George Q. Cannon and traveling company's divine preservation during train accident and storm

While traveling to a conference in Arizona, President George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith, and Elder George Reynolds survived a railway accident where their train derailed and cars fell through a bridge. Later, returning from Pine Top, they experienced a violent storm with heavy rain and hail that nearly blocked their passage; they survived. During the trip, their train unexpectedly broke in two, and shortly after, they escaped the effects of a massive nitro-glycerine explosion at Berkeley, which occurred minutes before they reached it, likely destroying the train had they been present.

In his daily journal, George Q. Cannon records that the derailment occurred on June 30, 1892, noting that the engine and tender appeared so severely wrecked that it seemed impossible for the crew to have survived. Regarding the nitroglycerine explosion, Cannon writes that upon reaching Berkeley on July 9, 1892, they witnessed houses in flames all around the site of the explosion, confirming they had arrived shortly after the event.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

June 30, 1892. We had an opportunity of seeing the wreck this morning in daylight, and it certainly was what might be called a fortunate accident. The engine and tender were completely turned over, and the cars were piled up in a way that made it seem impossible for the engineer and fireman to have escaped with their lives, yet they were only slightly injured. Yesterday our train broke in two, all the cars behind ours separating from the train. Then we had a narrow escape from probable destruction through the explosion of a nitro-glycerine works at Berkeley, which occurred not many minutes before we came to it. We saw the houses in flames all around the site of the explosion, and we were told that the shock was felt for many miles. We felt that the hand of the Lord was over us for our preservation.