You wouldn't expect to find a mass grave outside Chicago holding the remains of 86 clowns, acrobats, strongmen, and other circus performers. Yet these poor souls really do reside here, and they met their end in a tragic accident on the rails outside of Hammond, Indiana. Many of them died instantly in what was soon discovered to be a completely preventable accident, and this tragic site serves as the conclusion to their sad story.
In the early morning hours of June 22, 1918, the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus were headed by rail to Hammond, Indiana, when technical difficulties forced the conductor to stop the train.
Unbeknownst to the members of the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, the engineer for the train behind them was asleep at the wheel. Sixteen-year veteran conductor Alonzo Sargent had fallen asleep while driving an empty military transport train. Sargent blew through all of the automatic signals and flares warning him of the stopped train up ahead.
It's believed that the impact killed most of its victims within the first 30 seconds. Those who managed to escape the wreckage watched in horror as the train's kerosene lanterns ignited what was left of the two trains.
For the next several hours, rescuers fought the blaze and pulled bodies from the wreckage. Another train carrying Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus performers had safely arrived in Hammond ahead of the doomed train. Those on the second train only learned the fate of their colleagues hours later.
In the aftermath of the crash, the Showmen's League of America purchased a 750-plot section of Woodlawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.
Most of the victims' remains were charred beyond recognition. Those that they were able to identify were buried under their stage names.
Today, visitors to the Woodlawn Cemetery can find the mass grave of circus performers by the elephant statues.
(via Cult Of Weird)
It's easy to throw the word "tragedy" around these days, but what happened to these folks really is a tragedy. We can at least hope that most of those who died did so without suffering. I can't imagine a worse fate than being trapped in a burning wreckage.
