Editor’s note: Friday’s Dash to the Past was not included in this weekend’s edition due to space constraints. Read it in full at darnews.com.
A disastrous train derailment in 1924 was no accident — authorities are searching Arkansas for the man behind a sabotaged switch that killed three people. Residents in 1949 prepared to battle the Engineering Corps and each other over a controversial dam proposal. In 1974, Poplar Bluff High School racked up its third marching band invitational win.
No issues available — Oct. 5, 1924; Oct. 6, 1974
Saturday
75 years ago
Oct. 5, 1949
• Sportsmen, businessmen and state commissions are butting heads over a controversial Current River dam project. The Current River Boosters Association has over 3,000 signatures supporting the construction of the two flood control dams and reservoirs, and the Doniphan Chamber of Commerce voted to unanimously support the plan. However, the Ozark Protective Association vehemently opposes the project because it would destroy national park land and private property. Preliminary reports indicated Missouri environmental and transportation commissions will also push back against the dams at a public hearing next week. Gov. Forrest Smith stated he believed the dams would do more harm than good.
The dams were proposed by the Army Engineers to control flooding in Southeast Missouri and Northern Arkansas. Doniphan and Blair Creek were the selected sites. The resulting reservoirs would inundate over 74,000 acres of land including farms, small towns, roads and national parks. Supporters insisted only 1,600 acres lost would be farmland, and the reservoirs would make Doniphan a recreation destination. Others point to the massive loss to the Current River wilderness.
50 years ago
Oct. 5, 1974
• Retired carpenter George Campbell spent 32 years building houses in Poplar Bluff, now he puts his construction skills to use for wildlife. Campbell has made five deluxe purple martin houses, each with all the details of human dwellings and a 10- to 12-room floor plan. Each one takes about four days to build. Campbell has given each house away to his grandchildren, but said he may make more to sell.
Sunday
100 years ago
Oct. 6, 1924
• A saboteur in Swifton, Arkansas caused a disastrous nighttime train derailment on Oct. 4. A conductor from Poplar Bluff survived the wreck, and local crews joined the wreckage cleanup.
Three people were killed when Missouri Pacific passenger train No. 8 hit a sabotaged switch at full speed: they were engineer L.C. Heisserer and train fireman W.B. Byrne, both of Little Rock, and Bob Peel, a homeless man from Newport. Byrne’s brother J.A. Byrne, a student fireman, was critically injured. Several cars bearing baggage and cotton violently derailed and nearly crushed a bystander, but thankfully train passengers were mostly unscathed.
An investigation began immediately. Authorities discovered the rail switch leading into a house track — in this case a freight depot — was thrown, and its signal light broken to deceive oncoming trains. The switch box lock was found to have been opened with a key and then discarded. The culprit must have struck less than an hour before No. 8 arrived, since another train passed the switch in that time frame.
Police and Swifton locals suspect Heisserer was the target of the sabotage. Another train piloted by Heisserer survived an almost identical incident on the same switch months ago. Overnight on July 4, crews detected a broken rail on the switch and notified Heisserer, who slowed his train to a crawl. There were no injuries or damages.
75 years ago
Oct. 7, 1949
• Doniphan businessmen and organization bombarded Gov. Forrest Smith’s office with telegrams today, pushing for his support of the controversial dams on the Current River.
One telegram, signed by 61 businessmen, claimed 95% of Ripley County residents supported the dams. The Chamber of Commerce claimed 100% backing. Other notables included a state representative, Ripley’s sheriff and Doniphan’s mayor.
“The Current river project is developing into one of the hottest hot-potatoes the Governor has had to handle in this part of the state,” noted the Daily American Republic. The DAR published a front-page editorial decrying the project recently.
Monday
100 years ago
Oct. 7, 1924
• State and county authorities are combing Northern Arkansas for the culprit behind a fatal train wreck.
The Daily Republican reported “it is virtually an assured fact” the derailment was a targeted attack on engineer L.P. Heisserer, one of the three fatalities. A special agent dispatched from St. Louis is aiding the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department. Several interviews yielded no arrests, but they were confident the culprit would surface within a few weeks.
Besides killing three people, the wreck totaled Missouri Pacific No. 8, destroyed train cars and heavily damaged tracks. The damage cumulatively totals $145,000.
75 years ago
Oct. 7, 1949
• An epidemic of “goose pimples” on cars across the region has become a physics lesson.
Southeast Missouri residents were mystified to find pockets of water — some tiny, others the size of a dime — underneath the paint on their cars. There were no visible gaps in the paint that could have let the water in. Only cars with enamel finishes were unaffected.
According to Prof. A.C. Magill of the State College in Cape Girardeau, the culprit is capillary action. This is the process of liquid flowing in a narrow space without the aid of outside forces like gravity; it’s also how trees pull water up from roots to leaves. Magill explained some paints are porous, and capillary action likely drew water into those pores and under the paint.
The pimples followed almost 72 hours of rain in the region.
50 years ago
Oct. 7, 1974
• The Poplar Bluff Senior High School “Sho-Me” Marching Band has done it again. The band took home first place in for the third year in a row at the Invitational High School Marching Band Festival in Washington, Missouri against six other schools. The victory follows a second-place win at the Greater St. Louis Band Festival on Sept. 28.