Casey Jones crash site, c. 1900

USA / Mississippi / Pickens /
 crash site, interesting place, historical layer / disappeared object
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Night of April 29-30, 1900. Southbound Illinois Central (IC) Train No. 1, The New Orleans Special with John Luther “Casey” Jones at the throttle collided with a stalled freight train just north of this village. Jones himself is the sole fatality in the crash.

Train No. 1 had departed southbound from Memphis over 90 minutes late. Jones, with a reputation as a “hot” engineer noted for making up time, was asked to take the train to Jackson, MS. Despite having been on duty for over 11 hours, Jones agreed. A passenger express, Train No. 1 was superior to all other traffic on the line that night. Jones’ train met and passed several other trains without incident on its southward run between Memphis and this point.

Unknown to Jones, one of three freight trains at Vaughn had suffered a mechanical failure while clearing the track, leaving several cars and the caboose stalled on the main line. For unknown reasons, Jones failed to observe warning signals placed above the fouled track, and came onto the scene at an estimated 70 MPH. Ordering his fireman to jump for it, Jones threw the locomotive into reverse and applied heavy braking. Jones’ body is purported to have been found with the hands still wrapped around the Johnson Bar (used to slow the train) which gave rise to the belief that he stayed at his post to save the passengers in his train. At the time of the crash, Jones had made up all but 5 minutes of the lost time.

Some years later, Wallace Saunders, an engine wiper in the IC’s Canton yard, wrote a song based on the events of Jones’ death. The resulting tune “The Ballad of Casey Jones,” has been one of America’s most popular folk songs for many years.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_Jones
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Coordinates:   32°48'35"N   90°2'27"W

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This article was last modified 11 years ago