Lex Anteinternet: September 27, 1923. Disaster at Cole Creek.

Lex Anteinternet: September 27, 1923. Disaster at Cole Creek.: 

September 27, 1923. Disaster at Cole Creek.

Today In Wyoming's History: September 27: 1923  Thirty railroad passengers were killed when a CB&Q train wrecked at the Cole Creek Bridge, which had been washed out due to a flood, in Natrona County.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

It was a horrific event.

Flooding had taken out the railroad bridge over Cole Creek near Casper Wyoming, which was unknown to the railroad.   The night train to Denver approached the bridge on a blind curve, and the headlights detected its absence too late to stop the train.  Half of the people on the train were killed.

It's the worst disaster in Wyoming's railroad history.

Friday, September 28, 1923. The terrible news.

The news of the prior day was in the paper, much of it horrific locally.

Saturday, September 29, 1923. Mandates and Floods.

The British Mandate for Palestine went into effect, as did the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon.

With this, the British Empire, and I'd guess French Empire reached their maximum territorial extents.

The grim news kept coming in on the recent Cole Creek disaster.

Apparently the floods occured almost everywhere in Wyoming, and into Nebraska.

Some Gave All: James Bridger's Ferry (Orin Junction Railroad Bridge).

We recently posted this item on our monuments blog on James Bridger's Ferry.

We repost this item here, due to the last photograph in this set, which demonstrates how locations that were fords, become later crossings for railroads and highways.  Quite a tribute to instinctive engineering, being followed as it is sometimes by actual engineering.

This is one of Wyoming's many roadside monuments that's not longer really road side.

This monument is on the old highway that ran from Orin Junction to Wheatland.  When the Interstate was built, Orin Junction was bypassed and for that matter, the Interstate zips through, not into, Wheatland.  Many such monuments exist, a few of which are now completely marooned.  This one commemorates Jim Bridger's ferry across the North Platte River, which was placed in 1864.

A Burlington Norther Railroad Bridge, which itself isn't youthful, very near where the ferry once was.

The Coal Train