New Market Train Wreck

On September 24, 1904, a westbound local from Bristol met the eastbound Carolina Special head-on on single track. The local had been told to wait at Hodges' Switch but received orders to stop at New Market instead; its conductor later said he had misread the order, and a warning telegram went unheard because nobody was on duty at the switch. Many Special passengers were returning from the St. Louis World's Fair. The wooden coaches were crushed in seconds; steel Pullmans survived. Death tolls vary: 56 officially, 63 or 64 in other accounts.

What the plaque says

New Market Train Wreck The worst head-on collision in the history of Southern Railway occurred 1/4 of a mile north of this point. Sixty-four people were killed including engineers William Kane on westbound train #15 and G. M. "Dick" Parrott, eastbound train #12. Also killed were James Mills and William Cunningham, the two fireman.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 18 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Blount Mansion — 19 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.

More markers nearby

• "Little Lord Fauntleroy" — 4.2 mi
• Treaty of Dumplin Creek — 6.1 mi
• Carson-Newman College — 7.3 mi
• Nelson Merry School — 8.0 mi