How does a famous American author get involved looking for a lost locomotive which vanished into thin air well over 100 years ago on the eastern plains of Colorado? More importantly, does this mystery gets solved or is it yet another big question mark like that of Al Capone’s vault back in 1986. Sorry, Geraldo Rivera, but there is an answer to this story, which then dovetails into questions on hundreds of other mysteries around the world, and the common denominator to all of these is Clive Cussler.
Now just sit back, and let’s read about the mystery of old Engine 51 and its disappearance into Kiowa Creek.
The Legend of the Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek
A few miles east of now Bennett Colorado, a train is heading down the tracks on a stormy spring night. The train sounds its horn often because the visibility is almost zero, even with its large headlamp trying to penetrate the blackness of the night. To the local residents, the sound of the train is something they got accustomed to every night. It’s old Engine No. 51 pulling twenty cars heading east on its regular route heading toward Limon Colorado. The train is just about to the bridge over Kiowa Creek, but unbeknownst to the train engineers, the bridge has been undermined by the raging floodwaters that now fill this creek. Sometime in the night, Engine No. 51 goes down into history and is swept away as it attempts to cross this tattered bridge. Even though it seen and heard, it’s been laying under the sandy depths of Kiowa Creek for over 100+ years or so thought.
May 21, 1878, bought heavy rains to eastern Colorado, which flowed into the creeks and rivers such as Kiowa Creek just a couple of miles east of Bennett, then called Kiowa, named after the creek. A train was heading east, just passing the town at the same time the waters in Kiowa Creek became so great that they took out the train bridge. Unfortunately, the engineer of the train didn’t see the warning lights in time, and the train went over the broken bridge, plunging into the water below. Many of the crewmen were killed in the accident. Over the next few days, the bodies and train cars were recovered; however, the locomotive was never found, having been buried within the quicksand of Kiowa Creek. The engineer, Mr. Bennett, was one of the many who lost their lives. The town was soon renamed Bennett in his honor. The bridge was repaired, and the accident faded into history, only being brought up by some “old-timers” who kept the story alive. Some say you can still hear the ghosts of the lost locomotive and its crew members near the banks of the now dry Kiowa Creek if you listen closely on calm nights. Colorado Urban Legends
Who is Clive Cussler?
To begin with, Clive Cussler is an American novelist who was born in Aurora, Illinois, on July 15, 1931. He grew up in Alhambra, California, and later attended Pasadena City College for two years. He then enlisted in the Air Force during the Korean War, where he served as an aircraft mechanic and flight engineer. After his service, Clive Cussler became a copywriter and later creative director for two ad agencies.
Clive Cussler began writing in 1965 and published his first novel in 1973. He has been a professional writer for 47 years. He is credited for writing well over 80 books, many of which have been turned into movies. He uses his experience in the field of underwater exploration as an influence on many of his books. Clive Cussler, like many, enjoy a good mystery.
The missing locomotive and Clive
Clive Cussler got involved with the missing engine by happenchance when he read an article about the mystery of the locomotive in 1978. The article about this mystery then led Clive Cussler to write the book “Night Probe” many years later.
As told in the pages of the article, a Kansas Pacific freight train was traveling east on the night of May 21, 1878, when a flash flood took out the bridge spanning Kiowa Creek. The train was washed away by the floodwaters, and three lives were lost. All of the freight cars and coal tender were salvaged in the weeks to come, but the engine was supposedly never found.
Clive and his son went to the creek in 1981 and 1982 and conducted a preliminary search and found very little in the form of evidence to suggest that anything had happened there. Then in 1989, Clive and Craig Dirgo, the director of NUMA (National Underwater and Marine Agency), returned with hopes of finding the lost locomotive. With the help of 300 volunteers, the search began on a cold wintery day in January. Using 30 metal detectors, ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers, and a backhoe, only a few bits and pieces of the wreck were found. They even went as far as using a government satellite able to detect a heavy mass of iron but to no avail.
The findings of the mystery
Finally, a hunt through railroad archives by Loyd Glasier of Denver turned up a record of the locomotive being dug up in the dead of night and towed to Kansas City, where it was rebuilt and renumbered.
