
Crush, Texas - Tomte
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crush,_Texas
======
SwellJoe
I just spent a few months parked in West, TX, very near the site of this
happening. I didn't know about it, or I would have gone to visit the site!
But, there's a more recent somewhat famous explosion at a fertilizer plant in
West, as well, that killed 15 people and injured 200 others.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%2C_Texas#2013_explosion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%2C_Texas#2013_explosion))

That specific part of Texas might have more than its fair share of crazy
explosions, but I've noticed in my travels that even small obscure towns often
have some kind of surprising history. Cults, infamous battles between
indigenous peoples and settlers, racist enclaves, all sorts of bizarre events,
crazy publicity stunts, etc. are so common in the US and most people are
rarely aware of the history of the land they're on. Sometimes it feels like
the United States is one long story of hucksters and crazies bamboozling and
recklessly endangering their neighbors' lives.

~~~
blunte
If you were in West, you were near Dinosaur Valley State Park. It's not quite
the same as stories go, but it has obvious attraction.

~~~
fred_is_fred
Right outside Dino Valley (at least in the late 1990s) was the Creation
Evidence Museum. It was housed in a double-wide trailer.

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danso
I have no doubt that we as a species today would still happily line up for
this kind of awesomely stupid spectacle, most of us with our smartphones out.
The difference from 1896 is we have enough regulations to prevent such a
thing.

Another fun detail from the event's aftermath that likely wouldn't happen
today:

> _Crush was immediately fired from the Katy railroad. In light of a lack of
> negative publicity, however, he was rehired the next day._

edit: the Wikipedia entry has some nice footnote/sources. I didn't read them
all but the one from wacohistory.org has even more interesting details:

[http://www.wacohistory.org/items/show/70](http://www.wacohistory.org/items/show/70)

I think I'll bookmark this article for the times when people complain about
how much dumber and shallower we are compared to folks from the olden days:

> _Two people died and at least six other people were seriously injured by
> flying debris, including a Waco photojournalist, Jarvis Deane, who lost an
> eye. While the railway moved in quickly to remove the larger wreckage,
> souvenir hunters swarmed over the site, carrying off most of the remains
> despite burning their hands on the shrapnel._

~~~
stickfigure
Oh, this kind of thing definitely still happens today. Just not in the US.
There's this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pyrotechnic_Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Pyrotechnic_Festival)

I've been twice. The climax of the event involves pushing three-meter paper-
mache bulls through crowds of tens of thousands of drunk people, all the while
shooting out rockets and other not-even-remotely-safe-or-sane fireworks in
what looks like a cluster bomb explosion. I saw dozens of people get seriously
injured... and they come back every year.

Personally, I could do without some of the regulations. It's liberating to go
someplace that doesn't feel toddler-proofed.

~~~
danso
> _It 's liberating to go someplace that doesn't feel toddler-proofed._

Agree that America feels "toddler-proofed" relative to developing nations.
However, I had a great experience at St. Louis's City Museum. Even if the
experience may be relatively tame to what you can find overseas, it was still
astonishing to me that such a place of interest existed in America with so few
safeguards.

Here's a great WSJ article about the thrills and trials of the City Museum:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20150612052257/https://www.wsj.co...](http://web.archive.org/web/20150612052257/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304159304575183463721620890)

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lucas_membrane
It was not such a dumb idea. Between the mid-1890's and the mid 1920's, Joe
Connolly (known as Head-On Joe) staged more than 50 similar events with more
than 1 million paid admissions and not a single injury ever!

~~~
lucas_membrane
Video of a staged crash at the Iowa State Fair, 1932:

[http://juiceboxinteractive.com/ideas/creating-an-iowa-
state-...](http://juiceboxinteractive.com/ideas/creating-an-iowa-state-fair-
spectacle/)

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gourou
Interesting article about the marketing of the disaster and the accompanying
music piece

[http://blogs.baylor.edu/digitalcollections/2012/04/19/scott-...](http://blogs.baylor.edu/digitalcollections/2012/04/19/scott-
joplin%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cgreat-crush-collision-march-and-the-memorialization-
of-a-marketing-spectacle/)

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compiler-guy
You may have heard the classic blues song "She caught the Katy" which opens
the Blues Brothers movie. It's about this railroad.

She caught the Katy / Left me a mule to ride

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obiefernandez
Burning Man is a week of crazy spectacles in the desert.

I went for the first time in 2007. On one of the first nights there, I went to
see the Man itself and was in line waiting to climb up into it. The people
waiting behind me were discussing the fact that someone had fallen off an art
car and died. I couldn't help overhearing, and clueslessly was like "oh, no!
does this risk the event not happening next year???"

The group laughed and informed me that people die almost every year, if only
one person bit it during a particular burning man that would be a good year.

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rurban
At least they didn't electrocute an elephant, as folks in New York did for
public spectacle. Topsy was its name.

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CNJ7654
Thats cool and all, but now do it with a hyperloop

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iser
all fun and games until somebody loses an eye

