Tragedy for the Portland Elks
An excursion train bound for an Olympia picnic plunges into a ditch near Chehalis, leaving many dead and injured.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Tacoma, Wash., Aug. 22.—An excursion train carrying Elks from Portland to Olympia was wrecked this morning four miles south of Chehalis. The engine and seven coaches went into the ditch. A lineman arriving at Centralia at noon says he saw a fireman taken out of the cab dead and a hundred passengers stretched on the ground, some dead but a majority injured. A relief train left Centralia at 11:30 for the scene of the wreck. Another relief train carrying nurses and doctors left Tacoma at 12:15 and is due at the wreck at 3 o'clock. The wreck occurred on the main line of the Northern Pacific between Napavine and Chehalis. The train was a special crowded with members of the Portland lodge of Elks and friends bound for Olympia on their annual picnic. A dispatch has just been received from south Tacoma saying that the engine blew up and it is known that six people were killed, including the engineer and fireman.
“A lineman arriving at Centralia at noon says he saw a fireman taken out of the cab dead and a hundred passengers stretched on the ground.”
Rail travel was the lifeblood of regional connection in 1903, but it carried significant risks of catastrophic equipment failure. This wreck, occurring on the Northern Pacific line, reflects the inherent dangers of the era's rapid industrialization and transit expansion, which often outpaced safety regulations.
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