Pima County has completed a small section of the planned 274-acre Esmond Station Regional Park near Empire High School on Mary Ann Cleveland Way, east of Houghton Road. The land was purchased using money approved after a 2004 bond election.
The expansion of the park includes the site of Esmond Station on the old Southern Pacific Railroad main line near the site of the “Esmond Wreck,” the worst train collision in Arizona history.
On Jan. 28, 1903, the conductor of a westbound passenger train failed to get an order from Esmond Station telling the train to shift onto a siding until an eastbound train passed by. The two trains collided at high speed just west of the station.
At least 14 people were killed and 18 injured in the fiery wreck. The engineers of both trains were among those killed.
Southern Pacific relocated the main line further south and abandoned the station and the tracks after WWII. But the many of the buildings, even the station sign, remained for years afterward. The station burned to the ground in 2003. However, the crew quarters are still standing. Some restoration is underway.
