On March 13, 1959, a runaway train smashed through the Union Pacific depot on Fourth Avenue and into businesses on the other side of the street, destroying half a block. Miraculously, only one person was killed, telegraph operator Kenneth Dilley. This photograph shows the destroyed depot, as a large crowd of onlookers gathers after the accident.
Vibert Jeffers photograph, 1959, Susan Parish Collection, Southwest Regional Archives
Text © Deborah Ross and The Olympian