On this date in 1909, passenger train No. 4 of the Great Northern Railway, mainly loaded with people returning from the World's Fair in Seattle, derailed four miles east of the at Tioga. While travel by train was frequent, and train accidents not uncommon, it was noteworthy that for such a great wreck, few injuries occurred for most of the people onboard. According to some of the men manning the train, the accident was caused by a track failure.
The train had been about an hour behind schedule, and was running at reduced speed when the accident occurred. Several cars rolled off the track and down an embankment, including the engine, a refrigerator car full of fruit, the mail and baggage cars, the smoker car, and the tourist sleeper The rear end of the day coach was crushed by the tourist car. The track was ripped up for several hundred feet.
One woman threw her baby through a window in an attempt to protect the child. It was found afterward, uninjured; both mother and child were fine. Another family, Mr. and Mrs. P.W. Carney of Ray, were taking their son to Minot to the circus. They were riding in the middle of the day coach and escaped untouched. Only M. A. Rice, fireman from Devils Lake, and A.S. Erickson, from Franklin, Minnesota, had significant injuries. Franklin’s face and wrists were burned from a gas tank explosion on the tourist sleeper. There were some cuts, dislocations, bruises, and the like, but most of the men, women, and children had escaped major injury. One newspaper said: "That scores were not killed outright is nothing short of marvelous."
There was so much damage that it would take two to three weeks to clean everything up. The track was cleared so that trains could pass, but for some time, the cars involved in the accident remained scattered alongside the tracks. The engine was entwined amid telephone poles, making it particularly difficult to extricate.
Dakota Datebook by Sarah Walker
Sources:
The Fargo Forum and Daily Republican, June 25, 1909, p1 and 8
WIllow Lake Wave, Friday, July 9, 1909, p8
Kermit News, Friday, July 9, 1909, p8
