, was
thrown out and, managing to grasp
piece of wreckage from the bridge,
hoated with that to a curve made by
the caving bank and crept out of the
water. He ran toward Eden, meeting
On the way Operator F. NJ. Jones and
his wife, who already had started up
the track.
Notify Pueblo" came the voice of
the running man. THE trains gone
down and everybody is killed" Even
as he spoke there were cries coming
from the distance. The two men ran
to where the bridge had been, to
search, but in vain, for victims of the
disaster When they reached the spot
all cries for help had ceased.
Relief trains with physicians, wreck
outfits and scores of workmen were
7urried from the city. The first train
from the wreck came in shortly after
midnight with four men who escaped.
When dawn came the wonder grew
that four had been permitted to
emerge from the raging torrent with
breath still in their bodies.
The end of the Pullman car Wyuta
extended four feet over the brink,
while broken timbers and twisted rails
hung still further over.