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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 13, 2019)
COFFEE BREAK Saturday, April 13, 2019 East Oregonian C5 OUT OF THE VAULT Speedster railroad man buries train engine in bluff By RENEE STRUTHERS East Oregonian A double train wreck near Cayuse in March of 1910 caused the deaths of two railroad employees, including the engineer that was running his machine at high speed down the mountain. Engineer S.L. Risk and Fireman Edwin Hopple set out about 8 a.m. with Engine No. 215 running light (pull- ing no cars) on March 20, 1910, from Kamela in the Blue Mountains toward Umatilla after assisting a freight train up the mountain from La Grande. The freight train went on ahead of Risk and Hopple, but No. 215 passed the train at Porter, a wood station between Mea- cham and Huron. Risk and Hopple were apparently coming down the river at a high rate of speed and, while negotiating a 9% curve where the road first meets the river east of Mission, the engine leapt the track and hurled itself into the bluff on the left side of the tracks. The crash sheared off all its outer trim and buried most of the engine in the soft alkali dirt of the bluff on the side of the road oppo- site the river. Risk’s body was thrown back- ward out of the cab, on top of the coal. Though he was lying entirely free of debris from the crash except for one arm, he was pinned down in such a way that he was literally scalded alive. Hop- ple’s body was jammed in against the firebox and covered by a ton of coal. It took several hours’ work to dig him out. Though both the engine and the coal tender were hurled clear of the rails, the corner of the tender was close enough to the track that another train could not pass unobstructed. Thus, when the block signal registered “all clear” to the freight train coming 20 minutes behind, there was no way of knowing the danger that lie ahead. Engineer Walter G. Robinson, Fire- man C.L. Wilson and Brakeman W.O. Rose were in the cab of Engine No. 385 when the freight train, traveling 25 to 35 mph, rounded the curve and saw the wrecked engine and coal tender. Engi- neer Robinson immediately closed the throttle, threw on the air brakes and swing out of his side of the cab. He was followed an instant later by the brake- man, who left via the window. Though neither man had said a word, Fireman Wilson concluded something was up and swung out onto the running board on his side, dropping off the just as the nose of their engine struck the corner of the derailed tender. Engine No. 385 was shunted off on the other side, down a 75-foot embankment and into the river. Robinson and Rose rolled down the embankment, while Wilson landed in a puddle of water leaking from the dam- aged tender. He remained where he fell for what seemed like an age, expecting to have train cars piling on top of him. Five of the cars following their engine were smashed to kindling, with the contents scattered in every direc- tion. The first car was loaded with steel rails, some of which were hurled through the end of the car and landed much in front of where it stopped. The second car contained sacks of cement, and the third and fourth were loaded with coal. A fifth car also carried rails, which added to the pile of wreckage. The surviving train crew called in the wreck from a portable phone in the caboose of the freight train. Because wrecker trains in the area were other- wise occupied, no work could be done to clear the tracks until 6 p.m. The lay of the land in the area of the wreck, with high bluffs on one side of the tracks and the river on the other, meant tempo- rary tracks could not be laid around the accident site, so all trains were held in Pendleton, Gibbon and La Grande until early in the morning on March 21. Hundreds of local citizens trav- eled to the wreck site, including every auto in Pendleton making the trip more than once. Some people even rode the wrecker trains out to the crash and walked back to town. The crash was the first double wreck on that portion of the railroad, but not the first accident in the area. In 1906 eight cars of coal were dumped over the embankment within yards of the 1910 crash, and in 1907 