The Cog Railway Disaster: White Mountain National Forest

Mount Washington became the location of one of the deadliest accidents in American Railroad history in 1967. Home to the world's first Cog Railway, a routine descent turned catastrophic when the locomotive left the tracks, sending a passenger car full of tourists into a terrifying runaway ride down one of the steepest railroad grades in the world. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code NPAD for 15% off your first order. ButcherBox: As an exclusive offer, new listeners can get their choice of free ribeyes for a year, or ground beef or chicken breast for life, PLUS $20 off their first box. Visit http://ButcherBox.com/NPAD to claim your offer. HelloFresh: Get 10 Free Meals + Free Breakfast for Life with HelloFresh! Go to http://HelloFresh.com/npad10fm. IQBAR: Get 20% off all IQBAR products plus FREE shipping by texting PARK to 64000. BetterHelp: Start therapy today and get 10% off your first month at http://BetterHelp.com/NPAD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

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• 1:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Riding the Cog Railway, the first mountain-climbing train of its kind anywhere in the world, is one of the most iconic ways to experience Mount Washington, home to some of the most extreme weather ever recorded on the planet. The brightly-covered railcars, painted in shades of red, blue, and purple, with their polished wood interiors and matching benches, feel like stepping back in time. In many ways, they are. Officially completed in 1869, the railway has carried generations of visitors up the western slopes of Mount Washington. As the train steadily climbs higher, the scenery transforms outside the windows.

• 1:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  At the summit, passengers step out into a world unlike the one they left behind at the base of the mountain. They're greeted by a windswept landscape of bare granite, scattered boulders, and hardy alpine plants clinging to life in one of the harshest environments in North America. On a clear day, the views stretch for more than 100 miles across New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and even into Canada. But just As often, thick clouds race over the summit, swallowing the landscape in seconds as fierce winds whip across the exposed peak, making it immediately clear why Mount Washington has earned its infamous reputation.

• 2:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  After snapping the classic summit photo and exploring the Sherman Adams Visitor Center, complete with exhibits, gift shops, and even a post office where visitors can mail letters from the top of New England, most travelers prepare for the trip back down the railway. But for many passengers, the most nerve-wracking part of the journey isn't the climb to the summit or even facing the mountains' legendary winds. It's stepping back aboard the train for the descent. From the summit, the Cog Railway begins its long descent back to the valley below. At first, it feels impossible that a train can travel down a mountainside this steep. The track averages a 25% grade, already steeper than most expert ski runs, and at

• 3:09Cassandra Yahnian?

  one infamous section known as Jacob's Ladder, it reaches an astonishing 37.4%, rivaling the steepest double-black diamond ski slopes. As the train tips forward and gravity takes over, every instinct tells you that this is too steep for a locomotive. Even the calmest passengers find their minds drifting to the same unsettling thought: What if the brakes fail? What if the engineer can't stop the train? What will I do if something goes wrong? For most passengers, those fears are only passing thoughts, but in 1967, they became a reality. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

• 4:13Danielle LaRock?

  Hello everyone and welcome back to National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle.

• 4:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  And I'm Cassie. And if you are new here, we should let you know that we are from New Hampshire. And this is a home park for us that we're going to be telling a story from today.

• 4:26Danielle LaRock?

  Is this a safe space?

• 4:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Is it? It's not a safe story.

• 4:29Danielle LaRock?

  I have to tell you something. I have to tell you something.

• 4:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  You've never ridden the cog?

• 4:34Danielle LaRock?

  Not only have I never ridden the cog.

• 4:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  You've never been to the summit of Mount Washington?

• 4:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yes.

• 4:41Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sorry.

• 4:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm sorry.

• 4:42Danielle LaRock?

  No.

• 4:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Danielle, that can't be true.

• 4:46Danielle LaRock?

  It is. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I've been waiting to tell you for like eight years.

• 4:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  No. No, we've done so many episodes here.

• 4:57Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 4:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Shut the-

• 5:02Danielle LaRock?

  I'm like, is it too far gone? Should I just like keep this lie going? But-

• 5:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  You should have. I don't know how to react.

• 5:10Danielle LaRock?

  To my knowledge, unless I was an infant or a small child and not-

• 5:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Which does not count, even if you did.

• 5:18Danielle LaRock?

  Just like I've never been to the Grand Canyon because I was five when I went to the Grand Canyon and I don't count that.

• 5:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  But I knew about that.

• 5:25Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 5:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  I want to listen back to-

• 5:27Danielle LaRock?

  Is this the end of us?

• 5:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know, but I want to listen back to our old episodes to hear you pretending that you knew what I was talking about when I talked about-

• 5:36Danielle LaRock?

  I mean-

• 5:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  The top of Mount Washington.

• 5:38Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like I get, I get it, you know, like I've been around Mount Washington. I've seen Mount Washington a bunch of times from surrounding summits.

• 5:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know how to feel about this.

• 5:49Danielle LaRock?

  I'm so sorry.

• 5:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  All I can think is that we're going. We're riding, you know what? You know what we're doing? We're hiking. We're hiking up there. And then we're going to take the cog down to save our knees and also because this story won't traumatize you unless you take the cog. So I feel like we should be on the same part because same wavelength, because now I feel like I'm traumatized from knowing this story about the cog railway disaster as I have ridden it several times and I've been up there several times. And now I feel like you have to experience it with me.

• 6:24Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, that's fair enough.

• 6:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're going this summer, this summer. If this is an emergency, if I've ever heard one in my entire life.

• 6:31Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, I'm here.

• 6:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm coming back. I can't be in this cold weather. If anyone is listening in there in Wyoming and Idaho and this area, oh my god.

• 6:41Danielle LaRock?

  How do you do it?

• 6:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  It is unce- I think it's unseasonably cold for this time of year. I'm not sure, but I was in snow this morning. I drove through a snowstorm this morning and it is currently June 29th as we are recording this.

