108 Years Ago
The July 5, 1917 Colorado Transcript announced that a “huge” smokestack had fallen on the Colorado & Southern tracks. Trains were blocked for three hours while the wreckage was being removed. It could have been much worse: a passenger train was scheduled to pass that spot just 4 minutes later.
None of the workers were hurt, though one had a close call, darting away just in time to avoid being crushed. There was significant property damage: “the big railroad trestle at the ore loading chutes was crushed, and the steel stack was flattened out like paper.” The stack weighed about forty tons.
