130 years ago today - Jun 6, 1883

[Apostle Wilford Woodruff Journal] 6 We rode to the Junction and travelled up + gunnison River to the Summit of the Divid. [The asterisks in this entry are Woodruff's.] We had to asscend to the highth of 10,700 feet. We asscended 1,000 feet above the first snow drifts. It was a grand scenery ..... This in Connexion with the Royal gorge is the grandest scenery and the Most difficult location for a rail road I think that Can be found in the world. ... As we descended from the summit down the Arkansas River the road was as Crooked as the river and we were sitting in an open Car for observation at the hind End of the train and we were hurled down that Canyon over those sharp Curves at the rate of 40 miles an hour and it seemed to me that nothing but the power of God saved us many times from being hurled into the Billows Below us. Many times when the Locomotive was going North we were going East and vic versa. We were in great danger, and when we arived at the Bottom we breathed much freer.

[Source: Wilford Woodruff's Journal: 1833-1898 Typescript, Volumes 1-9, Edited by Scott G. Kenney, Signature Books 1993, http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies]

No comments:

Post a Comment