Quicksand Fans

found this in a google search. Starts on pg 238

https://books.google.com/books?id=7vuV_ ... am&f=false

The article says quicksand is "widespread," to which we would reply, "Not widespread enough!"

Thanks for sharing!

Agree

Interesting article

I remember tracking this article down when I first entered college. I was searching "quicksand" in the card catalog of the university's library, and they actually had Field & Stream as part of one of their collections. Sitting there, in the library, reading this article, feeling like I was getting away with something!

Chimerix wrote:I remember tracking this article down when I first entered college. I was searching "quicksand" in the card catalog of the university's library, and they actually had Field & Stream as part of one of their collections. Sitting there, in the library, reading this article, feeling like I was getting away with something!

Two of the things one is supposed to learn as part of a higher education is 1) you ARE entitled at see such things, and 2) no one really cares if you do.

Chimerix wrote:I remember tracking this article down when I first entered college. I was searching "quicksand" in the card catalog of the university's library, and they actually had Field & Stream as part of one of their collections. Sitting there, in the library, reading this article, feeling like I was getting away with something!

Did the exact precise same thing.

Duncan Edwards wrote:

Chimerix wrote:I remember tracking this article down when I first entered college. I was searching "quicksand" in the card catalog of the university's library, and they actually had Field & Stream as part of one of their collections. Sitting there, in the library, reading this article, feeling like I was getting away with something!

Did the exact precise same thing.

Card catalogs. Yep, throw me on the guilty pile.

And somebody had to take all of those issues and pile them together in those clunky binders they had. I can't even come up with a digital equivalent of all that. There isn't one.

dlodoski wrote:

Duncan Edwards wrote:

Chimerix wrote:I remember tracking this article down when I first entered college. I was searching "quicksand" in the card catalog of the university's library, and they actually had Field & Stream as part of one of their collections. Sitting there, in the library, reading this article, feeling like I was getting away with something!

Did the exact precise same thing.

Card catalogs. Yep, throw me on the guilty pile.

And somebody had to take all of those issues and pile them together in those clunky binders they had. I can't even come up with a digital equivalent of all that. There isn't one.

Yep, there's something completely different about the experience of searching through a library pre-computer. Looking for the right card catalog drawer, flipping through thousands of cards, jotting down all the reference numbers on a scrap of paper, heading out into the depths of the library to find the correct section, the the correct set of shelves, then the correct shelf, then the actual item. Walking around with an increasingly unwieldy pile of books, binders, and whatnot. Trying to find an open table that you could assemble the materials on. Sitting there, reading, knowing you have to stay quiet no mater how excited you get, not being able to snack or drink, having to trot down two floors to use the restroom. People walking past you, the quiet murmur of activity, the incessant dry crackle of flipping pages.

The cool thing in this article is the reference to the missing locomotive in the May 21st 1878 Kiowa Creek, Colorado train wreck. There was a similar incident in the same rough time frame at Village Creek where I used to live in Arlington, Texas only it did not involve both a flood and presumed quicksand, just a flood. In both incidents the railroads were mystified as to the whereabouts of their wrecked locomotive they wanted to salvage. In the Village Creek instance, a driver was eventually found and provides the clue as to what actually happened to both locomotives.

It is often forgotten that a steam locomotive, or steamboat for that matter, is a large rolling bomb and can explode under the right conditions, like say a high speed impact from plunging from a missing bridge, a much more likely explanation than the convoluted quicksand theory in this article. If you've any doubt as to just how far heavy objects like locomotive driver wheels can be thrown when a locomotive explodes, look up the fascinating account of how the Katy Railroad set up an excursion train event with bleachers for the 40,000 attendees conveniently located near the tracks in, appropriately enough named, Crush, Texas on September 15th 1896 and deliberately crashed two old locomotives headlong at full speed into each other to the regret of all involved.