• 6:54Danielle LaRock?

  We got on a Zoom this morning and Cassie and I have been on like separate vacations over the last week. So we haven't really like had any meetings or whatever. We get on our first meeting in days without seeing each other. We all pop on at the same time. I'm legitimately sweating. I'm in a tank top. I'm like sun kissed, glowing. It's dewy. It's nice. I look over at Cassie's little square. She has a sweatshirt on with a puffy over it.

• 7:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  And my wood stove was on because it's so cold here. So I'm dreaming of Mount Washington weather.

• 7:29Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, well, now that we've cleared the air, I would like to just let the record show. I have been on a cog before to Pike's Peak.

• 7:39Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not, it's not count.

• 7:42Danielle LaRock?

  Sorry. I just wanted to say like-

• 7:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's like being like, I haven't been on Mount Washington, but I did go hiking in Washington State.

• 7:50Danielle LaRock?

  That it's not the same thing. Hold on. Let's do a couple of fast facts here.

• 7:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  About cogs? Because the New Hampshire cog railway is the first one in the whole world.

• 8:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yes. However, the cog in Pike's Peak is the highest cog railway in the world. Nine mile scenic journey up the 14,115 foot summit of Pike's Peak. Okay, yada, yada. I just wanted to say like, I, okay, I don't need to defend myself anymore. I'm sorry.

• 8:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  You've been on a cog, but not the Mount Washington one.

• 8:24Danielle LaRock?

  No, certainly not. Okay, so this one was founded in 1889 and successfully reached the summit for the first time on June 30th, 1891. And that's that on Pike's Peak cog.

• 8:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Which is not where we're going today. And oh my god, we're planning a trip. I'm planning a trip for us. We're-

• 8:44Danielle LaRock?

  You guessed that pretty quick.

• 8:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  I knew it immediately. As soon as you were like, I have a confession to make. I was like, oh no. I could just see it. I could see it in your face.

• 8:55Danielle LaRock?

  I'm just trying to be honest.

• 8:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  I literally have in here. So of course we have both been to Mount Washington.

• 9:05Danielle LaRock?

  Think again.

• 9:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, my God. I have to rewrite this entire script. I'll be right back. Um, all right. Well, this is new. To me.

• 9:16Danielle LaRock?

  Breaking news.

• 9:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Breaking news. I'm, I'm thrown off completely, but I guess I will change. Intro that I started here. I was like, I was like, so of course we have both been to Mount Washington. And of course it's a staple in our experience.

• 9:37Danielle LaRock?

  Of course, it's one of the cornerstones of my entire personality. Yeah.

• 9:45Danielle LaRock?

  Wow. Everyone knows that about me. I love summoning Mount Washington.

• 9:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. And you've done it a lot. Oh, that's so crazy. All right, we're going to get into the story because the Cog Railway, as I mentioned, is the first of its kind in the entire world. And it's in New Hampshire, which is exciting. And what makes it extra special is because Mount Washington, if you have not listened to some of our past episodes, or if you're not aware, is known for the worst weather on the entire planet. And it recorded 231 mile per hour wind speeds, which is the highest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth, which is really cool. And that happened in 1934 and it's yet to have been broken. So them building this cog railway was a big deal because it was known for the worst weather in the world.

• 10:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  And of course, because I love New Hampshire and I love the White Mountains, it's one of my favorite places to visit. I, and I know there's a ton of people who visit when I've researched it in the past, there's over 3 million people who visit every single year. I figured since I love it so much and we love the White Mountains so much, I want to traumatize you all today by a really horrific story of the cog railway, which is a staple in your experience when you go visit. Mount Washington and will be a staple in Danielle's experience when we go and she gets to ride the cog. So We will Yeah, totally. Dive into this story and hopefully you'll still want to ride the cog railway after this story

• 11:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  because it is really cool. And I will just preface that the technology that exists at the cog is much different today than in this story. So if you are heading to Mount Washington and you are planning to ride the cog, please don't let this story deter you. So let's start kind of at the beginning. For nearly 100 years, from its opening in 1869 until 1967, the Mount Washington cog railway carried passengers safely up and down one of the most dangerous mountains in North America. Families boarded the small train expecting breathtaking views, fresh mountain air, and the unforgettable thrill of climbing nearly straight into the clouds aboard the world's first mountain

• 12:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  climbing cog railway to the summit of Mount Washington at 6,288 feet, which reminds me, we're gonna have to get a summit photo together because you don't have a summit photo and we need a summit photo. Okay, well, I've never been to the top, so I'm ashamed. I'm sorry. Doing it. You don't have to be ashamed. I'm actually a little excited the more I think about it. Okay, this was operating safely for 100 years, so few people realize the dangers that could happen there. But on September 17, 1967, the side of Mount Washington became one of the deadliest train disasters in New England's history. Despite the disaster we are going to dive into during this episode today, the cog railway is still one of the most iconic attractions in New Hampshire

• 12:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  with upwards of 150,000 people, mine, not Danielle, riding it every single year. I'm never gonna live this down.

• 12:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm sorry, I'm done. So a little bit of backstory on this train. This historic train climbs three steep miles to the summit of Mount Washington, which of course is known for some of the worst weather in the world, where they actually have hurricane-force winds batter the summit for more than 100 days per year, which is pretty crazy. I do want to just talk about the railway and its history a little bit, and why it's even on Mount Washington and how that started. So the railway was originally built in the 1860s after a businessman named Sylvester Marsh nearly died while hiking Mount Washington with his pastor during a recreational trip through the White Mountains. At the time, the White Mountains were exploding in popularity

• 13:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  as one of America's first major tourism destinations. Wealthy travelers from Boston and New York flocked to New Hampshire by train each summer to escape crowded industrial cities and experience the region's dramatic scenery, cool mountain air, and luxurious grand hotels that were rapidly appearing throughout the region. And of course, now if you go up to New Hampshire, there are a ton of historic hotels. And of course, one of those main ones is the Mount Washington Hotel, which I think is kind of the prime example of luxury hotels that were popping up in northern New Hampshire at this time. So as tourism was booming in the mid 1800s, reaching the summit of Mount Washington became one of the ultimate travel accomplishments

• 14:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  in the Northeast. It was like, this is the largest mountain, has the worst weather in the world. If you get up here, that is an achievement. And it kind of became something that the rich and wealthy were like, yeah, let's go up there.

