Brooks Hill Sledding Accident: A Safety Warning from 1925

Sheridan's Brooks Street hill is a steep and tempting one for area youngsters.

On January 18, 1925, a light fog cloaked that Saturday afternoon, a fairly warm one for January with the mercury pushing 40 degrees. As 9-year-old Frank Blum and his chum boarded their sleds at the crest of Brooks Street Hill, they threw caution to the wind. As the boys rocketed through the Burkitt Street intersection, Frank’s buddy slid through, missing Walter Small’s car by a hair. But Blum wasn’t so lucky.

Just a hair behind, he ran smack dab into the car’s rear wheel. Blum was rushed to Sheridan County Memorial where he lay in serious condition for days. The story does have a happy ending…eventually. Young Mr. Blum spent (at least) the next month at home, recuperating with a fractured skull and other injuries. Sadly, he wasn’t the first or the last: the article referenced below begins “Frank Blum…was the first coasting victim of the year.”

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