Local Legend: Train will remain a legend: for now

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - So far, Storm Team 10 Meteorologist Kevin Orpurt’s quest has brought us along to revisit two deadly train crashes on the big four bridges spanning the Wabash River.

Local legend and folklore, with a bit of old newspaper reports, suggest the locomotives can be seen during very low water.

• PHOTOS OF ALL THREE DIVES AND RESULTS | Click here to view

The search crew Kevin teamed up with had been using powerful magnets and latched onto something big. With the aid of high-tech sonar, it’s believed that there’s something down there.

“Yeah, my hands are sinkin’ in about that much mud,” one of the Conservation Officers said, referencing an estimated measurement guess with his hands.

Indiana Department of Natural Resources divers decided to dive near the 1892 crash site after determining that twisted metal near the 1900 crash was likely the remains of the old bridge, which was too dangerous to dive in that location.

Whether there’s still a train there will have to remain a mystery.

So, the dive location was based on very compelling results from the sonar imaging results.

“Yeah, it’s right here. I can feel that one side,” said a DNR Diver, referencing the 1892 dive location.

“That’s where it was at: right there,” said a DNR Diver.

Finally, after diving in the river at the most likely locations of the 1892 crash, diver Max Winchell stated his observations.

“I believe the historical reports that I’ve read—that it was visible for decades, but I believe that the river, the silt and the sand have claimed whatever was once there,” said Winchell. “It may still be there, but it’s covered up now.”

Although their dive didn’t uncover empirical evidence suggesting the crashed locomotives were still in the water, the metallic pieces, possibly linked to the old wreckage, still leads Kevin to believe the rail-cars are still in the river.

Kevin believes they are buried under more than a century of murky silt and mud. Yet, if nothing else, will remain real in local folklore and legend until it’s finally found.