• 14:35Danielle LaRock?

  It's like a badge of honor type of thing.

• 14:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  Truly. Now you get a sticker, but back then, you got like, you're like, I'm rich. I got to the summit of Mount Washington. Now you get to put a sticker on your car that says, this car climbed Mount Washington.

• 14:49Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, they sell those stickers. Yeah. You don't get a sticker if you hike it.

• 14:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, which is kind of messed up when you think about it, because hiking it is way harder than driving up the road. Although the road is kind of sketchy.

• 15:05Danielle LaRock?

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• 16:34Danielle LaRock?

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• 17:18Danielle LaRock?

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• 17:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  So to capitalize on this growing tourism craze, entrepreneurs somehow managed to construct entire hotels directly on top of the summit of Mount Washington, decades before modern roads or machinery existed there. In 1852, the Summit House was built near the top of the mountain to shelter exhausted travelers who made the difficult climb by foot, horseback, or carriage. Just one year later, in 1853, the Tip Top House was completed nearby using massive granite stones hauled up the mountain by hand and stacked into thick walls capable of surviving the summit's brutal winds and freezing temperatures. And the Tip Top House is actually still up there.

• 18:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  I've never been in it, but it's just, it's very close to the summit sign. And I think it might be like a gift shop. It's always been closed every single time I've been there, but there's remnants of here and you kind of see and you're like, whoa, that was a hotel at one point? Cause it does not look like it could have been. It literally looks like, it is, and it looks like a rock shelter. It doesn't look like a hotel at all.

• 18:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, hotel is probably a generous term.

• 18:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. So these were, these hotels were built both out of necessity and opportunity. There were tourists who needed food, warmth, and shelter after enduring the dangerous ascent. And businessmen recognized that people were willing to pay for this once in a lifetime experience. And they also realized that eating and sleeping above the clouds on the highest peak in New England could make them some serious money. As tourism continued to grow, developers searched for even easier ways to bring visitors to the summit. In 1861, the Mount Washington Auto Road first opened as a carriage road, climbing 7.6 miles to the top of the mountain, making it one of the oldest man-made tourist attractions in the entire United States.

• 19:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Long before modern guardrails or paved highway was put onto the auto road that we know today, travelers braved the steep mountain route by horse or on carriage to reach the summit hotels and experience Mount Washington's famous views and dangerous weather firsthand.

• 19:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  When Sylvester Marsh hiked and reached the peak of Mount Washington, the weather quickly turned to life-threatening conditions. Thick clouds, freezing wind, and blinding weather forced Marsh and his pastor to seek emergency shelter at the Tip Top House during the storm. And he was pretty shaken by how quickly this weather turned. He's like, it was a beautiful day. It was great. Like, we made it to the summit. It was hard, exhausting, but great day. And then suddenly, it completely shifted to something that could have turned fatal. He came up with this idea that he wanted to have some other way of transportation to get to the top, so everyday people could experience Mount Washington without maybe possibly having to risk their lives or hike it.

• 20:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  So, his idea was that he wanted to put a train on Mount Washington. At the time, most people thought that this idea was absurd. Building a steam-powered train capable of climbing one of the steepest mountains in the Northeast sounded impossible. And critics actually mocked Marsh relentlessly, nicknaming him Crazy Marsh and joking that he might as well build a railway to the moon.

• 20:49Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 20:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, this is impossible. You know, everything started with a crazy idea.

• 20:54Danielle LaRock?

  That's right.

• 20:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  And now, there's one in Pike's Peak.

• 20:56Danielle LaRock?

  And Mount Washington.

• 20:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  So, anyway, Marsh is coming up with this idea. He wants to build this train on Mount Washington, but everyone's calling him crazy. But Marsh pushed forward anyway, designing a revolutionary system that allowed trains to grip the mountain as they climb grades far too steep for traditional railroads. Some sections of Mount Washington, as I mentioned earlier, reached grades as steep as 37%. That's so steep that passengers looking out the window could feel as though the train was climbing straight into the sky. So, you're literally just like chugging along straight uphill. Construction crews battled brutal terrain while building elevated tracks directly onto the mountainside, including the infamous Jacob's Ladder,

• 21:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  a trestle suspended high above the rocky slope that became the steepest railroad trestle in the world at the time. After delay is caused by the Civil War, the Mount Washington Cog Railway officially opened in 1869 as the world's first mountain-climbing cog railway. Today, riding the cog is considered a classic White Mountain experience, but while riding down the steep mountainside, it's easy to imagine, as I mentioned earlier, the nightmare scenario every passenger tries not to think about: the derailment or the train losing its grip on the mountain, only to plummet uncontrollably towards the valley below. And I don't know, I wrote that because that's the things that I think about, but maybe other people don't have anxiety like that.

• 22:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  But whenever I've sat on it, I've been like, looking out, I'm like, "All right, just work, please."

• 22:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  But in 1967, passengers on the Mount Washington Cog Railway didn't have to imagine it because they lived it. On the afternoon of September 17th, 1967, families crowded aboard the final passenger train of the day descending from the summit of Mount Washington. The day had been filled with unusually beautiful weather, and many visitors had lingered at the summit longer than planned, enjoying the clear skies and sweeping views of New England's highest peak. As a result, the last train down the mountain was packed well beyond its seating capacity. A passenger car built for 56 people on this day carried somewhere between 85 and 90 passengers.

