Daybreak revealed a horrific tangle of metal, hot fuel oil, flesh, and fire. Just minutes before the impact, a chain of events that would end in a wall of flame was set in motion when the Sunset Limited, already two hours behind schedule, pulled into the Vail Station. By sunrise, a temporary track had been quickly built to bypass the accident so that trains could continue on schedule. Southern Pacific Railroad officials, reporters, family members and curiosity seekers surveyed the devastation. Engineer Wilkey’s 10-year-old son was seen searching the wreckage for his father. Newspaper accounts estimated up to 22 fatalities. Authorities were fearful that an exact count was not possible due to the fire’s intensity. Final reports listed 14 dead, seven sent to the hospital, and twenty more injured in the crash.
Today little evidence of that fateful night on January 28, 1903 remains. A new layer of history is being built by another generation. The location where the accident occurred are busy places of commerce; Fry’s Grocery Store, Pyramid Credit Union, and Leber Dentistry Office. The worst train wreck in Arizona history occurred at about 2:50 a.m. just west of Esmond Station. The eastbound Crescent City Express freight with Engineer Rob Wilkey at the throttle met the westbound Sunset Limited, with Jack Bruce in the engineer’s seat. Bruce had brought the very first train into Tucson in 1880.
It was not quite 4:00 AM, that cold January morning in Vail. Alma and Florence Harris usually stayed under their warm quilts until at least 4:30. The cow could wait a little longer for milking and the rooster was not nearly ready to crow. Something drew them out to the front porch of their home near the Pantano wash that morning. Expecting to see a clear, crisp sky filled with stars they were surprised to see the western horizon blazing orange like a vermillion brush-stroke across the sky. Something terrible must have happened. As he did every day, Alma hitched up his team to the lumbering ore wagon he drove to Helvetia to transport copper ore back to Vail to be shipped by rail for processing. As he passed the Vail Station on his way to Helvetia, he could see Station Master Harry Man and E.F. Clough, Vail’s new night operator, talking in earnest. Not wanting to interrupt, Alma kept heading south on Vail Road towards the Helvetia mine. He would find out what had happened when he returned.
At about 2:50 AM, the two engines had hit head-on at full speed. A Pullman car attached to the end of the Crescent City Express was uncoupled from the eastbound Crescent City Express by the impact. The swaying of the car was dizzying as it rolled backward at breakneck speed through the night. With no way to control the car, the terrified passengers’ wild ride did not stop until the Pullman reached the Tucson station 15 miles to the west. Three people were on board, an SPRR Porter, Dr. Norton, the first veterinarian for the Arizona/New Mexico Territory and his five-year-old son. The veterinarian was on his way to Douglas to inspect cattle from Mexico for hoof and mouth disease. He often brought his young son along with him on official travels around the Territory. The three felt the impact, but had no idea of the enormity of what had just happened.
The SPRR main line held two-way train traffic. Communications followed specific, defined procedures designed for safety. Messages and orders were typed or written on onion skin paper, thin enough to see through, in duplicate. Vail Station night operator E.F. Clough had two separate messages for the westbound Sunset Limited that night. The first instructed the conductor that they would meet an oncoming train at Wilmot Station (west of Esmond); the second message instructed the train to pull onto the siding track at Esmond Station to permit the Crescent City Express to pass. The conductor never received the second order.
Clough disappeared the next day after declaring that the blame was the conductor’s and not his. Clough was never heard of again. Initial reports held the conductor, G.W. Parker, partially responsible. Later, coroner’s juries found Clough at fault. Clough may have realized the second order was not received because he wired Tucson, soon after the train left Vail, but it was too late. About five minutes later, Clough again wired from Vail Station that, “There was a large sheet of flame ahead on the track.”
Both engineers were killed, along with George McGrath, fireman on the Sunset Limited, who was to be married on February 1st. George’s fiancé had begged him not to make this run because of a premonition and dream he had had. Years later, the five-year-old son of the Territorial Veterinarian, Dr. Norton, would share the experience with his daughter, Katie (Norton) Dusenberry, observing that he had never seen anyone turn as white with fear as the Porter on board the Pullman car had that night. And Vera Harris Duncan would share the story, passed down for over 100 years, about the night the horizon to the west of Vail glowed orange from the burning wreckage.
Special Note: The Vail Preservation Society welcomes Old Vail Middle School student Lily Collins to the VPS Executive Board as our Youth Representative.
Save the Date and Learn More: 1st Saturday Connect Past to Present: Feb. 6, 2018. The Esmond Station K8 Museum Club students will share the story of the 1903 wreck from 9:00-11:00 a.m. at 13501 E. Colossal Cave Road at the 1908 Old Vail Post Office. For information, call 520-419-4428
