On Memorial Day, 1893, Alfred Thomas took his hunting rifle, walked into the woods near his home in Tyrone, and shot a Bengal tiger. What was a tiger doing in the forest in Central Pennsylvania?
The wreck of the Walter L. Main circus train. The people of Tyrone weren't expecting a visit from the circus. The heavy train and the steep mountain proved to be too much for the brakes and crew of Locomotive No. 1500. On a sharp curve at the foot of the mountain, the train left the tracks.
The Walter L. Main Circus was reduced to splinters and twisted steel. Five people were killed, but more than 125 performers escaped serious injury. More than fifty horses died, and dozens of other animals including tigers, lions, a gorilla, alligators, zebras, kangaroos, and several large snakes escaped crushed cages and fled into the woods of Central Pennsylvania.
The people of Tyrone quickly came to the aid of the circus, and in just nine days, the circus was back on the road. The circus left town, but many of the escaped animals stayed in Tyrone and the surrounding countryside. Today big snakes are often thought to be the offspring of these escaped reptiles.
This event may have been forgotten. There are bigger stories of war, and social change, but the impact on this little town was profound. One circus clown who survived the wreck came back every May to attend services for the victims that was held each year from 1895 to 1958.
Local Tyrone historian Susie O'Brien keeps this true story alive by presenting in local schools, and along with archaeologist Paula Zitzler have written a book called Unscheduled Stop: The Town of Tyrone and the Wreck of the Walter L. Main Circus Train. Available at the Tyrone Area Historical Society, or of course From My Shelf Books.
Just before dawn on May 30, 1893, the Walter L. Main circus train carrying dozens of animals and performers ran off the tracks in an epic crash in central Pennsylvania.
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