[KeyStoneChapter] The Missing Blind Man

[The Blind History Lady]

Email from The Blind History Lady The Missing Blind Man The Mystery of the Missing Blind Man   A warning to readers, this is a bit more graphic than my other pieces.   A horrific train wreck occurred at 10am on Sunday, September 6, 1926, just a few miles out of Granite, Colorado. Early reports stated 15 passengers died. During the next two days of searching for every dead and injured persons, the death toll climbed to 30, with more than 54 injured.   The Scenic Special, Denver & Rio Granda-Western (D & RGW) eastbound train from Salt Lake City, Utah, was more than a half hour late leaving Leadville, Colorado. Just before the wreck, the train was going 45 miles per hour, too fast on a downgrade in Granite Canyon. The locomotive was one of the new 1600, 3 Cylinder steam engines, the largest at that time and too big to run on the narrow-gage rails. The train came to a sharp curve and flew off the elevated tracks, plunging into the cold and rocky Arkansas River. The engine, tender, baggage car, and four coaches telescoped into each other.   Nearby sheepherder, Theo Geobfried heard the train leave the track. He ran to the site, saw passengers floating in the river, ran to the nearby road, stopped traffic, and told some of the drivers to alert nearby communities to send as many doctors and workers as possible. Within minutes, motorists from the road including Dr. G. W. Larimer, surgeon at the Red Cross hospital at Salida hiked into the canyon to the crash site.   The 272 passengers and train crew were trapped in the wreckage, scattered along the riverbank, floating in the river, or wandering around in shock, amongst the twisted metal, baggage, and rocks. Some passengers acted quickly, getting their fellow passengers out of the remaining 14 coaches. Fires were lit to warm those in shock. A few train crewmen, pinned by the hot boiler were slowly dying from the inside out because of breathing the now boiling river water.   Debris covered the site and littered the river. It took days to free all the bodies from the mangled steel. Volunteers walked for miles down the river to retrieve everything from the train that had floated away.   As many of the bodies in the first few cars were crushed or burned beyond recognition, the debris was essential in identifying the dead. Many were first identified by family through telegraph communication, but when family arrived, they found the presented body was not their friend or family member. Their loved ones were still missing. The grief, search and identification process began all over again.   A body of a woman from one of the first coaches was found in the car that had been crushed in the front by the boulders, rocks, and broken track when the coach behind it telescoped into it. Pearls from a broken necklace were found on what was left of her body. Later a purse with a photograph of a lady wearing those pearls was recovered. From that photograph, officials were able to contact relatives who confirmed their loved one was on that train.   A 2-year-old child was incorrectly identified for days because of strong eyewitness statements. The boy had been seen with a blonde woman carrying a baby at the Glenwood Springs station. Later the same boy was seen sitting with the same woman on the train. Many thought the blonde was his missing mother. Days after the wreck when the boy’s picture was printed in the newspaper, the blonde woman came forward to explained how the confusion occurred.   She boarded the train in Glenwood Springs and had played with the boy who was happily running around. She also carried her sister’s small child before saying goodbye to her sister’s family. The blonde woman boarded the train by herself, carrying a basket of fruit, wrapped in a blanket in her arms as if it were a baby. On the train, passengers observed her entertaining the boy and a toddler that came to sit with her for a while. The boy was finally identified as being the son of the German family that was sitting behind her. Newspaper articles reported even sadder news that the little boy they hoped to reunite with family was now an orphan in a country not his own.   One book lying on the riverbank caught the attention of the rescue workers two days after the accident. It was a Braille volume of the novel, “Captain Blood,” by Rafael Sabatini, found at the edge of the wreckage. The Braille book was taken to Coroner Walsh in hopes that the book was a clue. The library book, issued recently from the Salt Lake City public library had no card or information inside to indicate who checked out the book.   Some thought they may have seen a blind man on the train, but no one knew for sure whether he was blind or what car he was in.   A second search was organized along the riverbanks hoping to find the blind man. Many feared that a blind man could not navigate the rough terrain and may be lost or dead off from a nearby cliff. Of the many bodies unidentified for weeks at the morgues in nearby towns, none turned out to be blind. Newspaper articles for more than two weeks highlighted the Braille book in hopes that someone would come forward with information. Yet no one did, eventually all the bodies were identified and the remains sent back to family.   What happened to the blind man? Did anyone contact the Utah library and ask who checked out the book? If there was no blind man on the train, how did the book get there? Should they have been looking for a woman?   We will never know as the news stories stopped there.   Peggy Chong is the 2018 and 2023 Jacob Bolotin Award Winner.   To schedule The Blind History Lady for a presentation for your business, church or community group, email; theblindhistorylady at gmail.com   Please check out my other works at https://www.smashwords.com/books/byseries/24325   www.theblindhistorylady.com . The Blind History Lady | 14152 E Linvale Pl 201 | Aurora, CO 80014 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice
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