Red Moon Called Me: Memoirs of a Schoolteacher in the Government Indian Service Page: 65
xii, 211 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this book.
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FORT YUMA
elevation alongside an arroyo, or creek, as dry as any could be in
August.
"Jingo, what's the matter? Something on the track? Meeting
another train head-on?"
The passengers, it seemed, had all found their voices but were
hushed again by an ominous sound - a great roaring, ripping,
tearing noise, as of rushing water, and trees being splintered and
wrenched from their roots.
Trembling though we were, we all had the courage and curi-
osity to crane our necks in an attempt to see out of the windows.
There was something to see this time! There, tearing down the
once dry gulch, was a hideous wall of black water, ten or fifteen
feet high, bearing upon its writhing, tossing bulk, branches of
trees, railroad ties and boulders, along with some cattle that were
unfortunate enough to be caught in its path.
The sight seemed utterly incredible, since where we were the
sky was clear and the sun shining brightly. But a cloudburst had
hit the nearby mountain, and the flood waters were not particular
about the route they chose to go charging down. A rancher, seeing
it approaching and the train coming to meet it, had hurriedly torn
off his red shirt and, standing on the track, waved it frantically as
a danger signal.
Luckily the engineer saw it in time. Had we gone on for an-
other mile, we would surely have been wrecked, for the land
ahead was much lower, and the flood waters rushed over the road-
bed, tearing out ten miles of track.
Our position was precarious as it was, for no one knew at what
minute the water might increase in volume, overflow the banks
of the arroyo and engulf us. However the cloudburst soon spent
itself, as was soon evident, and the flood began to subside. After
an hour or so the train crew announced that we must return to
Colton and stay there until the track could be repaired, and no-
body knew just how long that would be.
Between us and Colton was a long bridge spanning the arroyo
under which the black flood had been roaring for an hour, com-
ing almost up to the track. There was the possibility that the
bridge might be unsafe. We owed our lives to our brave train
crew. One of them had walked back to Colton and got an engine
to come out and run back and forth over the bridge to test its
strength. This, while not proof conclusive that the bridge would
bear the weight of the train, seemed to convince the trainmen
that the structure was safe. Now the engineer began to back his
65
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Red Moon Called Me: Memoirs of a Schoolteacher in the Government Indian Service (Book)
Memoirs of Gertrude Golden, sharing her experience working as a teacher within the Government Indian Service. The book details her experiences in Oregon, Fort Yuma, Oklahoma, Rapid City, and more.
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Golden, Gertrude. Red Moon Called Me: Memoirs of a Schoolteacher in the Government Indian Service, book, 1954; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1013927/m1/97/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .