Revisiting history...

This story is part of my history:

Wayland's Worst Tragedy

One Killed, Five Injured at Grade Crossing

Never has Wayland been so shocked, so horrified, and cast under such a pall of gloom, as been experienced here since Saturday afternoon about 2 o'clock when a telephone message from Mrs. William Magdefrau, who resides near Wayland Crossing, North of town, conveying the startling intelligence that an accident had occurred at the crossing, and asking that help be sent at once.

A scan of the complete story is available here, from the October 26, 1922 edition of The Wayland (Iowa) News.

My Dad was the five-year old Carl in the accident. The accident had a profound impact on him, and really on our whole family. His mother died a few weeks later, and the family blew apart. His dad was unable to keep the family together.

I've long wanted to visit the scene of the accident; my trip to Utah gave me the perfect excuse. And at some time in my planning I realized that the accident took place 100 years ago, on October 21. 

Taking clues from the newspaper story I decided to begin my visit at The Wayland News. After all, the article said that Dad's family "reside in rooms adjoining the News office." Why not see where dad lived, and then retrace their steps to the scene of the accident?

Google Maps took me to 211 W Main Street, Wayland, Iowa, but warned me that The Wayland News may be closed. It turned out to be not just closed. The building was gone.  Here is a photo. 

The building on the left is the post office. Clearly it is new. The building on the right might be 100 years old. We don't know what "rooms adjoining" means, but it seems likely they lived in this block. This is the heart of downtown Wayland. There isn't much to it. But it is not hard for me imagine my Dad at 5 having the run of the place. He certainly seemed to make an impression on the writer: "Little Carl, 5 years old, is also quite a singer, and it will be music indeed when we can hear him sing, 'Iowa, Iowa, that's where the tall corn grows.)

Prior to the trip I was pretty sure I had pinpointed the location of the accident thanks to clues in this story, and a contemporaneous story in a neighboring town's newspaper. I knew they were traveling north from Wayland to Washington.  The Winfield Advantage placed the accident 1 3/4 miles north of Wayland. 

I tracked down a 1915 Iowa Rail Map that showed an orange line just north of Wayland. (You have to really zoom in to see it. Aim for the extreme South East, in Henry County.) In the key, it says that that line is the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy R.R.

Then I found a Google Map overlay with all the abandoned rail lines in Iowa. Again, if you zoom in to Wayland, you can see it with either terrain or Earth view. The Burlington line largely follows Williams Creek, and the highway and the railroad cross each other at the creek, probably on the south edge of the creek..

So I knew I wanted to drive North on Pearl Street for 1 3/4 miles to where the highway crossed  the creek. 

As I approached the 1 3/4 mile marker it was obvious that the road has, of course, been completely rebuilt in 100 years. Here is what the road looks like now looking North on the north edge of Williams Creek. It is a very slight decline and a long swooping hill ahead.  Nothing dangerous or difficult ahead.

I got out and did my best to get down to the creek bottom. (It was wet, very slippery, and there was lots of poison ivy!)  It is hard to capture the slope on camera, but the train ran beneath this embankment. It is quite steep - almost vertical.

At the time of the accident, the road descended to the bottom of that embankment, cutting it at a right angle. We can't know how fast it descended, but it is not hard for me to imagine that it may have almost been like dropping down a little man made canyon before opening out to cross the creek bed and the rail road tracks. Visibility would have been very, very limited.

This photo looks back south from across the creek valley. If you zoom in you can get a sense of how steep the south edge of the valley is.

I'm really grateful that I was able to actually see this place. I can't explain why it was important to me. 

Maybe someday I'll write more about that. In the meantime, the big remaining question is this: will I get poison ivy for my efforts? I washed really thoroughly afterwards.