Location: Cedar Creek, MI - Water Tower

This was located on the C&NW Ore Line, 5.9 miles west of Tesch interlocking tower in Delta County. The railroad had a water tower here.

Notes

Time Line

1909. October 30.  Rear End Wreck. A very bad wreck occurred on the ore line of the C&NW last Saturday night. Thirty-five cars were piled in a heap, the ore in them scattered about the track and one big engine badly damaged.

Four trains loaded with ore and bound for Escanaba docks were scheduled out of the Antoine yards for the loop trip [Antoine to Escanaba on the ore line, returning to Antoine on the south route via Powers] Saturday night. They followed each other in about equal time apart. All would have terminated well, however, in all likelihood, but for the fact that the engine of the first train died out as it reached Cedar Creek Tank, a distance of 25 miles from Iron Mountain.

Train No. 2 in charge of Conductor Duranceau pulled up to train No. 1 and stopped. The conductor, observing the required precautionary rules, sent the rear brakeman back to flag the next train. The brakeman carried out these instructions and stationed himself back the required distance. The conductor taking further precautionary measures, sent the head brakeman back to take the station of the first man he had sent out, and to communicate instructions to the first named brakeman to go still further back to flag so as to make doubly sure that any possible danger of a crash would be averted.

The head brakeman went back as directed, but the rear brakeman, having stood at his post for some time, being tired and cold, returned to the caboose, while the head brakeman, as yet somewhat inexperienced in the railroad business, built a fire along side the track and fell asleep. 

Train No. 3, in charge of M. Considine, with George Bucklin as engineer came thundering along. The rattle of the cars on the rails woke the flagman, but not till the train was too close upon him to be of any use to hope to flag it in time to avert the impending wreck. The train was then at close quarters, could not be stopped, and the rear end crash soon followed. Train No. 4 pulled up shortly, but was checked in ample time to avoid duplicating the catastrophe of No. 3.

The wreck worked havoc. It was necessary to pull No. 4 back [likely 22 miles to Sturgeon] and send this train over the south track (via Powers) in a round about way to Escanaba. Too, one of the trains in the wreck was loaded with a special order of ore for a boat which was in waiting at the docks at the "iron port' town, and delay to the train delayed the boat on its journey down the lake. It was also necessary, too, to consume all of Sunday and Monday in clearing the debris to resume traffic over the line, during which time the trains had to be sent via the south track, an inconvenient route, with the damage to power and cars amounting to considerable an item. [DD-1909-1030]