Minnie Greenwald and the Tragedy of the Annie and Mary
Nan Abrams
An account of the 1896 Mad River Bridge collapse and train wreck.
My Work on the Railroad: 1886 - 1896
Charles Blodgett Hopkins
"I've been working on the railroad" as told by Charles Bodgett Hopkins who worked on the ill-fated Annie and Mary in the late 1800s.
The Rutledge Brothers in World War I, Part II
Gene Rutledge, with an introduction by Barbara Canepa Saul
Three of the four Rutledge brothers were drafted during World War I. Gene Rutledge kept a diary of his experiences and Part II picks up in France just before Armistice Day 1918.
Early Schooling in Arcata
Charles Blodgett Hopkins
Charles Blodgett Hopkins turns his focus to his early education in Arcata before working on the railroad.
Young’s Cabaret
Welton Worthington
Step into an Arcata speakeasy as seen through the eyes of a teenage saxophone musician.
“A train crumbled on the bed of the Mad River. The bridge hanging in pieces like a destroyed erector set. At the right on top of the tracks, two men looking over the destruction, their body language shouting their incredulity. In the lower left hand side a woman sits in her buggy looking at the twisted engine. In the background another two men stand by their horse and cart trying to grok how this disaster struck the heart of rural Humboldt county. As you study the cover photograph taken shortly after September 13, 1896, it is clear why almost all of the thirty-three passengers on the train were injured or worse. The train traveling from Arcata to Korbel came to this bridge and the weight of the train on the poorly maintained tracks gave way, plummeting the train, like an untethered elevator with its passengers, to the river bed forty feet below. At times, there is almost a feeling of guilt as one looks at this morbid scene. But studying this tragedy as with more modern day transportation tragedies is how safety laws and regulations help to save future lives. The cover photo is part of the Humboldt State University Library Palmquist Collection. The photo was taken by Elizabeth Ayers, a photographer at the turn of the century. Her photograph not only recorded the horror of that day, but the humanity. The lone baby carriage in the center of the photo brings tears.”