Mike Cox 224 pages softcover
On September 15, 1896, Crush
boasted the highest population in Texas. Built near Waco, the town
provided the staging ground for a publicity stunt ramming two trains
together at top speed. Showrunner and Katy Railroad official William
Crush thought he had planned for every contingency. But when
elephant-sized chunks of steam locomotive began raining down into the
packed stands, the extravaganza quickly unraveled into one of the Lone
Star State's most confounding tragedies. The soon-to-be famous Scott
Joplin commemorated the debacle in "The Great Crush Collision March,"
and entrepreneurs like "Head-On Joe" Connolly of Iowa continued the
tradition of the staged locomotive duel for decades. But the stupefying
incident still slipped into the back pages of Texas lore. In the
first-ever book on the subject, writer-historian Mike Cox finally tells
the full story of the Crash at Crush.
