RE: Wellington Train Disaster

jbeekley

Tenderfoot
Nov 21, 2006
9
0
RE: Wellington Train Disaster

Hello, I am new to using forums, so Please excuse me if I have this in the wrong spot!! I would like to ask anyone whom uses this forum if they have ever gone to the area where the Wellington train disaster had taken place back in 1910 in the area of Stevens pass here in Western Washinton? When I was around ten years old or so (I am 40 now), my brother and I went there with my father and his friend to use his medal detector to search for anything that may have come from this accident.

I remember they did find a few "old" coins that most likely had to come from on or more of the victims as these were dated around 1898 I believe and I think I also remember one was a "gold coin". They also found some parts from one of the trains as my father had taken on part to have it looked at and was told that it was some part of a brake pulley that was from a very old train, so it must have come from one of the trains. I plan on going back next spring as this is a great place to take our own kids and explain to them what had happened and how many years ago this was.

I was just wondering if anyone that used this forum has ever been to this great place? And if so, did you also come up with any "Treasure" from the accident. "TIP:" If you do go and try to find anything that was to do with this accident (including coins that still may be there), try looking way down from where the accident occured as I remember when they found two coins, this was about 1/2-mile or so from where this happened!! Must be from all of the snow/rain that has washed all of this material down the hills as they had gone almost all the way down to Scenic and they found the brake pulley that far down. So, we think that there still must me some lost coins from this accident just waiting to be found!! As we also have new medal detection now, we should be able to come up with any coins that still may be in that area.

Hope you can get here sometime and enjoy looking for items and also looking back into history just like my father had shown us many years ago. Best Hunting, John Beekley
 

D

dugupfinds

Guest
Good luck with your hunt.

You should find the stuff first before you give away the location of the treasure. You need some pirating skills.

Don't forget to post anything you find if theres any left :)
 

stoney56

Gold Member
Oct 4, 2004
6,888
56
Oklahoma
dugupfinds said:
Good luck with your hunt.

You should find the stuff first before you give away the location of the treasure. You need some pirating skills.

Don't forget to post anything you find if theres any left :)

Arrrr! Road trip!!! LOL Just kidding, John. Finding a site that has potential is like playing Texas-Holdum, keep your cards close to your vest till you know whether the pot is worth going after. ;) It's better to ask about a possible site without spilling the eggs out of the basket so to speak. You do have some good logic how mother nature can change a possible site and explain why some goodies can be so far away. Not knowing the site, it's also possible the impact itself might have a way of sending items some distance away. Good luck on your venture. HH!
 

lgadbois

Sr. Member
Mar 20, 2003
299
253
I have been to the site on more than one occasion. For those that don't know where to find it: There is the old Stevens Pass Hwy that departs the current road at Tye. It is a left. The road turns off just below the Windy Point Tunnel. This hill is the place where some of the survivors came down from the avalanche location. I don't know if this road is still open to where it joins the Pass highway just west of the summit.

Anyway, you should be able to access the old Wellington site from either end of the road. The site of the disaster is just west of the old Cascade Railroad Tunnel. As you look west from the flattened area that used to be Wellington, you will see the end of the old snowshed. Count 12 pillars west from the end and head down the steep hill to your left. There is still a lot of large debris to be found at the site. What wasn't salvaged from the train was pushed down into the gulch along with a lot of other wood and metal from the Wellington train stop. It will be very difficult to find anything of value, and now the trees and undergrowth have really taken over.
 

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