1897 Wilbur Wreck

Photograph by S.L. Houck; courtesy of the Lincoln County Historical Society.

This view, near Wilbur in March 1897, shows that a train wreck was cheap entertainment. Everybody in town was there learning how the wrecking crew rolled the locomotive out of the ditch in 12 hours. Surely there was no doubt in the minds of the onlookers that the company could raise the next ditched engine without their “assistance.”