The 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace Tragedy: Breakdown
I still see many out there who are interested in the incident commonly known as The Hammond Circus Train Wreck of 1918. No doubt people are looking up the Wikipedia article and taking everything seen there as gospel. That may be good enough to satisfy a passing curiosity, yet I caution that information provided there isn’t entirely reliable. For those of you who crave a deeper dive into the story, allow me to give it to you here.
note: Pretty much the first three or four Google search pages is low-quality information. Read those with a grain of salt.
IVANHOE
First I want to say that the crash did not occur in Hammond. It occurred in Gary— in its Ivanhoe neighborhood. People still try to place the crash inside of Hammond and deny Gary. Denying Gary of anything is sort of an Internet hobby of those that don’t like Gary for whatever reason big or small. They try to push Ivanhoe not being a part of Gary at the time — and that assertion is based on nothing factual. They act as if Ivanhoe was some sort of floating entity disconnected from Gary only at that particular moment. Because people are lazy or don’t know how to research this information, they spread misinformation based on their ignorance. Doesn’t matter if it were a mile outside of Hammond or a foot (it actually happened about 0.86 miles [1,524 yards]east of the Hammond-Gary city limit). The official city limit is the city limit. To change it to fit false narratives is to corrupt history. Deal with it.
Ivanhoe was the moniker for the interlocking between Michigan Central and EJ&E railroads. East of this interlocking was a little village named Middleton (or Middletown). Middleton was considered a part of Tolleston before modern society was built around it. Middleton was plotted out with its own street names (that no longer exist). The area of Middleton was generally known as Ivanhoe and eventually the entire area was just Ivanhoe.
Ivanhoe had its own schoolhouse, which was closed for that purpose in 1906. It also had a little passenger depot — unknown if the schoolhouse was converted for that purpose. Not much of the area was developed for residential or business. The Bormans of Tolleston owned a lot of property there and systematically sold their property over time to Chicago interests. Ivanhoe eventually became a part of Gary and was so in 1918. The Hammond-Gary city limit in the area of the crash has not changed all that much if at all. There are at least 50 maps of all types that indicate Ivanhoe was inside of Gary’s city limits before 1918, during 1918 and forward to today.
In 1918 Ivanhoe was still somewhat ‘rural’ in nature. Most of the land was owned by the railroads. Michigan Central, EJ&E and Gary & Western were the main holders. There were few streets with homes built upon them. However some modern day conveniences existed. One of those were the Gary & Interurban streetcar line. It ran east-west on 9th Avenue, from Clark Road into Hammond. This was the very streetcar line both Garyites and Hammondites used to gawk at the circus train carnage in June of 1918.
The Ivanhoe interlocking itself and its tower was in Gary. The accident happened east of this interlocking. Why would the tower be in Gary and not the accident location? It doesn’t make any sort of Earthly sense. I understand the lack of information about the wreck prior to these modern days. I understand that because the wreck has the name ‘Hammond’ in it people would generally assume it happened in Hammond. I’m here to further push the truth of the matter. It did not happen in Hammond. It happened in Gary.
THE TRAINS
There were two circus trains that were a part of the same caravan. The first train passed through Gary into Hammond without incident, making it to the Armour stockyard in Chicago to care for the animals before returning to Hammond. The second part of the circus train was the accident train. It had no animals — only circus equipment, a few executives, a few major acts, the bulk of roustabouts and other staff. This equaled up to a few hundred people. At least half of them were injured or killed.
The US Army troop train that crashed into the circus train was also a two-part caravan. The first part of the troop caravan crashed into the second part of the circus caravan. The second part of the troop caravan was stopped east of the wreck just 10 minutes or so after it happened. There were no injuries reported from the accident troop train. Of course this is the one where the engineer, Alonzo Sargent, was asleep at the throttle and did nothing to stop the crash even after being aware it was going to occur. Not that anything he could have done would have made any difference.
World War I was in its last year in 1918 and was still happening at the time of the accident. The Army contracted New York Central Railroad — the owner of Michigan Central Railroad — to move troops from Chicago to Washington D.C.. This was an arrangement that was not new. The Army was not responsible for the wreck nor did it take any known actions to investigate. The investigation was taken up by the Interstate Commerce Commission. New York Central was the sole corporate party blamed in public, but faced no real consequences.
The impact site sits between Stevenson Street and Hobart Street in Gary. Yet the carnage was spread west up the track some 500 or so feet — stopping in the vicinity of Fairbanks Street. The crash was bad enough — but it was the fire that really did the most damage as far as deaths. If you can imagine a pyre of death and destruction 500 feet long burning bright in the cold summer morning. A 500-foot long pile of debris filled with burning wood, white hot train parts, hot rails and crushed/impaled people rolled up inside of it with no way in hell of getting out — especially before being burned. What makes you interesed in this crash? The crash itself or the gore?
THE CIRCUS GROUNDS
I see people who mistakenly think the show in Hammond was to occur at the Hammond Civic Center. That’s wrong. Hammond’s circus grounds at the time was located at the Hammond Distillery grounds. The distillery grounds was the regular location of any circus show that came to town. In 1918 the distillery was shutdown due to Indiana’s prohibition laws and was closed at the time of the accident. Because of prohibition, the circus was allowed to park both parts of their train caravan at the distillery’s rail yard — which was along the Hammond belt line owned by Indiana Harbor Belt. This section is going to use terms you may not understand. It’s okay if you don’t — I just don’t have any simple way to explain certain things. I will link terms to informative sources when applicable.
In order to get there from Ivanhoe, the second part of the circus train caravan had to leave the Michigan Central main line and get on to the Gary & Western main line at Ivanhoe interlocking. This was possible via crossover tracks from the Michigan Central line to the Gary & Western. This crossover was where the circus train parked with its last four or five cars still on the Michigan Central main line — which allowed for the crash to occur.
If the crash had not occurred, assuming, the circus train would have completely left the Michigan Central main and gotten onto the Gary & Western main line. From there, it would have ran on the portion of the Gary & Western main through Gibson (Hammond). The circus train, assuming, would have gotten off the Gary & Western main at CP-G&W, which is a wye that sits basically under Kennedy Avenue today — just north of 161st Street. It would have went north, assuming, on the Kankakee branch until reaching the Calumet neighborhood in East Chicago, Indiana. From there, assuming, the circus train would have been able to get onto the Hammond belt line at around Grasselli. From there , assuming, it would have moved west through East Chicago’s Southside until reaching the distillery grounds at 150th & Calumet Avenue in Hammond.
I say assuming because I’ve seen nothing about any train orders to have been given to the circus train after leaving the Michigan Central main line at Ivanhoe. Either I just don’t have that information or it doesn’t exist.
Indiana Harbor Belt had exclusive track rights to use the Gary & Western main line all the way through Gary. Because New York Central had major ownership of Indiana Harbor Belt, and the circus train caravans were staffed with New York Central equipment and crew, it was the circus train’s right to use Indiana Harbor Belt’s rails to reach the distillery — which I explained earlier had yards owned by Indiana Harbor Belt. In short, from Ivanhoe, the circus trains used Indiana Harbor Belt right-of-ways to get to the circus grounds.
I can go on and on but I will stop here. There are many more misconceptions and misinformative nuances floating around. To nitpick at them all in one post is not my idea of fun.