In 1873, a 50-ton locomotive launched from a trestle in Watkins Glen and plunged nearly 40 feet into Seneca Lake, where it spent more than a month underwater. Raised, repaired, and renamed Sam Patch after a famous American daredevil, the locomotive went on to crash through a station, jump into a canal, break a man’s leg, interrupt a prayer meeting, land in a swamp, and even topple gravestones in a cemetery.
Some believed Sam Patch was cursed. Others thought it was trying to get religion, had a mind of its own or was always trying to return to the water.