Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1910-11-11
WRECK KILLED ten
NORTH OF SPOKANE ABOUT
TWENTY MILES.
Loaded Freight Trains Going Down Hill
Meet in Head-on Collision-Most of
the Victims Lived at Hillyard-Bot
Train Crews Gone-Train Took Fire
Traffic Blocked for AZ Hours.

Spokane, Nov. 7.-Ordered to pass the
"apple extra" at Milan, Wash, train
No. 451 plowed on through yesterday
mornings early darkness, bare hour
or two before the Sabbath sun had
arisen. Fifteen minutes later, and
"451" and the "apple extra" were
ground into kindling wood, eight lives
were snuffed out, four men MANNED and
several hundred thousand dollars worth
of property destroyed, one of the most
disastrous freight wrecks in the history
of the Great Northern road.
Around an easterly sloping curve of
side hill about two miles east of Chat
taroy, Wash, Is miles east of Spokane,
the two mighty consolidated engines
crashed together. Both were pulling
heavily loaded trains of freight cars,
and both were on the down grade at a
terrific rate of speed, estimated by the
crew survivors at 40 miles an hour. The
collision happened to occur at almost
where one down grade ends and an up
grade begins, so that both engineers
were giving their big steel horses their
heads for a good start for the long up
hill climb, combination of almost
every condition to make the impact and
it's consequences terribly disastrous.
Traffic on the main line of the Great
Northern will have been suspended from
40 to 4s hours by the time the wreckage
is removed, and the line is not expected
to be cleared before tonight.
The known dead:
H. L. Hepburn, Hillyard, engineer
train No. 451, body recovered.
John Blanchard, Hillyard, fireman
train No. 451, body recovered.
Joe Keefe, Hillyard, conductor train
No. 451, body not recovered.
Allen Glass, Hillyard, engineer apple
extra, body not recovered.
E. B. Mcintyre, Hillyard, brakeman
apple extra, body not recovered.
Unknown man, train No. 451, charred
remains removed from fire.
Two unknown boys, train No. 451
charred remains removed from fire.
The injured:
"Scotty' Dempster, 43O Grant street
Spokane, apple extra, right shoulder dis
located.
Horsfall, Hillyard, conductor
apple extra, bruised.
Charles Bolton, Hillyard, brakeman
train No. 451, head slightly cut.
R. ]. Armstrong, Chopaka, B. G..
slightly bruised.
Running on Fast Schedule.
Train No. 451 was running on its reg
ular schedule, westbound. The apple
extra was eastbound, running on a fast
schedule of FIVE hours between Hillyard
Wash, and Troy, Mont. Train No. 451
was loaded with paints, automobiles
some furniture and live stock, most Of
the load extremely infammable material
and considerably lighter than the apple
extra, which carried, besides fruit
heavy loads of grain and lumber.
Every man of both train crews tina
happened to be near the front of hi
train is dead. One brakeman saved him
self by jumping, but he is injured. Thu
brakemen who happened to be in tn
rear of their trains escaped with mino
injuries. Conductor Horsfall miracu
lously escaped.
The loss to the road in the wreckag'
is almost inestimable. A pile of 10 car
of train No. 451, jammed into the spac'
of an ordinary living room, caught fir
Immediately, and were speedily reduced
to smoking mass of wood and tangled
writhing steel. This mass was burning
at an early hour yesterday before fir
apparatus, summoned from Spokane, Il
miles away, could start stream o
water on the ruins.
Beneath this molten pile are tn
bodies of three trainmen victims, not re
lowered at late hour last night.
The smashup behind the engine o
the apple extra was no less impressive
but fortunately did not catch fire
Bursted boxes of apples, piles o
shingles, gaping sacks of grain, spill
articles of furniture, charred empt.
cans of paint and oil, twisted trucks o
automobiles, and other ruined freigh
was scattered along the track for 2o
yards.
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