Today in History.......

Photo: One of the worst, if not the worst, circus wreck ever was the one that occurred to the Walter L. Main Circus at Tyrone, Pa., on 30 May 1893. Fortunately for present day historians, the local photographer was on the scene to record the tragic event. Photo from the P. M. McClintock collection.

The Tyrone Wreck

The engineer of Walter L. Main's Circus train lost his grip on the locomotive when going down the mountain on the Tyrone & Clearfield Railroad Tuesday morning, May 30, 1893, about 5:30 o'clock, and there was a wild ride at flying speed, and then nineteen cars filled with people and animals from all parts of the world leaped from the tracks and were crushed to splinters. Five men were dead and a dozen more badly injured. Lions, tigers, leopards, elephants and beasts from African jungles and Indian plains bellowed, roared, screamed, and either lay helpless with shattered limbs or sprang forth to liberty. Forty-nine horses were killed, others wounded groaned piteously and suffering men cried for help. One lion, a tiger and a panther are still roaming about in the forests.......

For the rest of this story, about 1/3 down, goto.....

http://www.circushistory.org/bandwagon/bw-1967May.htm

Lisa