Waterbury evening Democrat., 1904-08-09
OVER SIXTY BODIES RECOVERED
Bridge Went Down Under Weight
Of Train.
TORRENT TOOK CARS FOUR MILES.

Estimated That a Hundred Persons,
Mostly For St. Louis Exposition,
Went Down with the Train and
We're swept Away by the Current
Raging Through Dry Creek-Fire-
man saved by Miracle.
PUEBLO, Colo, Aug. 9.The worlds
fair f1ier, the fastest train sent out of
Denver by the Denver and Rio Grande
Railway company crashed through a
bridge over Dry creek, an arroyo near
Eden, on the main line, about eight
miles from Pueblo, at o'clock at
night.
1t is estimated that OF the 125 pas
sengers on board the i'll fated train
fully 100 lost their lives, either under
the waters of raging torrent due to a
cIoudburst or beneath the wreckage.
Two carloads of human freight
plunged into the raging torrent that
destroyed the trestle. Two sleeping
cars and the dining car stopped at the
brink Of the hungry chasm filled with
a boiling, seething current that quickly
snuffed out probably a hundred lives
So quietly had the catastrophe been
enacted that the occupants of the three
cars remaining on the track did not
realize that an accident had occurred
until they alighted from the train
Then they were utterly powerless to
render assistance to the victims who
had disappeared In the rushing waters.
The wreck proves to have been one
of the greatest railroad disasters in the
history OF the country. Two crowded
passenger cars and a baggage car were
engulfed in the torrent that tore out
the trestle spanning Steele's hollow,
otherwise known as Dry creek, and SO
far as known only three of the occu-
pants of these cars escaped death.
How many persisted probably never
will be definitely ascertained, for the
treacherous sands are drifting over the
bodies
Latest reports from the scene of the
wreck say that sixty three bodies have
been recovered and that no more are
now in sight The search continues,
and bodies will in all probability be
taken out farther down the stream,
where they were washed and covered
by the mud and sand.
The bridge went down under the
weight of the train, and baggage car,
smoker and chair cars were precipitat-
ed into the torrent. The engine got al
most across, but fell back into the wa
ter. The body of Engineer Human
was found 200 feet down the river.
All the cars were washed down the
stream The express car was found not
far away, with the safe open and its
contents gone The chair car was half
q mile from the scene Of the accident
half filled with sand, in which were
| buried the bodies of many passengers.
The smoker was washed still farther
down stream and was not located until
several hours after the time of the ac-
| cident
When Division Superintendent Bow
rem reached the scene of the wreck, the
missing cars had not been located, and
! the passengers and train hands who ac-
/ companied him organized searching
4 parties to follow the course Of the river.
| Tie three cars were found close to the
snoFe In Fountain creek, of which Dry
creek is a tributary and which in turn
| flows into the Arkansas river.
Most of the dead were in the cars
buried under the debris. The bodies
of three young women were washed
Up on the bank of the river three
! quarters of a mile below the scene of
| the wreck.
The disaster was the worst that has
ever occurred on the Denver and Rio
Grande railroad. Dry creek is one of
the most dangerous points on the road.
1t is not far from Butte, where two
years ago washouts occurred which
crippled the service of the line, but
eaused no loss Of life.