The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1908-04-27
PASSENGER TRAIN WENT
Through OLD STRUCTURE
No Attempt Ever Made to
Raise Smoking Car
From River Bed
sreeIal to Daily Leader.

Special to Daily Leader.
Kingfsher April 27-The Rock
Island has just completed new steel
bridge across the Cimarron river near
Dover six miles north Of here. The
structure is handsome one and Is
said to have cost from 5000 900 to
100000. A large force Of men has
been at work on the big span for more
than a year. Trains have been pas
sing over it for several days.
II IS certainly good to hear about
that said a travelling man at one of
the hotels this morning. IL always
shudder when / cross the Cimarron at
that point, for ! was on the Rock
Island train that crashed into the river
there in September. 1906 II il an
experience that ! do not care to re-
peat, though | was not injured. being
IN the Pullman. which never left the
track.
The train was bound for Chicago
and was running several hours behind
time Heavy rains had swollen the
river to a torrent and IL was as wick
ed looking stream as one would
care TO see
The bridge was a frail structure
built on piling driven into the quick
sand OF the river bed and the high
water had weakened it till it was al
most ready TO so down of its own
weight The engineer saw It swerving
and tried to stop the train. but the
forward coaches slid onto the bridge
and toppled over into the stream. The
smoker was carried several hundred
yards down the stream. and for sew
eral hours we could see three men on
top of 1t vainly endeavoring to get to
land One by one they disappeared
beneath the water. II was one of the
most terrible sights / ever saw. A
number escaped from the car by
1 crawling out the windows and floating
or swimming to shore, as others also
did from the chair car. Many were
/ carried down the stream for miles.
/ While only four or five are definitely
known TO have lost their lives, there
are many who believe that a score or
more would be found in the smoAef
could it be raised cut Of the quick
sands. lt is still commented on as
significant that the smoker was al.
I lowed to sink into the river bed and
that no attempt was ever made to
raise it. Several weeks afterward the
body of the negro porter was found
in the sand where coyotes had been
trying 20 dig II out A billposter for
a circus is known to have been
4 drowned but his body has never been
found. Many OF the injured were
paid heavy damages as were those
who lost baggage and other valuables
The old trestle was patched up for
/ further use. Geo. l.. Bowman. al that
time county attorney, made an effomrt
to prevent the company from running
any more trains across il. The com
pany took him on a special TO where
Judge irwin was sitting In court and
the case WAS fought out Il WIS held
II ] remember rightly, that the local
courts could not interfere with inter
state commerce Mr. Bowman then
secured an order from the court com
lpelling the company 70 keep q watch
man at each end of the bridge day
and night and later another order
compelling them TO begin work on the
new bridge just completed. There was
scme talk that railroad men were
secreting bodies rescued from the
river and smuggling them out Of the
country. An order was secured from
the court enioining them from taking
any such bodies out Of the county
though there was little on which 10
base such a rumor
I "pponle haunted fhe scene of the
wreck fer DAYS collecting souvenirs
I One of the legends that has survived
in this connection relates To Press
Love. then sheroff Of K:nghsher coun
I ny, and a cousin of Jack Love. OF the
corporation commission. He escaped
from the smoker and swan 10 safety
u Is told among the survivors OF the
wreck that he drank the river dry and
walked out on shore