Tolar explosion marker unveiled

link DEREK MAJOR: Staff photo

Tom Drake, the coordinator of the New Mexico historical marker program, gives a speech during the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Tolar historical marker

Staff writer

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Dennis Wynn had a personal reason for being at Friday’s unveiling of a historical marker that commemorates a train accident that leveled the town of Tolar almost 70 years ago.

On Nov. 30, 1944, his grandfather was the conductor of an 81-car World War II freight train that was full of bombs heading west through the town of Melrose. As the train slowed down through the village of Tolar, a fuel oil tanker along with 36 cars jumped the track, eventually starting a fire that set off 160, 500-pound bombs.

One person, Jess Brown, was killed in the incident.

“I wasn’t going to miss this,” said Wynn, a fourth generation railroad worker. “It’s great that they were able to come out here and find a way for people to remember this day.

About 100 people gathered just outside of Tolar for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the historical marker, which featured a plaque describing the details of that day, and a piece of the train’s undercarriage that was blown about 500 feet.

Tom Drake, a coordinator for the state’s historical marker program was not surprised by the large turnout.

“I’ve been to about ten of these marker dedications,” said Drake , who fact and spell checks the events written on the markers. “There is something about making a piece of history public that wasn’t well known in the past that brings people together. It shows that to have a community you have to have history.”

Carol Baldwin’s grandfather, a railroad worker named JJ Johnson, was also on the train that day and she couldn’t have been happier that the marker was being unveiled.

“I think this is a great day,” said Baldwin of Clovis. “There have been stories about this incident for many, many years but its finally got the recognition that it deserves.”

Drake, along with Isadora Fanning, the district construction engineer for Roosevelt County, and Randy Dunson, who started the application process to get the marker gave speeches at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Dunson, who lived in Taiban at the time of the explosion, started the application in January to get the marker placed. Typically a three-year process, Dunson pushed the New Mexico Historical Preservation Department to have the marker placed by November, to mark the 70th anniversary of the explosion.

Dunson, who wore a big smile, said in his speech that it was a proud day for the people who witnessed the event and for those involved.

According to the marker, which actually sits two miles west of Tolar, the blast leveled nearly every building in town and could be heard from 60 miles away.

Dunson said the spot was picked because it would be easy to see the marker from both sides of the road, making it easy for tourists and those passing by to pull over and see the marker. It took less than five minutes after the ribbon was cut for Dunson to be right.

“I saw everybody standing around and I didn’t know what was going on,” said Edward Olsen a truck driver from Robertsdale, Alabama. “I drive this road all the time in my route and I never noticed this historical marker before, so I wanted to see what was going on.“I think the extra piece here over to the side, the undercarriage, really adds something to the marker because all you usually see is a sign and a story.”