The Blue Hole

Washington, Indiana. The Blue Hole was created during the great flood of 1875. On March 27, 1913, a Baltimore & Ohio work train was moving eastward over the Blue Hole train trestle (aprox. 1.25 miles west of Washington). Unknown to the train, flood waters had collapsed the trestle. Locomotive No. 401, its tinder and a flat car crashed into the waters as the washed out tresle gave way. 6 men were in the engine when it fell into the waters, four died in moments. Calls were placed to near-by Maysville and a rescue operation began to search for survivors and the bodies. Half an hour after the Blue Hole tresle fell, another bridge over the West Fork of the White River collapsed and trapped over 20 men between the two washouts. The night was one of terror for those left alive after the wreck. Men waded out into the freezing waters trying to rescue those they could find.

No. 401 was found by divers on April 6, 1913. It took more than one effort to raise the engine. Reports say that the engine was not only raised, but repaired and restored to service on August 1, 1913 at a cost of $2500. A grave marker in the northwest corner of Oak Grove Cemetery in Washington marks the event. Legend has it that the Blue Hole has areas that are near bottomless. Others claim that there is a bottom, but that it is made of quicksand. Stories surround this watery gravesite that tell of voices in the darkness, cries for help from the spirits of the men lost that night. Many tell of the Hole as being the final resting place for murder victims and lost children. Mystery surrounds this place but most legends agree, the Blue Hole hates to give up those who enter its waters.

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