Historic Homes and Businesses in Carver - Carver County Historical ...

On Friday, June 19, 1931 Norwegian native John (Johannes) Anderson (1884-1931) was
crossing the Minneapolis-St. Louis Railway bridge over the Minnesota River, on his way
home after walking to Carver to pick up some groceries. When he reached the center of
the bridge a train approached and he was unable to make use of one of the footholds
alongside the bridge and was struck and thrown to the base of the center pier, dying
instantly. He is buried in Carver‟s Mount Hope Cemetery.
On December 20, 1986 Cindy Mae Kechely, age 25, went for a walk in Carver while
visiting her parents‟ home on Main Street West and was never seen again alive. Massive
police and volunteer searches were made around Carver and the Minnesota River with no
success. On May 23 the following year her body was found in the Minnesota River near
Chaska. Speculation at the time was that she had been murdered, was a suicide, or died
accidentally, perhaps falling while walking on the railroad bridge over the Minnesota
River at Carver. Her death was later ruled accidental.
Over the years the upstream side of the bridge often collected deadfall trees and
driftwood, both against the bridge, and on a sand and rock bar created by an old railroad
pier that probably once supported the open swing gate. The pier‟s foundation was rock
and was shaped to a point on the upriver side to divert debris and keep it from hitting the
bridge. Over time the pier deteriorated and dropped into the river floor. Sand and silt
collected around it, and deadfall trees became trapped on it. More sand collected, more
trees caught on it, and over the years it became a large island topped and interspersed
with deadfalls. Early on the railroads did a good job clearing out the deadfalls with a
crane, arriving at the bridge while the river was at flood crest. But in later years other
busier bridges had more priority, and by the time the railroad‟s crane arrived at Carver
the high water had usually crested and the crane could only reach trees and brush
collected on and near the bridge. Unreached were most deadfall trees and logs trapped a
little further upriver on the mid-river sandbar.
Sometimes the artificially-created sand bar captured more than trees. On Wednesday,
July 19, 2006 a railroad worker aboard a train crossing the bridge called 911 to report that
he had seen a skull in the debris pile below the bridge. The Carver Fire Department
searched the area for the skull, but found only a rock that looked like a skull. The
following night the same railroad worker was recrossing the bridge by train when he
again spotted the skull, though this time a different area than had been searched. Again
the authorities were called, and this time a skull was found. Later it was identified as that
of Glen Hein, age 44, from Jordan, Minnesota who had been missing since Jan. 1, 2006.
Weeks later in 2006 a headless skeleton was found by someone climbing on the same
deadfall pile at the bridge. It was subsequently matched to Hein‟s skull. Hein reportedly
had been depressed and often walked near the river at Jordan.
Almost seven years earlier, on Aug. 11, 1998, Jake Anderson of Main Street East in
Carver was playing with a friend near Carver Creek where it empties into the Minnesota
River when he slipped into the rain-swollen river and was swept away by the current
toward the river crossing bridge, never to be seen again. The Carver Fire Department and