• 23:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  Tourists stood shoulder to shoulder in the center aisle, gripping seatbacks and overhead supports as the train prepared for the descent. Some leaned towards the window to photograph the endless layers of red, orange, and gold beginning to spread across the White Mountains for the sunset. Children pressed their face against the glass while passengers laughed, chatted, and pointed towards distant peaks fading into the afternoon haze. Newlyweds, families on vacations, retired couples, and sightseers from across New England and beyond were all crammed together for the ride down the mountain. Among those passengers were George and Mary Buxton, a middle-aged couple from New Jersey who had saved for years to finally visit-

• 23:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  At the White Mountains and ride the legendary Cog Railway together. Nearby sat Army Private Harry Romich. He was a 23-year-old from Hinckley, Ohio, vacationing in New Hampshire with his 19-year-old wife Paula before reporting to Fort Lewis, Washington to ship out for the military duty in Korea. Seven-year-old Eric Davies from Hampton, New Hampshire, rode the train alongside his family, while 15-year-old Beverly Richmond traveled to Mount Washington from Putnam, Connecticut. 22-year-old Shirley Zorzy had made the trip from Lynn, Massachusetts, while Charles Usher, a 55-year-old from Dover, New Hampshire, boarded alongside dozens of tourists excited to experience the famous railway at sunset.

• 24:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  The passengers packed into the overcrowded railcar had no idea that they were about to become part of one of the most deadly disasters in the mountains' history. At 5:10 PM, the train began descending the steep western face of Mount Washington. Inside the locomotive cab sat an engineer in training supervised by a more experienced engineer named Gordy Chase. While most passengers were enjoying the ride, Harry Rosemich found himself growing increasingly uncomfortable. Looking around at the packed aisles and crowded seats, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was simply too much weight aboard the train. As the train car headed down the steep grade, something about the descent just didn't feel right to him.

• 25:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  Unlike traditional railroads, at the time, the Cog Railway relied on a specialized cog and rack system to safely travel the mountains' impossibly steep grades. And this system was a large tooth gear beneath the train, locked directly into a center rack rail running between the tracks, allowing the locomotive to carefully control both the ascent and descent. Without that grip on the mountain, the train could easily become a runaway sled on the steep mountainside. In the 1960s, the railway also depended on a complicated series of manual operating switches carved into the mountain, so ascending and descending trains could safely pass each other on a single track. So I think that's really

• 26:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Important to note that the train going up and the train going down is both on the same track here. Because the center rack rail made standard railroad switches impossible, brakemen had to physically reposition heavy steel rail sections by hand each time a train needed to move onto a siding. So it basically just like moved to the side, allowed the other one up and down, and it was all very manually done. One of the most important of these passing points was the skyline switch, which was located on the mountain near Jacob's Ladder, the steepest section of track on the entire railway. Just over an hour earlier on that same day, the same train had safely climbed through the skyline switch on its way to the summit,

• 26:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  so crew members had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. What they didn't know was that somewhere ahead of them, one improperly aligned switch waited on the tracks. As the train descended towards the skyline switch, it slowed slightly but never came to a complete stop, following standard operating procedures at the time. Inside the crowded passenger car, people continued chatting, pointing out the sweeping views of the White Mountains glowing in the late afternoon light. Then, without warning, the locomotive slammed into a misaligned switch. Inside the crowded passenger car, a violent jolt rippled through the train, throwing passengers against seats and into one another.

• 27:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  Harry Romich looked towards the front of the train just in time to see the locomotive suddenly lurch off the tracks. In an instant, the engine that had been guiding them down the mountain disappeared from view, tumbling down the rocky slope below. For a split second, confusion filled the passenger car. The coach continued rolling downhill, and many passengers had no idea what had just happened.

• 28:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Then, the horrifying realization spread. The locomotive that had been attached to them was gone. The only thing carrying them down one of the steepest railroad grades in the world was a passenger car with no engine in front of it. And when they realized this, panic erupted almost immediately. Passengers screamed and grabbed onto seats, windows and each other as the railcar continued accelerating downhill. Parents pulled children close. Tourists, who moments earlier had been admiring the view, now stared out the windows in horror. Some shouted while others sat frozen in disbelief. Farther down the mountain, another cog train was slowly climbing towards them.

• 28:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Passengers aboard the ascending train suddenly saw a burst of smoke erupt near the skyline switch before realizing that the descending passenger car was no longer attached to its engine. For a terrifying moment, it appeared that the runaway railcar might slam directly into them head-on. That railway car was gaining speed. Passengers screamed and grabbed onto seats, windows and each other as the train violently shook beneath them. The sound of grinding metal echoed through the mountainside while the terrified people were thrown against the walls and into the aisles. Riding inside the passenger car alongside the nearly ninety passengers was brakeman Charlie Kennison.

• 29:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  As panic spread through the crowded railway car and the train began accelerating downhill, Kennison rushed to the emergency braking system, desperately trying to stop the runaway car before it picked up even more speed, but it was no use. Some passengers desperately tried to brace themselves while others began kicking at the windows, hoping to escape before the train crashed. A handful made the desperate decision to jump from the moving railcar onto the jagged rocks below. Amid the chaos, Harry searched frantically for his wife Paula, but he could no longer find her among the screaming passengers packed inside the car. And that like, just if you've seen photos of Mount Washington or you've been up there,

• 30:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  if you look at it, and I encourage people, if you haven't, like, look up photos of it, the top of Mount Washington is just straight up granite rock. Yeah. So to make that decision while you are careening down this mountainside on this railway car to jump out of it, that's a hard choice because you're not, you're definitely getting injured. There's not, like, maybe I'll land on a soft patch of moss or grass. Like, you are getting injured, especially when you're starting to move at fast speeds. So the fact that people were actively jumping out of this train just shows like how serious this scenario just got. Then, just 500 feet farther down the mountain, the passenger car finally derailed completely.

