Mass Grave of Circus Train Wreck Victims
Field Reveiwbythe team at www.RoadsideAmerica.com
Columbus, Georgia--A large tombstone shaped like a rectangular tent memorializes people killed in a horrendous circus train wreck 6 1/2 miles east of Columbus in 1915.
It was mid-afternoon on a straight stretch of track when the Con. T. Kennedy Carnival train ran head-on into a passenger train that shouldn't have been there. The metal cars of the passenger train withstood the impact, injuring only a few. But the wooden cars of the circus train telescoped into the engine, caught fire, and burned to ashes most of the animals and one or two dozen circus people.
The tombstone doesn't say exactly how many circus employees died (news reports claimed 24 died, later accounts put the number at 15), or even if they're buried underneath it. Maybe the mixed-up ashes of the train, the animals, and the people were shoveled here and the tombstone set on top as a kind of general memorial.
Mass Grave of Circus Train Wreck Victims
It was mid-afternoon on a straight stretch of track when the Con. T. Kennedy Carnival train ran head-on into a passenger train that shouldn't have been there. The metal cars of the passenger train withstood the impact, injuring only a few. But the wooden cars of the circus train telescoped into the engine, caught fire, and burned to ashes most of the animals and one or two dozen circus people.
The tombstone doesn't say exactly how many circus employees died (news reports claimed 24 died, later accounts put the number at 15), or even if they're buried underneath it. Maybe the mixed-up ashes of the train, the animals, and the people were shoveled here and the tombstone set on top as a kind of general memorial.
Mass Grave of Circus Train Wreck Victims
Address:1000 Victory Dr., Columbus, GA
Directions:In Riverdale Cemetery, on the south edge of the city. At the junction of US 280/Martha Berry Hwy and 10th Ave., turn north onto 10th Ave., then immediately turn right into the cemetery, just before the Antique Mall and Flea Market. The road into the cemetery runs straight, but immediately bend right instead, and then take the first left. The grave will be a few hundred feet along this road, on the right.
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