OVER ONE HUNDRED LIVES LOST IN TRAIN WRECK NEAR PUEBLO

Pueblo, Colo., Aug. 8. --- Train No. 11, the Missouri Pacific flyer, crashed through a bridge over an arroya, or dry creek, near Eden, on the Denver & Rio Grande railroad, about eight miles from Pueblo, at 8 o'clock last night.

It is estimated that of the 125 passengers on board the ill-fated train between eighty and one hundred lost their lives, either under the water of the raging torrent or beneath the wreckage.

Upon the news reaching Pueblo a special train bearing all the available surgeons and Rio Grande and Missouri Pacific officials left for the scene.

About 11 o'clock a second train, carrying stretchers, coffins and a number of police officers, was sent out from the Union station. The alarm was sent out by Fireman MAYFIELD, who escaped unharmed from the wreck.

About 1:45 o'clock this morning the relief train returned to the city, bringing those who had escaped with their lives, about seventeen in all, the only ones, so far as now known, who did not perish in the disaster.

Dry creek is fifty feet wide and fifteen feet deep, with steep banks, one mile north of Eden. Water was flowing over a trestle when the train struck it. The engine got almost across, but fell back, and baggage car, smoker and chair cars plunged into the torrent.

The engine fell on its right side. The chair car was carried half a mile down Fountain creek. The baggage car and smoker have not been found.

Dry creek empties into the Fountain less than a half mile below the wreck. There was no water in the creek two hours after the accident. The diner and sleeper did not go down.

The bodies of two women and a girl, the latter probably fifteen years old, were the first to be recovered. They were found a half mile below the wreck. They were occupants of the chair car. The bodies were covered with mud and were not identified.

The creek is raging and the banks are muddy, and the searchers are meeting with many obstacles. Chief Shoup and twenty-five police are there with 200 people assisting.

Lanterns and torches are visible along the river for miles. It is thought that 125 persons went down. Undertaker Collier is there, and the bodies are being placed in boxes, carried to the train and brought to Pueblo.

The baggage car and smoker were not found and are believed to have been washed down the creek a mile. The engineer was found 200 feet down the river at 2 a. m.
The chair car was found a mile from the scene of the accident half filled with sand and bodies, covered and buried. The express car was found near the scene of the wreck with the safe open and the contents gone.

Pueblo, Colo., Aug. 9, 6:30 a.m. ---The latest estimate of the dead in the awful disaster at Dry creek puts the total at over 100. It is believed that there were fully 125 persons on the ill-fated train, and only about two dozen survivors have been accounted for.

The train left Denver with about its normal number of passengers. While some of them got off at Colorado Springs, not less than thirty passengers boarded the train there, so that if the total changed, it is not unlikely that it was increased.
With the breaking of day the full horror of the scene, which was concealed to a great degree by the mantle of night, became apparent. Wreckage is visible in all directions, dead bodies being visible here and there in the piles of debris from the cars, driftwood and mud.

It will be several hours before the number of dead can be announced with any certainty. Many of the bodies of those who perished were carried down Fountain creek by the wall of water which had force enough to carry several coaches nearly four miles away from the point where they went through the bridge.

Denver, Aug. 8, --- Passenger train No. 11 is the fastest train sent out of Denver by the Denver & Rio Grande. It makes the Missouri Pacific connection for Kansas City and St. Louis, and usually carries a heavy load of travelers.

Yesterday afternoon the train was made up of six cars – express, smoker, diner, chair car and two sleepers. Nearly every coach was well filled when the train pulled out of Denver at 5 o'clock.

The train makes the run to Colorado Springs in two hours and five minutes, and all went well that far last evening. One hour and ten minutes is the schedule to Pueblo, and the heavy train was whirling along through the storm to make this fast time when it dropped into the stream.

Last night the train was in charge of the following crews: JAMES H. SMITH, conductor, living at 269 South Sherman avenue; THOMAS S. REES, messenger the Globe Express Company, living at 1675 Winona street; HENRY S. HINMAN, engineer, 969 South Eleventh street: THOMAS J. TURNER, fireman, Denver.

The first intimation of the accident was received from Pueblo and all advices to the Denver office of the road came from that point.

When Division Superintendent Bowren of the Pueblo division was notified from Pinon station by passengers who had escaped and who had walked through the blinding rain to the nearest telegraph station, he immediately sent a hurry call for all surgeons and nurses in the city to follow him on relief trains and taking an engine and car, hurried from Pueblo to the scene.

One train followed another from the city in quick succession, and every available physician responded to the call, accompanied by a large supply of medicines and a number of nurses. In the meantime measures were taken for the equipment of a hospital train, and that left Pueblo later in the night. The first relief train left the station about 12 o'clock, and a second followed soon after. In addition to the surgeons and nurses a carload of coffins was sent to the spot.

Superintendent Bowren arrived on the scene first and immediately communicated with Denver.

Alamosa Journal Colorado 1904-08-12