Clive Cussler personally thinks it was a nineteenth-century scam to collect on the insurance. The railroad of course denies this. “The Kansas Pacific and its insurance company are long gone, so why the obfuscation,” he asks?
This project was unusual in that the target did not exist, but the mystery behind its disappearance was solved, and the fate of Engine No. 51 could be classified as completed.
The introduction to NUMA
The National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA) is a private non-profit organization originally brought to life as a fictional US government organization in the novels of author Clive Cussler. He later created and now leads the organization, which is dedicated to preserving our maritime heritage through the discovery, archaeological survey, and conservation of shipwreck artifacts. NUMA does not actively seek private funding because the financial support for the projects comes from the royalties from Clive Cussler’s books. NUMA’s expeditions tend to focus on ships of American origin from the early 19th and 20th centuries, notably on Union and Confederate ships of the American Civil War.
What mysteries are they looking for?
HMS Actaeon, USS Akron, CSS Arkansas, USS Bonhomme Richard, USS Carondelet, RMS Carpathia, CSS Chicora, CSS Charleston, USS Commodore Jones, USS Cumberland, USS Cyclops, HMS Endeavour, CSS Florida, CSS Fredericksburg, CSS Gaines, CSS General Beauregard, CSS General Lovell, PS General Slocum, CSS General Thompson, CSS Governor Moore, Stone Fleet, Greyhound, CSS Alabama, SMS Blücher, Texan schooner Brutus, CSS Drewry, HMS Defence, HMS Hawke, USS Housatonic, H. L. Hunley, HMS Invincible, Ivanhoe, CSS Jamestown, USS Keokuk, Lexington, CSS Louisiana, CSS Manassas, Mary Celeste, USS Milwaukee, USS Mississippi, New Orleans, Lost Locomotive of Kiowa Creek, USS Osage, CSS Palmetto State, USS Patapsco, USS Philippe, Platte Valley, HMS Resolution, CSS Richmond, USS Varuna, CSS Virginia, CSS Virginia II, USS Weehawken, SS Waratah
- George Mallory and Andrew Irvine, explorers, lost on Mount Everest in 1924
- Norseman, a Confederate blockade runner
- Northampton, a Confederate cargo ship
- L’Oiseau Blanc (“White Bird”), aircraft flown by Charles Nungesser and François Coli which vanished on an attempted transatlantic flight in 1927
- SS Léopoldville, a Belgian troop transport torpedoed outside Cherbourg in 1944
- “NWA FLT2501”, a Northwest Airlines DC-4 and 58 persons missing in Lake Michigan since 1950
- Odin, a Royal Swedish steamship that ran aground off Jutland in 1836 with the Swedish prime minister on board
- HMS Pathfinder, a British scout cruiser
- Raccoon, a Confederate blockade runner
- Rattlesnake, a Confederate blockade runner
- Ruby, a Confederate blockade runner
- SMS S35, a German destroyer sunk during the battle of Jutland
- Saint Patrick, a Confederate blockade runner
- SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean
- HMS Shark, a British destroyer sunk during the battle of Jutland
- Stonewall Jackson, a Confederate blockade runner
- Sultana, the worst ship disaster in a number of lives lost in North America
- Swamp Angel, the cannon that fired during the American Civil War on Charleston, South Carolina before exploding
- Twin Sisters, a pair of six-pounder cannon used against General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the battle of San Jacinto[4]
- SM U-12, sunk by HMS Ariel in 1915
- SM U-20, a German U-boat that sank the ocean liner RMS Lusitania in 1915; ran aground on the Jutland coast in 1916, abandoned by crew and blown up by the Danish government in 1925
- SM U-21, a German U-boat, sank in 1919
- SMS V48, a German destroyer sunk during the Battle of Jutland
- Virginia Navy Fleet sunk by Benedict Arnold during the American Revolutionary War
- SMS Wiesbaden, a German light cruiser sunk off Jutland
- Texan schooner Zavala, a steamer in the Republic of Texas Navy
And More…
It seems to Clive Cussler; the mystery’s will never end.