The Tragic Train Wreck at Eden
On the night of August 7th, 1904, a raging storm caused a terrible tragedy just north of Pueblo.
The Missouri Pacific Flyer locomotive had six cars behind it. This Pullman car’s coupler snapped off as the three cars in front of it and the locomotive fell into the water. An alert attendant in the Pullman car behind this one activated the air brakes, keeping the three remaining cars from rolling into the torrent.
When the locomotive was pulled into the water, the three cars still attached to it broke free and were washed downstream. But the locomotive sunk straight to the bottom where it entered the water. In the picture at the top of this page, workers try to crane out the locomotive which is covered in mud. As the train cars washed downstream, the passengers within them were trapped and perished within. While the caption for the bottom picture identifies the car as the chair car, I found another reference that identified it as the smoker car. The deceased passengers are still inside.
References:
Author Unknown. (1904, August 8). 100 RIO GRANDE PASSENGERS DROWNED IN WRECK – BRIDGE OVER FOUNTAIN CARRIED AWAY BY CLOUDBURST. The Rocky Mountain News (Daily). 1.
Author Unknown. (1904, August 11). Over One Hundred Lives Lost in Train Wreck Near Pueblo. The Colorado Transcript. 7.
Author Unknown. (1904, August 13). Passengers were alert. The Aspen Daily Times. 3.
Author Unknown. (1904, August 14). After a disaster. Ten minutes would have prevented the wreck. The Aspen Daily Times. 1.
Helmers, D. (1971). Tragedy at Eden. Published by Dow Helmers.
Sneakin Deacon. (2009, March 14). 1904 Train Wreck – Eden, Colorado. Waymarking. https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm60W4_1904_Train_Wreck_Eden_Colorado
Dollman, D. S. (2017). Colorado’s Deadliest Floods (Disaster). Arcadia Publishing Inc. Kindle Edition.
Griggs Jr, F. (2021, October). Eden Train Wreck. Dry Creek Bridge Failure. Structure Magazine (Online). https://www.structuremag.org/?p=18836
Author Unknown. (n.d.). Flash Flooding Definition. National Weather Service. https://www.weather.gov/phi/FlashFloodingDefinition