1907 Sandford Disaster
On Saturday, Jan. 19, 1907, at 8:50 p.m., a mysterious explosion created a nine-foot deep crater next to the Big Four railroad station at Sandford, on Vigo County’s western edge, shredding metal and bodies.
At least 15 people died in the blast, which catapulted three raid cars and body parts as far as 200 yards. A 12-year old boy’s mutilated body was found in a tree far from the 700-foot wide impact cavity. It was called “the most ghastly tragedy in Indiana railroad annals” and still ranks among the worst catastrophes in area history.
At the time of the calamity, two freight trains—Extra No. 6575 eastbound and No. 99 westbound—were parked. One included a sealed car containing 500 gunpowder kegs produced by Equitable Powder Co. of Alton, IL. Westbound passenger train No. 3, which had departed Terre Haute’s Big Four Depot with 65 passengers at 8:30 p.m., slowly crept to a stop. Suddenly, a stream of fire and a deafening boom illuminated the horizon. Screams pierced he night and the stench of burned flesh enveloped the area. Sandford’s two physicians rushed to the scene, powerless to extricate victims from the heavy wreckage. Emergency rescue crews, doctors, journalists and families of passengers had a difficult time reaching the site. Most were required to walk for several miles in the dark, frigid night on the railroad right-of-way. The Terre Haute Tribune published “Extras” at 1:30 a.m., 3 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. and the Terre Haute Star issued two Sunday “specials.” Initial casualty lists claimed as many as 37 deaths. For months, the Indiana Railroad Commission, coroner’s juries and academics probed for the cause.
Inexplicably, none of the victims suffered from gunpowder burns and no traces of nitroglycerin were found. A spent dynamite stick and an open gunpowder can were recovered at the site but neither could be linked to the railroad or Equitable Powder. Several witnesses saw a huge meteor southwest of Sandford moments before the explosion. However, no meteorite particles were found in the ruins. No official conclusion had been published in 95 years.
On Feb. 21 and 22, 1907, three stores in Sandford were leveled by separate dynamite blasts. Impulsive saloon owner Henry F. McDonald was convicted of those deeds but was never linked to the rail disaster.
This Wabash Valley Profile was reprinted with permission from First Financial Bank and the Terre Haute Tribune Star.