• 30:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  From the ascending train below, horrified passengers watched as a runaway railway car tore free from the tracks and appeared to launch into the air before slamming violently into the jagged rocks lining the mountainside. Inside the railcar, bodies were hurled against seats, walls, and one another as sections of the car crumpled and tore open. The force of the crash threw some passengers clear of the wreckage while others became trapped beneath collapsed sections of the railcar. As dust, coalsoot, and debris settled across the mountainside, survivors began crawling from shattered windows and torn aluminum into a scene of devastation.

• 31:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Harry Romisch regained consciousness, lying on his back with other passengers piled on top of him. Dazed and injured, he had no idea how he had escaped the train and where he was when he awoke to these people just on top of him. Around him, injured passengers stumbled across the rocks in shock while others screamed for missing family members and friends. Nearby, survivors picked through the wreckage, searching for coats and sweaters to drape over the injured as the last daylight began slipping behind the mountains. The wind was starting To pick up across Mount Washington and many of the wounded lay exposed on the rocky slope, bleeding and unable to move.

• 32:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Some wandered through the debris in shock while others searched desperately for their missing loved ones. The ascending train that had watched the runaway railcar launch from the tracks and crash into the mountainside came to an immediate stop. Crew members and passengers alike rushed towards the wreckage. Among those to first respond to the scene was a passenger named Ralph Shakett. When he reached the wreckage, he found bodies and injured passengers scattered across the mountainside. Among the chaos, Ralph witnessed a young couple trying to help a severely injured passenger despite the fact that their own child was dead beside them. Oh my god. It wasn't long before the news of the disaster reached nearby towns throughout

• 32:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  the Mount Washington Valley. As reports of the derailment spread, rescue squads, ambulances, hospital staff, police officers, and volunteers began mobilizing for what quickly would become one of the largest emergency responses the region had ever seen. On the mountainside, passengers from the ascending train joined railway employees in helping the injured. Those able to walk were guided away from the wreckage while rescuers worked to stabilize the most seriously wounded. The Cog Railway quickly transformed from a tourist attraction into a rescue operation, with trains carrying survivors and injured passengers down the mountain while others were taken towards the summit and transported by the way of the Mount Washington Auto Road.

• 33:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  As the first trainloads of injured passengers began arriving at the base of the railway, rescuers were waiting. Among them was Dan Noel of the North Conway Rescue Squad, who had been dispatched to assist with the growing emergency. Dan was tasked with photographing victims, documenting their injuries, and helping coordinate information between rescuers, still working on the mountainside, and emergency personnel waiting below. The first train to arrive was packed with injured but living passengers, many suffering from broken bones, severe cuts, and crushing injuries sustained in the crash.

• 34:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  As Dan worked among the arriving survivors, one father repeatedly tried to get his attention. Assuming the man was worried about an injured family member still on the mountain, Dan reassured him that rescue crews were bringing victims down as quickly as possible, and that those with the most serious injuries were being evacuated first. The man stopped him and explained that there had been a misunderstanding. His daughter wasn't among the injured passengers still waiting to be rescued. She had actually died in the crash. This father had been trying to get his attention because he couldn't stand the thought of her being left on the mountain overnight and was begging for his help.

• 34:54Danielle LaRock?

  It's just heart wrenching, you know?

• 34:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's horrible. And I'm just like, just reading this, a lot of this information I was reading, there's a lot of old news articles about it. I mean, this was in headlines everywhere. And it just really details a lot of the chaos that was going on and a lot of the firsthand accounts. And these are just, I wanted to include some of the firsthand accounts of people because I think a lot of their stories got a little bit lost to history. But in these articles, there's like these small snippets of these people saying like, this is what happened to me, this is what I saw. And his was, this rescuer was one of the people who came forward and was like, I was so busy and then this horrible thing happened where this dad wanted this for his daughter.

• 35:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  Another one of those accounts came from another person. So, on the mountainside, survivors continued helping one another while they waited for rescue crews to evacuate the wounded. Among the passengers was a doctor traveling with his two young children. The crash left him with a broken back, but when he saw his daughter trapped beneath the overturned railcar and not breathing, he dragged himself across the rocks on his stomach to reach her. Despite his injuries, he began performing CPR. And miraculously, both him and his daughter survived.

• 36:16Danielle LaRock?

  Wow.

• 36:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  Just a broken back crawling across, like you see your kid and that's pure adrenaline. I'm sure as soon as she was breathing again, he just like collapsed.

• 36:27Danielle LaRock?

  Oh yeah, for sure. Like power of love, you know, like

• 36:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Truly.

• 36:31Danielle LaRock?

  Makes you a superhuman.

• 36:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, it's like those stories that you hear of people and they lift cars off their loved ones.

• 36:40Danielle LaRock?

  I was like, don't tell me he lifted that.

• 36:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Nobody did get her out. By the time rescuers finished accounting for the passengers, eight people had been killed in the crash, including three children with more than seventy others injured. Many victims had suffered catastrophic crushing injuries and some bodies were so badly damaged that experienced first responders struggled to process with what they were seeing. At first glance, many of the victims appeared severely burned, but the dark coating covering their skin was actually a mixture of coal dust, grease, and debris thrown across them during the crash. As survivors continued to be brought off the mountain, ambulances carried the wounded to Littleton Hospital, a small rural facility more than thirty miles away.

• 37:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  The hospital had never faced a disaster on the scale. Yet, thanks in part to a recently developed mass casualty response plan, doctors, nurses, and support staff quickly transformed the facility into an emergency treatment center. More than seventy patients poured through the doors that evening, many suffering broken bones, head injuries, deep lacerations, and crush trauma. Among them were George and Mary Buxton, the New Jersey couple who had spent years saving for their dream trip to the White Mountains. Mary, forty-seven, required back surgery but ultimately recovered. George, who was forty-nine, suffered injuries to his head and shoulder, but despite the horrific crash, both survived and eventually returned home.

