The Great Train Wreck of 1907
A look back at a dramatic freight derailment that sent twenty-one cars into a Kennewick gully.
A broken car wheel caused the derailment of an east-bound freight train at the foot of the street of town. Twenty-one cars, loaded with lumber and shingles, left the track and crashed into the gully just west of the depot building. Four tramps were killed and were buried the next day in the community place. The trestle was demolished.
“Twenty-one cars, loaded with lumber and shingles, left the track and crashed into the gully just west of the depot building.”
This retrospective piece captures a period when Kennewick’s economy and physical safety were tethered to the whims of the railroad. The casual naming of 'tramps' as casualties reflects the era’s stark, often dehumanizing social hierarchy.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.