A few miles south of Thermopolis is a beautiful canyon called the Wind River Canyon. Many times throughout the year, this canyon will have a falling rock advisory, especially during the wet season.
This spring has been particularly wet. A few weeks ago a huge rock fell on the railroad tracks that run through this canyon. The result was this:
The rock was the size of a pick-up truck and caused a train to derail into the Wind River.
The locomotive engineers (I know my train vocabulary) had to climb out and swim to safety. They were alright, however, they did suffer minor injuries and hypothermia.
Several thousands of gallons of diesel fuel (I've heard 8 to 15 thousand gallons) leaked into the river. Crews worked to contain and siphon what fuel they could from the river. Luckily the town's drinking water was secured.
Pretty crazy, eh.
Here's a video clip of the canyon. It's really quite spectacular.
whoa! that's crazy.
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