• 38:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  Among the survivors were also the lead engineer Gordy Chase and brakeman Charlie Kennenson, two of the crew members aboard the train that afternoon. Both men had been seriously injured. Chase suffered horrific burns to his hands, with rescuers describing those injuries as long strips of skin hanging from his fingers and palms, which they believed to have occurred as he desperately attempted to stop the train during its runway descent. So he was just.

• 38:43Danielle LaRock?

  That's brutal. I mean. To just not, so what was he grabbing on to?

• 38:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  It seems like from when I was researching it, it kind of like, you know, the e-brake in your car?

• 38:53Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 38:54Cassandra Yahnian?

  It kind of feels like that was the, it's not exactly that, but that's like the best way I can describe it is it's just like this big lever that he was pulling to try and brake. But because there was no engine and had nothing else and it was already on this steep, like 37% grade or whatever it was. There was just too much gravity and force, but he like, wouldn't let go and it was just ripping.

• 39:16Danielle LaRock?

  He was ripping his hands apart trying to.

• 39:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Trying to stop it.

• 39:20Danielle LaRock?

  Holy moly.

• 39:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  And then Kennison was also badly burned and found in a state of shock after the crash. So those were the two employees that were on the railway car and they were both horrifically injured. Harry and Paula ultimately survived the disaster with relatively minor injuries compared to many of the passengers around them. But the experience stayed with Harry for the rest of his life. After surviving the runaway railway car on Mount Washington, he refused to ride another train down a mountain. He's like, no, I'm good. And I feel like that is so fair.

• 39:55Danielle LaRock?

  Yep.

• 39:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like I survived it once, I'm not doing it again.

• 39:59Danielle LaRock?

  Not testing fate again.

• 40:00Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, truly.

• 40:04Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 40:46Cassandra Yahnian?

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• 41:19Speaker 01

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• 41:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  As rescue crews worked through the night and hospitals treated the wounded, attention slowly began turning towards a question that haunted the survivors. How had this happened? As investigators began examining the sequence of events, they focused on the skyline switch where the disaster had started. As the train's lead engineer, Chase was responsible for checking the position of the switch as the train approached. He was also responsible for controlling the train's speed during the descent. Yet determining exactly what the crew should have seen proved more complicated than it first appeared. Other crew members, including Kennison, maintained that the switch appeared to be properly aligned. The center rack rail was often coated in dark grease,

• 42:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  making subtle misalignments difficult to spot from a moving train, particularly in the fading light of late afternoon. So the fact that he thought it looked good didn't necessarily mean something could have been wrong. As investigators pieced together the events of September 17th, one question continued to haunt everyone involved. How had a switch that appeared to be correctly aligned just 75 minutes earlier suddenly caused one of the deadliest accidents in New Hampshire's history?

• 43:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  In their investigation, they had realized that the train had safely passed through the skyline switch on its way to the summit earlier that afternoon. So it was sometime between that time that they had passed through the switch, 75 minutes had passed before they had been backed down, something had happened. Investigators considered several possibilities. Had someone accidentally misaligned the switch? Had it been tampered with? Or had the crew simply been unable to detect a subtle problem while descending the mountain? But all of those questions proved pretty difficult to answer. Contrary to what many people imagine, operating a switch on the Cog Railway was not a simple matter of pulling a lever.

• 43:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Former employees described the process as a complicated, multi-step operation requiring a precise sequence of actions. Some speculated that a hiker could have tampered with the switch, something railway employees claimed had happened before, but many doubted that explanation. Not only would a person have needed to access the switch, they would have needed to understand exactly how to operate it. So they're like, no, this is pretty difficult to do. A hiker is not just going to walk by and like, it's not a light switch where it's like, oh, you know?

• 44:17Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 44:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  Investigators also examined whether the crowded passenger car contributed to the disaster. Because if you remember earlier, I mentioned it was a 56-person car, but there was close to 90 people that were there. But surprisingly, medical personnel and railway experts concluded that the extra passengers likely had little impact on the descent itself. So they're like, no, that's not what happened. The train's braking system had been designed to control a locomotive weighing tens of thousands of pounds, meaning that the additional passengers wouldn't have really made a difference at all. In fact, some rescuers actually believed that the overcrowding may have unintentionally saved their lives. While the pack conditions created a dangerous situation inside the railcar, the tightly-packed

• 45:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  passengers may have acted as like, kind of a cushion for each other in the actual impact, which is really morbid, but that was there. They're like, you know, they kind of...

• 45:14Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 45:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  And when you think about it, Harry woke up like covered in people and around people and they're like, kind of acted as a cushion to help.

• 45:24Danielle LaRock?

  For other people.

• 45:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Despite the violence of the crash, damage to the railway was remarkably limited. Repairs were completed quickly, though the cog remained closed while investigators completed their work. While the railway reopened on October 5th, which was like last, it was like three weeks later, new safety procedures had already been implemented. Trains were now required to come to a complete stop at every switch so crews could visually confirm track alignment before proceeding. Additional crew members were assigned to monitor the track ahead, and over the following decades, the railway gradually modernized and replaced many of the systems that existed on the mountain in 1967. Among those most affected by the disaster was former cog railway engineer and operations

• 46:10Cassandra Yahnian?

  manager Norm Jitney Lewis. Nickname for his talent, which his nickname was Jitney, nickname for his talent on the dance floor, Jitney had spent 18 summers working on the railway while teaching in Vermont during the rest of the year. Cogging had become a family tradition, and few people understood the operation of the railway better than he did. Over the years, he helped develop training materials, operating procedures, and safety manuals intended to ensure every crew member understood the unique challenges of operating trains on Mount Washington. In a strange twist of fate, 1967 had actually been Jitney's final summer on the railway. He had left this job after his daughter had been injured in an automobile crash, but

• 46:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  before departing, he completed one final inspection of the entire three-mile line, walking the tracks and documenting their condition. In his report, written only weeks before the disaster, Jitney concluded that the track, locomotives, rail cars, and operating procedures were all sound if properly maintained and followed. In his opinion, the only likely cause of a future catastrophe would be human error.