a disastrous wreck five miles away took the lives of four people and seriously injured others. DAYS GONE BY 100 Years Ago From the East Oregonian April 13-14, 1919 Allotments now being made on 700 eighty acre tracts of land in the foothills of the Blue Mountains to Indians of all ages who are enrolled members of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes will mark the end of all allotments to Indi- ans of the Umatilla agency and hereafter they will get their land either by purchase or inheritance. The land, while not considered as good as that in the 950 allotment in 1891, ranges in value from $5 to $50 an acre and an effort has been made by the agency to have the division as fair as possible. The majority of the acres is grazing and timber land, with about 8,000 acres in farming land. It is probable that some of the land will be available for leasing. Not all will be given out in allotments, for 20,000 acres will be tribal lands. 50 Years Ago From the East Oregonian April 13-14, 1969 An airborne rescue brought pilot Waldon Bryant from his wrecked crop duster to St. Anthony Hospital in minutes Sat- urday. Bryant, who was flying a Callair A-9 for Round-Up Crop Dusters, crashed into a plowed field about a mile north- east of the junction of Coombs Canyon and Mud Springs Canyon roads just before 11 a.m. The $14,000 plane was destroyed by the crash. Moments later, Jim Shoun, owner of Round-Up Crop Dusters, and Jim Terjeson landed in the field with another airplane. They used part of the wreckage to con- struct a splint for Bryant’s broken hip and flew him to Pendle- ton airport. From there an ambulance brought him to St. Ant- ony Hospital. The exact cause of the crash is still unknown. 25 Years Ago From the East Oregonian April 13-14, 1994 Kinzua Corp. mill workers in Heppner were expected to leave work today at 3 p.m. not knowing if they’ll ever report for work here again. The sale of the mill and 180,000 acres of timber to a group of four Eugene investors was expected to close today, according to Frank Pearson, Kinzua general manager. The mill will be shut down Friday, Pearson said. Workers will be paid for working a full day Friday, but rather than working they have been instructed to call in Friday after- noon for further information, Pearson said. He said Kinzua Corp. wanted the workers to get paid for a full week’s work. The company also hopes to have more information Friday about a final decision about the mill’s future. Universal Crossword Edited by David Steinberg April 13, 2019 ACROSS 1 “The Big Bang Theory” role 4 Dole (out) 8 Before surgery, briefly 13 Big bird 14 X, Y or Z line 15 Environmental club name 16 (Booyah!) 18 Document with checks and balances? 19 Hollywood’s Green 20 Parking enforcement device 22 Shipping choice 24 ___ facto 25 Tied up, as a boat 27 Tit for ___ 28 Dec. 25 32 Its showers bring May flowers 33 Western gas chain 34 Key near Ctrl 35 Smashing contest 39 Sister Sledge’s “We ___ Family” 40 Linguist Chomsky 41 Like pirouetting ballerinas 42 Soaks up the sun 44 Weekend NBC hit 45 Adjusts, as a bow 46 Re: 48 Cosmic payback 49 Add-on for an aging parent 53 Yale students 56 Many a storage unit 57 Cobbler’s mold, and a hint to 16-, 20-, 35- and 49-Across 59 Quick on the ___ 60 College grad 61 Singer Lana Del ___ 62 Capital of Idaho 63 Yellow Brick Road dog 64 Large state, for short DOWN 1 Often-heckled officials 2 Gal pal, in Paris 3 Touch of Gray brand 4 Weather section diagram 5 Radiated 6 Seiko competitor 7 NBA game channel 8 Places to walk on water? 9 DVD kiosk name 10 Thus 11 Cookie with creme 12 Hair division 15 Thought about overnight 17 Off-strip Vegas casino 21 Nickelodeon’s parent company 23 Little valley 25 Upset with 26 Space ___ (sci-fi genre) “STEP BACK” By Brian Thomas sudoku answers 27 Event to take a stand at? 29 Karate, for one 30 “Tuesdays With Morrie” author Mitch 31 Eye growths 33 Oodles 36 With it, fashion-wise 37 Dreamer’s counterpart 38 Hard tooth layer 43 December mall workers 45 Tattle on 47 Hiking hazard 48 “The Two Fridas” painter 49 Pub food 50 Defaulted auto 51 ___-lock brakes 52 Future D.A.’s test 54 “Makes sense now!” 55 River Achilles was dipped in 58 My Chemical Romance genre
