Palisade, Nevada Train Wreck

February 20, 1911

FAST MAIL WRECKED

SIX COACHES OF SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRAIN WRECKED BY BROKEN RAIL.

Fifteen Persons Are Injured, Two of Whom Are Probably Fatally Hurt, and That All Were Not Killed Is Regarded as a Marvel.

Elko, Nevada – Fifteen persons were injured in a wreck on the Southern Pacific near Palisade this state Monday night. One man and two women probably are fatally hurt, while twelve others were slightly injured. The wrecked train was No 10, eastbound, known as the China Japan fast mail, and six cars left the track, three of which were hurled down the embankment. Two alighted on their side while the third, a tourist, rests upon its top.

Physicians and nurses were rushed to Palisade and the injured were brought to the company hospital at Elko.

The cause of the wreck was a broken rail. Four hundred feet of track was torn up.

That fifty or sixty persons were not instantly killed is a marvel, say railroad officials.

Carbon County Utah 1911-02-24

Submitted & transcribed by Stu Beitler  Thank you, Stu!

TWENTY-TWO INJURED IN WRECK

Broken Rail Sends Six Cars of Southern Pacific Passenger Train Plunging Down Embankment and Sparks and Palisade Hospitals are Filled With Injured.

SCORES GAZE ON DEATH

Over and Over Cars Are Turned Down Embankment and Only Stop On Brink of Humboldt River Where Angry Waters Hide Awful Death

(Associated Press by Leased Wire.)

Reno, Nev., Feb. 21.-Twenty-two men and women are lying in a hospital at Elko, Nev., today, being treated for injuries received last night when six cars of a Southern Pacific passenger train, eastbound, No. 10, left the rails about one mile west of Palisade. Three of the passengers-two women and a man-are acknowledged by the railroad company officials at Sparks to be seriously injured, although their injuries are not expected to prove fatal. The other passengers sustained injuries of a minor nature. Railroad officials here have as yet been unable to obtain the names of the injured passengers. But one member of the train's crew was injured, CONDUCTOR J. A. KNOWLES, of Sparks, who sustained a badly bruised shoulder.

The wreck was due to a broken rail caused by a flaw in the manufacture.

The crash came just as the passengers in the sleepers were preparing to retire. Two coaches, a smoker and a chair car, were hurled down the embankment, turned and twisted several times over and nearly sent into the Humboldt river. The fact that the scene of the wreck is considered one of the most dangerous pieces of track on the entire Salt Lake system prevented a more disastrous wreck, as all trains are driven at a slow rate of speed through the Palisade canyon.

A relief train was sent out from Carlin carrying physicians and nurses. The injured were taken to Elko as rapidly as possible and will be held there until they are able to travel. The road will be open for traffic about 11 o'clock.

The Bellingham Herald, Bellingham, WA 21 Feb 1911

Transcribed by Linda Houston. Thanks, Linda!

THE INJURED.

GEORGE GRIDLEY, Caro, Mich., hotelkeeper; abrasions right chest and severe contusions overlumbar region, serious.

W. L. WILSON, San Francisco, bridgebuilder; scalp and thigh.

F. M. GREY, Willoughby, O.; right thigh injured, serious.

L. R. MCWILLIAM, Highland, Cal., rancher; contusion of knee.

CORNELIUS OSONGRADS, New York City, linotype operator; dislocation right shoulder, right knee cut.

H. C. ARNOLD, San Antonio, Tex., railroad clerk; laceration left elbow and chest injured.

MRS. JOSEPHINE NEEDHAM, 618 Hess street, Saginaw, Mich.; left breast badly injured.

MRS. LILLIAN HERBNAR, bound for Carlin, Nev.; internal injuries, serious.

THOMAS WHEELER, Marysville, Ky.; cut on face.

ANDY OLSON, Alameda, Cal., bridgebuilder; cut on face.

JOSEPH DUNCAN, 2850 Vine street, Denver, commercial traveler; scalp torn and contusion of abdomen.

T. H. SMITH, Homer, Mich.; back and left shoulder injured.

MISS SUSAN KELLY, Minneapolis; left breast injured.

JOHN CHESPEAKE, side injured.

GEORGE SUTHERLAND, Reno, Nev.; badly bruised on neck, shoulder, hips and knee.

SLIGHTLY INJURED.

JOSEPH C. CAMP, Oswego, N. Y.; CHARLES DOWN, San Francisco; V. MOYER, Chicago; MYRON D. EVANS, Roseland, Neb.; CHARLES E. DONOVAN, Burkett, Ind.; G. H. GARR, Omaha; JOHN INDIANSTE, Rock Springs, Wyo.; C. M. WILSON (colored), Chicago; CONDUCTOR J. A. KNOWLES, Sparks, Nev.

About a dozen others suffered severe bruises.

San Jose Mercury, San Jose, CA 22 Feb 1911

Transcribed by Linda Houston. Thanks, Linda!

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