• 47:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  When news of the crash reached him, Jitney was devastated. He was particularly troubled by reports that an engineer in training had been operating the locomotive under the supervision of Gordy Chase, a man Jitney later claimed he never approved to serve as an engineer. Whether or not Jitney's concerns were justified remains a matter of debate, but the tragedy reinforced a lesson he had spent his entire career teaching. On a railway built into the side of one of the most dangerous mountains in North America, even the smallest mistake could have devastating consequences. So he was like, "Hey, I don't approve of this guy he was training with, and I still conclude that this is human error.

• 48:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  There was nothing wrong with the train," was basically what he was saying. Five days after the crash, investigators reached their official conclusion. The derailment had been caused by a misalignment skyline switch and was ultimately attributed to human error rather than the mechanical failure of the locomotive, passenger car, or the railway. Yet exactly how the switch came to be improperly aligned remained a question that continued to fuel debate for years afterwards. Decades later, Jitney completed the operation manuals he had spent years refining. Published as part of a three-volume series set, "Mount Washington Cog Railway (1950

• 48:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  to 1967: The Jitney Years," the work preserved the knowledge, procedures, and stories of generation of cog railway employees. More than a century and a half after the railway first opened, thousands of men and women have worked on the mountain. Today, nearly 160 years after Sylvester Marsh was mocked for proposing a railroad up the side of Mount Washington, the cog is still carrying passengers to the summit every day during the summer. During the summer months, trains climb all the way to the top of New England's highest peak, while winter trips travel to the wallback station at 4,000 feet. Visitors can explore the Sherman Adams Visitor Center, stand on the rooftop observation

• 49:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  deck, tour the historic Tip Top House museum, learn about the mountains' extreme weather, or even mail a postcard from the summit post office bearing a special Mount Washington postmark. The railway has evolved dramatically since the days of the coal-fired steam engines and manually operated switches. In 2008, the COG introduced biodiesel locomotives that reduced emissions while maintaining the character of the historic railway. Yet tradition remains alive on the mountain, with century-old steam engines still making occasional trips up the tracks. Modern hydraulic switches, controlled remotely from the locomotive and powered by solar

• 50:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  energy, have replaced the manually operated system that contributed to the 1967 disaster. Additional track improvements, including a passing loop at the Waback Station, have further reduced the need for trains to use switches during daily operations. Perhaps Sylvester Marsh's greatest legacy is that his once-ridiculed invention changed railroading around the world. When the Mount Washington COG Railway opened in 1869, it became the first mountain-climbing COG railway ever built. Engineers from around the globe traveled to New Hampshire to study Marsh's revolutionary rack-and-pinion design. And within a few decades, similar railways began appearing in the Swiss Alps, Germany,

• 50:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  Austria, Colorado, and beyond. Today, mountain railways, carrying millions of passengers each year, can trace their roots back to the steep slopes of Mount Washington and the determination of a man once nicknamed Crazy Marsh. The crash of 1967 remains the deadliest accident in the railway's history and a tragedy that forever changed how the COG operates. Yet every train that climbs the mountain today is also a reminder of the generations of workers, engineers, rescuers, and passengers whose experiences shaped the railway into what it is now. More than a century and a half after the first locomotive chugged towards the clouds,

• 51:34Cassandra Yahnian?

  the COG Railway continued its journey up Mount Washington, carrying with it both an extraordinary engineering legacy and the lessons learned from one of the darkest days in its history.

• 51:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  And that is my story of the Cog Railway disaster on Mount Washington.

• 51:52Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, I'm, you know, it's a tragedy through and through, but based on your description and what happened, I'm surprised it's actually not more.

• 52:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, I mean, the fact that 70 were pretty horribly injured is a lot, but the fact that not more people died.

• 52:10Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I'm just thinking of like the Boulder fields up there and just this train car off the tracks and flying through the air and crashing and twisted metal. And I don't know, I just feel like it had the potential to be, to garner a higher death toll and it did not, which is a small miracle. And it's a tragedy that people died and so many people were injured. But man, it just felt like it had the potential to be so much worse.

• 52:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  For sure.

• 52:42Danielle LaRock?

  Oh my goodness. Well, and I do want to redeem myself a little bit. I'll take this moment to say I have been proven wrong.

• 52:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay.

• 52:51Danielle LaRock?

  While you were, I was paying attention wholeheartedly, but I did text my mom as one does, just to make sure, you know, my memory, we all know is bad. And so I texted her and I said, Hey, um, have we ever been to Mount Washington together? Even if I was a kid? And she said, Yeah, we took the Cog Railway. And I said, Oh, how old was I? And she sent me a picture. She is the scrapbook queen. Okay. We have scrapbooks for so many different things. I think we have like maybe 20 scrapbooks.

• 53:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  Mom's coming in with evidence right now.

• 53:25Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. And I'm sending it to you.

• 53:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  She has receipts.

• 53:28Danielle LaRock?

  This is, all right, they're embarrassing receipts, but they're receipts nonetheless. I, so she said, I was 11. So this must've been, if I was 11, turning 12. So this was probably 2012, because I would have turned 12 in December. And here we go. I'm sending you the scrapbook page.

• 53:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Cause not only does it have 2012, you were in college, but

• 53:51Danielle LaRock?

  Oh, sorry. 2002.

• 53:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  2002.

• 53:56Danielle LaRock?

  Not only are there pictures of me.

• 53:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, you're so little.

• 54:00Danielle LaRock?

  In a limited two camo tee and a double choker, black, this plastic necklaces.

• 54:10Danielle LaRock?

