The Wreck Of The Old ’97

A narrative ballad commemorating the September 27, 1903 derailment of Southern Railway’s Fast Mail train No. 97 at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, which killed eleven including engineer Joseph “Steve” Broady. The melody is adapted from Henry Clay Work’s “The Ship That Never Returned,” and Henry Whitter’s February 1924 Okeh recording was the first commercial release; Vernon Dalhart’s May 1924 Victor cover became the first million-selling record in country music history. Authorship was disputed for decades, with Whitter, Charles Noell, Fred Lewey, and Pittsylvania telegraph operator David Graves George all claiming credit; George sued Victor in the 1930s and initially won damages, but the verdict was eventually overturned on appeal. The song has been cut by G.B. Grayson and Whitter, Woody Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Hank Snow, and Flatt & Scruggs.