March 1, 2007 9:15 PM

Kevin Vaughan on The Crossing

Kevin_Vaughan(P) Good morning everyone. Thank you for joining this chat. I look forward to answering your questions about "The Crossing."

Mark_Wolf(Q) In today's final installment, you write about Duane Harms' decision to write something about his thoughts about the crash. What were the circumstances surrounding that?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) We spent an afternoon with Duane, talking about the story, about what we had found, and hearing from Duane many of the circumstances of his life. That night, he decided he wanted to try to put his thoughts into words. The next morning, he gave us that letter. We later told him we planned to publish the contents, and he said that was OK.

Larry(Q) I think that it took a lot of guts for Duane to have written what he did. I have always thought he was the scape-goat. There were many contributing factors - ice/frost on the windows; the angle of the approach; a train running at high speed & 2 hours late; 36 children talking in the back ground that may have compromised his ability to hear the train horn; and who knows what else may ahve contributed to this tragic incident?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Your feelings parallel those of many other people. A lot of factors contributed to the tragedy. Duane believes he could have done more to prevent it -- he told us that he should have been more careful that day. But I also know that many people agree with you, that many things contributed to what happened on Dec. 14, 1961.

Larry(Q) Tragic yes, but should Duane Harms bare the brunt of all this, I think not!
Kevin_Vaughan(A) This series has given a lot of people new insight into what happened on that day. One of the many interesting things I found in reporting and writing the series was that so many of the families who lost children felt the way you do.

kathi(Q) Kevin, What a conclusion! The video was absolutely breath taking! You have been a wonderful humble servant and God has really used you. You have brought a lot of people together and made each of us more aware of our own lives and family. Through your stories you can imagine those children alive again and I can't help but think they are in heaven applauding and cheering.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you for your kind words. The story was my idea, something I felt powerfully about for many years. But the people who really deserve thanks are the families. They let the story be told. They touched many people in profound ways.

Larry(Q) Good for him, I know it took a lot of soul searching to do that. I can't belive how many people put the blame on him - it is so wrong.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Duane understands it. "It's human nature," he said to me when we were talking about the harsh reaction some people had for him.

Linda(Q) I just wanted to say that I am sad to see this series end. It has brought back alot of childhood memorys and the feeling of being a family with people that we are not related to, years ago neighbors were our friends and we had time for each other but now days life is way too fast. maybe this series will bring alittle of that older time back. I am really looking forward to seeing the memorial go up and the get together when it does. Thank you all again for doing this series and the wonderful job you did with it.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you for reading it. When I started, I wondered if I could sustain interest for 33 chapters. I am gratified by the number of people who have said that we did.

Larry(Q) enjoyed your meeting that I watched on the video. thought it was great!
Kevin_Vaughan(A) It was a special night. We were blessed to have so many of those who went through this tragedy attend.

kathi(Q) How do you bring up on the web page some of your prior live chats with mark? They were so full of information and I would like to review them. I am hoping that all of the chats and discuss forum will remain along with the stories, photos, and video on your web site. I apologize for yesterday because it was brought to my attention that on the photos, there is a caption to clink on to and you do have all the info who these people are. God Bless you Kevin and staff for this story that needed to be told to all of us
Kevin_Vaughan(A) All of the chat transcripts are archived at RockyTalkLive. At the end of today's chat, a link will be added to all previous chats, so hopefully it will be easy to find them. And thank you for your kind words.

Larry(Q) So sad that so many people had such a negative response to this. It was one of the best written series I have ever seen. Hard to believe that there are such strong feelings after so many years and much of it from people who had no invovement at all!
Kevin_Vaughan(A) To be honest with you, I feel the negative response was overwhelmed by the positive response. Usually in my business, you hear only from the people who are upset with you. You rarely hear from the people who approve of what you wrote. In this case, we have been inundated with positive reactions to the point where it has buried those who felt negative about it. The great thing about this is that people have choices. Anyone who doesn't want to read the series doesn't have to.

Mark_Wolf(Q) You're writing an epilogue for tomorrow's paper. Can you give us a preview?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) We look at the many ways that the series affected the people were in it, beginning with one family who had always had trouble talking about the grief they all still felt. The appearance of the series somehow shook something loose, and they've been talking in ways they never have before.

Mark_Wolf(Q) For those who may have just come to the discussion, tell us how long you've been working on this story, how many people were interviewed, how much travel, etc.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Well, in some ways I've been working on this story for more than 20 years. I started doing more serious research, here and there, 7 or 8 years ago, and began the actual job of interviewing people in earnest in the spring of 2006. I interviewed more than 80 people in depth, and many other people on a less-time-consuming basis to nail down specific facts. We traveled to California (three times), to Washington, to Wisconsin, to Arizona, to Nebraska, and all over Colorado.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Via e-mail from Steve: I have such mixed emotions on having this incredibly sad yet important story come to an end. Sadness for everyone who was touched by the tragedy yet appreciative of Mr. Vaughan for bringing this story of suffering and life to light. As a lifelong Coloradoan, I can truly say I have never been pulled into following a story like I have wiht this. With parents who grew up within the general area and spending time there, I was able to relate to the strong family ties of that community. I will never forget the emotions that accompanied the horror of seeing a mother lifting a blanket to find her son. These are things we take for granted happen to others, hoping never to have to witness that in life.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you. The series encompassed all of that and more for me. I'm so glad that others got the same feeling as they got to know the families of Auburn, and the ways that one moment can alter life forever.

Linda(Q) Kevin do you know yet if the series is going to be republished in one paper?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Yes, it is. We are planning a reprint in mid-March. It will be a limited run, and people will have to order one. Details will be forthcoming on how to get one. Look for those in the next week.

larry(Q) Kevin, how & why did you get involved in this? I knew a lot of the people involved but did you? Or were you just someone who decided this needed to be brought up again?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Before I started I did not know any of these people. I first learned of the accident when I was a senior in college in 1986. I wondered then how all of these people survived, how they went on with their lives, how the tragedy affected them. Later, as I wrote extensively about tragedies, including Columbine, I really came to believe that if these families would share their stories tremendous lessons could be learned by us all. When I started out, I didn't know how many families would be willing to share their lives. In the end, all but one did.

Tab(Q) In the 1st chapter where 4 individuals are portrayed, there is a woman mentioned with a constant reminder of a piece of glass in her chin. Did I miss who that is in the later chapters?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) It is Alice Larson Richardson. Today's chapter returns to the four people introduced in the opening chapter -- Duane Harms, Alice, Bob Brantner and Glen Ford. I know that first chapter threw some people; I envisioned it cinematically, as a sort of prelude.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Via e-mail from Norm: I have enjoyed this series immensely ... every word of every chapter plus the 22 videos. I am of the opiniion that this story would make a spectacular film. Do you think this is possible and what would it take to do so? Do you think it weill happen?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Those are all good questions I can't answer. I agree -- I think there could be a tremendous film here. Many people have asked me about a book, and I'm going to explore that idea. Assuming that happened, I suppose someone could then make a film. I just don't really know how all of that works -- I've never done anything like this before.

Suzanne_Wolfram(Q) Thank you for a powerful, powerful series. I feel that I have gotten to know so many of the people involved, both the victims and the survivors. I will miss the series. I would like to know more. I am still hoping that the Rocky will decide to produce a book version complete with pages of photographs and a full DVD/CD-ROM with the video and the sources, etc.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you for your kind words. We are exploring the DVD/CD idea. I still don't have a firm answer. This story was really long and full of a lot of information, and yet I know what you mean, because there's more that wasn't in there. So we'll see what happens.

Suzanne_Wolfram(Q) And special thanks to Roger Wolf who did such great narration.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Roger has been a friend of mine for many years. When we decided to hire a narrator, he was the first person I thought of. I also thought he did a great job.

maw(Q) Thank-You for writing the article. I used to drive a school bus in Loveland and they talked about it all the time. I was only 3 when it happened. Thanks for clueing me in.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you for reading it. Writing it was difficult, challenging and fulfilling all at once.

Mark_Wolf(Q) How many times did you physically visit the Crossing and did you look at it differently after you'd done some of the reporting?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I have been there dozens of times. Basically, every time I was in the Greeley area for an interview -- and I was many, many times -- I went by. To me, it feels like a very reverent place, a spot that should be treated with respect. I certainly have stood in a lot of different places, tried to imagine what different people could see from different spots, and so in that way I did look at it differently as time went on. It's really amazing, in a lot of ways, that Auburn is so similar today to what it was in 1961. If this had happened on the west side of Greeley, it would have probably been swallowed up by housing developments by now.

Renee(Q) I have to say a series like Ken Burns did with the Civil War would be so powerful. The photos with the beautiful words you have writtend during this series would be great.. I don't know about a full movie. There is something so powerful just with the photos and images.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I thought our videos had a Ken Burns type feel to them. I wasn't sure about a movie initially, then I saw "We Are Marshall." It's about a plane crash that killed 75 people, including an entire college's football team, boosters and town leaders. The story was very well done and very respectful to history and the people involved, and I could envision a similar approach to "The Crossing."

Mark_Wolf(Q) You mentioned thinking "cinematically" about the first chapter. Just from a writing standpoint, how did you approach this differently than if it had been a shorter series?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Well, in writing, I always try to imagine that my words will be the only things that people will see, so they must stand on their own. The descriptions, the movements, all have to come from the stories. What I mean by cinematically is that I tried to imagine telling that chapter as though I were seeing it unfold in the opening of a movie. I certainly had a lot more license to do this because of the series' lenght; at the same time, I had enough material to write two or three times as much as I did about many of these people.

Renee(Q) Thank you for bringing this story to life. Thanks for spending the time with the familes and getting the story and writing it with such compassion and respect.
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Thank you. John Temple, our editor and publisher, made it possible for us to devote the time to this needed to tell the story the way we did. And all my colleagues in the newsroom picked up the slack and got the paper out every day while several of this were immersed in this for months.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Will you continue to be involved in some aspects of the story? Answering e-mail, staying in contact with family members?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Absolutely. I am behind on answering e-mail and phone calls -- I hope to get caught up in the next day or so. But I plan to stay in regular contact with these families. There will be more to write about this again one day, I am sure. Later this year, for example, a memorial should go up out near the spot where the accident occurred.

Mark_Wolf(Q) Was there a point in the reporting where you began to think that this story might have the impact it's had?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) Yes and no. I knew that as I talked to people I was close to that the story had amazing power. But I could never have imagined what has happened, either in the amount of response or in the way people were touched. Among the hundreds of e-mails was one from a man who said he gave his grandchildren extra hugs because the series made him realize how unpredictable life can be.

mf(Q) Did you have any interviews with the children of families of children that were yet to be picked up and how their lives changed? Anydiscussion with Mr. Blue how they handled school and the problems after the tragedy?
Kevin_Vaughan(A) I did not talk with any of the children not-yet picked up until after the series began. I have spoken with some since then. Keith Blue was amazingly helpful in understanding how different a time 1961 was. There was no grief counseling. There was no talking about what had happened. It just wasn't done in those days. I am so glad I was able to track Keith down because his perspective really helped me.
Kevin_Vaughan(P) Thank all of you. These chats have been really interesting to me. And thank you for your interest in "The Crossing."
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Mark_Wolf(P) Thanks to Kevin and thanks to our participants for the great questions.

Links to Kevin's previous chats:
Feb. 28

Feb. 22