The Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives’ Brown Bag Lunch Series welcomes Ian Wilson to present about Montana’s deadliest train wreck.
Ian’s presentation and book, Catastrophe at Custer Creek: Montana’s Deadliest Train Wreck, documents the final ride of the Olympian. Just after midnight on June 19, 1938, the Olympian No. 15, an elite passenger train operated by the famed Milwaukee Road, crashed into Custer Creek, which flows into the Yellowstone River southwest of Terry, Montana. In the moments before the train reached the small bridge spanning the typically dry creek, the waters had swelled dramatically, the result of a violent storm system that moved across Montana that day. The wreck killed forty-nine passengers and crew members and injured another seventy-five, making it the most devastating train accident in Montana history. Ian will tell the story of the ill-fated Olympian and its ties to Butte, Montana.
The Brown Bag presentation will begin at noon on Wednesday, August 28th, 2024, and will last about an hour. The presentation will be held in the auditorium at the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives located at 17 W. Quartz Street. Guests are encouraged to bring a sack lunch. Coffee and water will be provided.
Brown Bag Lunches are held the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month. Upcoming lectures will focus on topics of local interest. For more information, contact the Archives at (406)782-3280.
