What happened on the Circus Train Wreck of 1915? Are their ghosts still haunting Columbus?

In honor of spooky season, the Ledger-Enquirer is exploring some of Columbus’ most unsettling true-life stories and some of them are scarier than fiction.

These stories are (mostly) true and are as unsettling as any made-up tale or urban legend, but the most upsetting thing is that they happened right here in our own backyard.

With a little help from Adam Doskey at the Columbus State University Archives & Special Collections and local historian Victor Feliciano, we can retell these spooky stories with a hometown twist.

Caution: read with the lights on.

On their way to their last show... ever

In November of 1915 the members of Con T. Kennedy’s Traveling Circus were headed to Phenix City for their last performance of the year. Little did they know, it would be their last performance ever.

The entire company of the troupe — acrobats, jugglers, an entire brass band, clowns, sideshow performers, and of course, the many animals — were aboard a train that crashed in East Columbus (Nankipooh for those who remember).

The train carrying the circus performers collided with a steel passenger train heading to Macon and the impact was so intense witnesses said the trains fused like a telescope collapsing. Flames from the explosion consumed the mostly wooden cars killing most of the company and all of the animals. The carnage was so brutal, onlookers heard their screams as they remained trapped under the burning wreckage.

Local historian, Victor Feliciano says about the carnage from that day, “Unfortunately, the circus train was made of wood except for the engine and the caboose, and the caboose actually made its way into the engine compartment, basically smashing animals and people that were from the circus train.”

The wreck left behind more than its legacy.

Some people say the ghosts of the circus company haunt the old fairgrounds across the street from their final resting place in Riverdale Cemetery. There is a big-top-shaped memorial stone there that visitors say is haunted by the ghost of a little boy asking for a nickel to get into the fair.

Others say they can hear carnival music faintly coming from the area and report ghostly orbs floating in the air. Still, other fair patrons admit seeing a couple dressed in early 20th-Century clothing riding in an empty Ferris Wheel.