Elburn Steele
Obituaries
Eagle Valley Enterprise page 1 - July 17, 1931
MET DEATH IN AUTO ACCIDENT NEAR MITCHELL
Elburn Steele of Red Cliff Crushed To Death By Huge Boulder When His Car Leaves Highway and Falls To Railroad Tracks . In attempting to turn his car around on Mitchell hill , about two miles west of Tennessee Pass , late Sunday n ght , Elburn Steele , 43 , backed his car over the edge and when found later was dead , the body lying close to the Rio Grande railroad tracks be . ow . Steele left Red Cliff shortly after 10 oclock in his Dodge touring car , taking a man with him who was working at Mitchell on the highway maintenance crew . The man got out near the skldway used for unloading logs , and saw Steele drive his car about one hundred yards beyond , and then attempt to make a turn by facing the bank . He evidently lost control , for the car backed over the side of the road toward the railroad track , rolling down fifty or seventy-five feet . Apparently the movement ot the car started a boulder weighing about 1 , 000 pounds . This rolled down
the Bide of the hill crushing the body of Steele under it . The automobile was astride the railroad track . Andrew Clooney of Red Cliff , who arrived on the scene a few minutes later , heard passenger train No . 3 coming down the grade and flagged it . With the help of the train crew , the car was removed from the tracks and the boulder rolled off the body of the dead man . Steeles head was fractured In three places , and his chest smashed in with a number ot ribs crushed . Steele Is an employe of the Empire Zinc company and lived at Red Cliff . He is survived by a wife and 3 U . year old child living at Red Cliff , and three children by a former wife living with his mother in the east . Deputy Sheriff O . W . Meyer was summoned from Red Cliff and he called Coroner Dymenberg from Minturn The latter made an Investigation ot the accident and decided that no inquest was necessary . The remains are in charge of Undertaker Oscar Me > er at Red Cliff . o
