Elephants pushing South Park Trains, Oh My!

The C&S pulled off engineering feats that could be the stuff of myths.  I suppose, then, it makes sense that it created some myths.  Every once in a while I come across the one about a stalled circus train that used elephants to help push the train over a summit.  I read it recently in an article about modeling the C&S.  I also read about it in a book I own called Railroads of Colorado.

In Railroads of Colorado by Claude Wiatrosky there is an inset in a chapter on the DSP&P entitled "Pachyderm Pusher."  It reads as follows:

"One of the most-repeated anecdotes about the South Park concerns circus elephants.  A South Park

locomotive stalled on a steep hill in a driving snowstorm while carrying a circus to a mountain town.  Elephants pushed the train to the top of the hill, assisting the overloaded locomotive.  There are at least four references to this incident, each claiming it happened in a different place.  One story states the train failed on Kenosha Pass on its way to Gunnison in the early 1880s.  Other stories locate the stalled train just west of the Alpine Tunnel on Boreas Pass and nearer Fremont Pass.  Almost surely the incident did occur, and the story was so good that more than one storyteller adopted it."

The inset includes an illustration of the incident in a June 1941 issue of Railroad Magazine.

As anyone familiar with the C&S could point out, the phrase "just west of the Alpine Tunnel on Boreas Pass" is clearly incorrect as the Alpine Tunnel was through Altman Pass and Boreas Pass was on the line from Como to Breckenridge.

The author seems convinced that this actually occurred.  I find this hard to believe.

First, did circuses travel in the dead of winter in the 1800s?  Now, I have no idea whatsoever, so I may be completely wrong, but the idea of putting up an unheated circus tent in Gunnison during a time of year when a "driving snowstorm" was possible seems surprising.

Secondly, how would a locomotive crew and elephant trainers manage to coordinate the right amount of push-pull to not buckle the train and cause a derailment?

Who knows?  Maybe I'm wrong and this actually happened.  It sure would be fun if it did!