More than one hundred years ago, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 1903 a
message didn't get to a train conductor and 14 people died as two
trains ran together about 150 meters NW of this cache located just
off some of the remaining track bed. You can see the black stones
of the bed all over the area.
Here is an article that appeared in the Rita Ranch neighborhood
association newsletter copied from a story by Bonnie Henry from the
ARIZONA DAILY STAR. What a fearsome sound it must have made,
roiling out across the desert...
One-hundred years ago Tuesday - Jan. 28, 1903 - two passenger
trains collided head-on east of Tucson, in the heart of what we now
call Rita Ranch. Fourteen people died on the spot, their bodies
mangled and burned almost beyond recognition. So great was the
force of the 2:55 a.m. collision that the Pullman car at the rear
of the eastbound train was jarred loose, rolling 14 miles down the
track into the Tucson train yard it had left just minutes before.
Its sole passenger, a Pullman porter, emerged shocked but
unscathed, bearing witness to the horrors ahead on the track. About
the same time, a brakeman on that same eastbound train managed to
hike several miles from the wreck to the Vail station to wire for
help. Doctors on board a relief train from Tucson rushed to the
scene. The undertakers and reporters soon followed. "Undertakers
Parker and Reilly have fourteen bodies," reported the next day's
Star, which described the condition of the bodies in gruesome
detail. The wreck itself, reported the Star, "presented a scene
never to be forgotten: the two monster engines were literally torn
to pieces and the cars piled on top of each other, enveloped in
sheets of flames and clouds of smoke." The injured, at least 18 in
number, were hauled back to town for treatment. Meanwhile, coffins
lined the wreckage, waiting to be filled. Among the reported dead:
the engineers from both trains, a fireman, and several passengers,
including a "millionaire capitalist." Three of the dead were listed
as "hobos," including one, reported the Tucson Citizen, "who was
riding the brakes and was pinioned by the collision. He was burned
to a cinder." Arguably, it was the deadliest train wreck in Arizona
- and certainly the worst involving the Southern Pacific line in
Southern Arizona, says Tucson historian and writer William Kalt,
now writing, "Tucson Was a Railroad Town." Naturally, it was
attributed to human error, with most fingers pointed toward E.F.
Clough, night operator at Vail. At 2:40 a.m., just minutes before
the crash, a westbound passenger train, with engineer Jack Bruce at
the throttle, pulled into the Vail station. There, Clough was
supposed to pass off two written orders to train conductor G.W.
Parker. One of the orders, sent minutes earlier from Tucson, was to
sidetrack the train at the Esmond siding, four miles down the
track, until an eastbound train passed through. Parker testified
that he never got that order. Though initial reports cast some
blame on the conductor, subsequent coroner's juries exonerated
Parker and found Clough at fault. Just before the crash, Clough,
realizing the crucial order may not have been received, wired the
Tucson office. But it was too late. Five minutes later Clough wired
back that, "There was a large sheet of flame ahead on the track."
By the time of the inquests, Clough had disappeared. Parker was
later fired by SP but found work at another railroad, says Kalt.
While the train tracks were eventually moved to the west, the ruins
of the Esmond station - built close to that fateful siding - still
stand. You can also see remnants of the old train bed running near
the busy intersection of Rita and Houghton roads. On the
intersection's northwest corner, a Fry's grocery store is slated to
rise - right over the crash site. Few in these burbs, of course,
realize this history in their midst. One who does is Rita Ranch
resident Ken McGowan, who's organized a self-guided, self-paced
walk on Saturday that will take in the crash site and the old
Esmond station. Says McGowan: "We'll walk back on the old track
bed, retracing the last minute of those trains." And the people in
them.
After visiting, you may wish to check out two other nearby
caches: