In the early morning of June 22, 1918, a Michigan Central Railroad troop train barreled into the rear of a Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train, whose wooden cars were filled with sleeping performers. The troop train's engineer, Alonzo Sargent, had fallen asleep at the controls, missing the warning flares set by the circus train's flagman. The resulting collision sparked a fire, fed by kerosene lamps in the train cars, that consumed many of the victims who survived the initial impact. Estimates of the dead range from 56 to 86, while more than 100 others were injured.
The Showmen’s League of America had just recently purchased a section of Woodlawn Cemetery, intending it to be a peaceful resting place for circus workers. However, this plot, named Showmen’s Rest, soon became the site of a mass grave for many of the circus performers who perished in the wreck. Most of the bodies were so badly burned that they couldn’t be identified, and their gravestones now bear labels like “Unknown Male” or nicknames such as “Baldy” and “Smiley.”
Five stone elephants, with their trunks lowered in mourning, surround the burial site. Although no animals perished in the crash—those were on a separate train—local legends have emerged over the years, including tales of ghostly elephant sounds at night. These eerie reports, combined with the tragic history of the cemetery, have made Showmen’s Rest a place of intrigue for ghost hunters and history buffs alike.
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