  I'm also, there's pictures of the cog, a cog brochure, as any good scrapbooker would do.

• 54:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're at the summit?

• 54:17Danielle LaRock?

  Touching the summit sign?

• 54:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow.

• 54:21Danielle LaRock?

  Wow. The highest wind ever recorded by man was recorded here. There it is.

• 54:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  There you are. There you have it. Also, your mom looks exactly the same. She hasn't aged a day.

• 54:34Danielle LaRock?

  That's good news for me.

• 54:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wonder, that is good news for you. You should thank your mom. She has good genes.

• 54:41Danielle LaRock?

  You hear that, Mom? Yeah, so I do agree that we should go back because clearly I don't have a memory of this and I

• 54:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's nice to know you have physically been there. It takes the shock value a little out. Yeah.

• 54:55Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we, we went through it a little bit.

• 54:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  We did.

• 54:58Danielle LaRock?

  In the beginning there. I'm sorry, but Yeah, we regained a little ground.

• 55:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  We're still doing a trip for sure.

• 55:07Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. I'm glad you covered the story though, because I feel like when you originally did the two episodes a few years ago on the White Mountain National Forest area, were they both on Mount Washington?

• 55:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know one of them was on Mount Washington because I told the story of the rescuer who was killed in an avalanche.

• 55:29Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 55:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Rescuing the two climbers who

• 55:32Danielle LaRock?

  Okay.

• 55:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  So I, I'm trying to think of the other one I did.

• 55:35Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it was about the weather, right? So it must have been, or was that the same one?

• 55:40Cassandra Yahnian?

  That might have been the same one. We have to go back in our catalog and look, yeah.

• 55:44Danielle LaRock?

  Regardless, we, I think that's like when people started recommending this one too. They're like, hey, there was a pretty big disaster on Mount Washington. You guys should look into it. So I'm glad we got around to it because for as many people who continue to ride the cog and are probably blissfully unaware that that happened.

• 56:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  I was every time I rode it.

• 56:09Danielle LaRock?

  You just rock their worlds.

• 56:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yep. Welcome to being traumatized.

• 56:13Danielle LaRock?

  The more you know, the more you suffer.

• 56:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is why I don't like planes. And now I won't like trains either. Nothing is safe.

• 56:21Danielle LaRock?

  No, nothing's safe.

• 56:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 56:22Danielle LaRock?

  Um, do you remember? You took the cog, right? At some point?

• 56:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 56:28Danielle LaRock?

  I'm sure. Yeah. Right?

• 56:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 56:30Danielle LaRock?

  You already told me that. Do you remember if they do any sort of like, cause on the Pike's Peak one, they do like a little bit of, it's like a narrated type of tour.

• 56:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  Each car, each car has a person in it that will like chat with you and talk to you and like tell you about the history. And I remember one time I was sitting on the cog and we were going down. So we had hiked all the way up and we were, our knees and just legs were so tired. We're like, let's just take the cog down. Our car's in the parking lot at the bottom. It'll take 45 minutes, an hour.

• 57:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  So we did that. And I remember we, and the weather conditions were crazy. The wind was insane. And we were sitting in the car, just had started going. We're on one of the steeper sections going down. And he says over, he's like, yeah, so, and I don't remember the exact, so don't quote me on the exact speed here, but he's like, yeah, today the winds are 72 miles per hour. And I was like, oh, wow. He's like, yep, we don't run if it's 73 miles per hour. And I was like, what? Like, that's really close. Like, what is the, what, what is the tipping point here? Like, what has to, how do we know we're not gonna get to 73 miles per hour? It's 72 miles per hour.

• 57:45Danielle LaRock?

  Was he kidding with you? He must be kidding with you.

• 57:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  I don't know. No, that was really the weather conditions.

• 57:50Danielle LaRock?

  Didn't feel like a joke.

• 57:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  No, it was, didn't feel like a joke.

• 57:53Danielle LaRock?

  And I'm guessing they don't tell this on the tour.

• 57:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  I, this is the first time I heard the story was researching it for.

• 58:03Danielle LaRock?

  I feel like it would be maybe a story to share after people are off the cog. I, I don't think that you'd want to share that.

• 58:11Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, like right as you're approaching the bottom, when.

• 58:14Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's like, by the way.

• 58:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Yeah, you want everyone to have anxiety and start trying to jump out of the cog. Probably not the best story.

• 58:21Danielle LaRock?

  What that's gonna do to somebody like in the moment.

• 58:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 58:25Danielle LaRock?

  And they don't have an opportunity to. Go somewhere else or get away from that situation.

• 58:30Cassandra Yahnian?

  That would be really bad, actually, if you told that story.

• 58:32Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah.

• 58:33Cassandra Yahnian?

  While I'm the god.

• 58:34Danielle LaRock?

  I don't want people to be like, oh, yeah, that's an opportunity. They should do that. I don't think.

• 58:38Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. But now, everyone listening, you can go in informed and you can decide.

• 58:44Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. All right. Well, thanks so much for sharing and we'll see everyone next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 58:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  But watch your back.

• 58:54Danielle LaRock?

  Bye.

• 58:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Bye.

• 58:58Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.

• 59:34Speaker 04

  Everyone talks about how challenging it is to raise kids, but what about protecting them? Outlet covers, kitchen cabinet locks, baby gates, where do you even start? Well, protecting your home and auto is a great place to start. Progressive offers customized coverage options so you can be sure you have the right coverage. They're basically the baby gates of insurance. Get a quote at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers. Not available in all states.

• 1:00:04Speaker 05

  When everyone's finally together, what makes mornings even brighter? Keeping things deliciously simple. Whether you're pouring up a glass of morning refreshment or topping off festive drinks for a family brunch, Simply Orange brings that 100% fresh squeezed taste to every moment. Deliciously bright and delightfully easy. Simply Orange is made for all your seasonal gatherings. Simply Orange. Say yes to simple.