Remembering Tuolumne

By Joseph Celentano, Historical Research Committee

Internet E-mail: JCelentano@TuolumneMuseum.org

An Awful Accident on the Narrow Gauge

[The following article is reprinted in its original form from the September 28, 1900 issue of The New Era, published in Carters. One-hundred and four years later, we remember these WSF&LC gentlemen with this reprinted article. A small tribute to their untimely death.]

The first tragedy to occur on the West Side Flume and Lumber Company’s narrow gauge road occurred yesterday, Gus Reuter and W.C. Deputy being the victims. Their crushed bodies now lie in a room of Dr. Kent’s sanitarium and will be buried today.

The accident occurred at 10:30 o’clock yesterday forenoon. A train, in charge of engineer “Jack” Goins, and made up of eleven cars loaded with logs, wood and shingle bolts, was coming from Camp 8 to the mill at Carters. The engineer was moving the long train very slowly down the steep grade and had approached within a mile of the bridge spanning the North Fork of the Tuolumne River when suddenly the fourth car from the engine, loaded with a single pine log, jumped the track, broke its couplings and rolled over and over down the almost precipitous mountain side.

On the unlucky car were Gus Reuter, W.C. Deputy, E. Humphrey and Henry McClaron, all employees of the West Side Flume & Lumber Company. Humphrey, who evidently had been in some wrecks before, jumped as far out as he could, struck the ground running and raced down the hill until he came to a large pine, behind which he found safety. McClaron was struck on the hip and side, sustaining severe, but not serious, bruises.

The log, twenty feet in length and six in diameter passed squarely over the bodies of poor Reuter and Deputy. The train was stopped instantly and the injured carried to a wood car, on which they were placed by tender hands. As they were carrying Deputy to the car, some of the crew said something about hurrying to a doctor. Deputy overheard the remark and answered: “No use in taking me to a doctor, boys.” Reuter, the other injured employee, never spoke after the wreck.

The wood car was cut loose from the rest of the train, and engineer Groins hurried it into Carters as fast as steam could do the work. The two dying men were hurried to the Sanitarium, where Dr. Kent labored desperately to retrieve the flickering sparks of life. He had everything that science could suggest at hand, but all the surgeons in the world couldn’t have prolonged the life of either one a second longer than he did. It was impossible to revive the heart action in either even momentarily and ten minutes after entering the hospital Reuter was dead. Deputy died about ten minutes later.

Reuter’s injuries were entirely internal, the intestines being ruptured and crushed to a pulp. Deputy was similarly injured, besides having his right leg broken and badly cut just above the ankle.

But little beyond their names can be learned regarding the men. Reuter was an ordinary laborer and Deputy a steel cutter. Each was between 50 and 60 years of age. All efforts by the West Side Flume and Lumber Company to find out their homes or living relatives, if any, have proven futile. Both funerals will take place from the Sanitarium this afternoon.

The cause of the car’s leaving the track is not known to a certainly, but is laid to a “flat wheel.” The rear trucks of the adjoining car also jumped the track, but failed to break loose or tip over. On it were two men. There were a number of other men on the train, but most of them rode on the load of shingle bolts.

rt 0405