Train To California Continued

...it is the mouth of the Arkansas river, we are now going up grade, it is so gradual that we don't notice it. One engine can not pull all of our train, so they cut our train in three sections we are on the third section. We raise our car window and look out, we can see our engine and the back car when we go around a big curve. Our engine stops along the way to wait for the other sections to get ahead. The river is pouring over rocks, making all kinds of noise. We pass through a bridge, a swinging bridge supported from overhead. It is furried into the walls of the granite, the walls are just right straight up in the air for 5,288 ft., just think, over a mile. It is now getting dark, I hate for the night to come. We go to bed, I do not know much about Salida, we passed through there at night.

In the morning we were at Grand Junction, after we leave there we strike the Great American Desert in Utah. We would see bones of animals where they had died, overcome by the heat and thirst, not anything growing here but sage brush. Green River is a small station just at the edge of the desert. We pass several little towns along, just after dark we got into Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah. I wanted to see the Tabernacle awful bad, but just got to see the light on the top. It looked like a big ball of fire.

Then after we leave Salt Lake, about 9 we come to Ogden, several from our car got off at Ogden. Uncle Cleve, Aunt Clara and cousin Della got off to walk around. They have a place where you go into and they won't let you out until your train comes, they began to think they wasn't going to get back on their train car at all but they did.

About 10 we come to the Lake, we sit up to see it. We went about 30 to 40 miles and we left the lake, we thought that we were across but pretty soon we come to it again. They put rock and dirt to the bottom of the lake and then built the tracks on top of that, it is 80 miles across it. Now we go to bed. In the morning we are in Nevada, along about Palaside. There isn't much to see along here in Nevada, mostly Prairie country. In the afternoon about 4 o'clock we came to the grave of the Donner party who was over come by a snow storm. A large white cross was by it. We are now in California.