MICHIGAN, N.D. -- Better late than never is the unofficial motto for a group of local residents that will place a memorial to the Michigan Train Crash of 1945 in Veterans Memorial Park this summer.
The granite monument will be dedicated July 21 during the annual Michigan Days.
"We realized that there really wasn't anything in Michigan dedicated to the accident and the people who died," said Maria Vasichek, one of the event organizers.
The monument will include a photograph of the worst train accident in North Dakota history, which killed 34, including 19 veterans returning home from World War II. The train had stopped for repairs in Michigan, now a town of 300 about 50 miles west of Grand Forks, when another train ran into it.
Some history of the accident has been preserved in the old Michigan train depot, which was moved to Stump Lake Park Pioneer Village, 13 miles south of Lakota, by the Nelson County Historical Society.
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The depot contains railroad artifacts, pictures and a printed history of the 1945 crash, but it is open to the public only on a part-time basis, mostly between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
"We wanted something that people could see in Michigan," Vasichek said.
To build interest in the July 21 dedication, she has been compiling first-person recollections from people who were in and around Michigan at the time. They have been appearing weekly in two local newspapers, the Michigan Arena and Lakota American.
Richard Desautels, a 1950 graduate of Michigan High School who now lives in Spring Hill, Fla., was among those contributing stories.
He was at an elevator along the track at the time, and saw the train engineer and a man he thought was the brakeman "talking and using strong motions and words."
The brakeman soon climbed down the ladder and began running fast toward the end of the train to the east. The engineer followed suit but, before he reached the ground, there was a sound of brakes screeching. A train from the east crashed into the rear of the first train.
"These were steam engines, so the high engine heat and the escaping steam quickly killed many and scalded others," Desautels wrote.
"By the time I got there, passengers were descending from other cars, milling about, not knowing where they were or what to do, not knowing the depot and downtown Michigan was on the other side of the train."
