It would seem that I left you hanging last week, wondering whether Mr. Johnson would be able to cross the river …
“On the morning of the 19th, instead of river being lower, it had risen two feet. Just across the river, not more than four rods, was the railroad. As the water was higher, I concluded to turn back to a road that led to a railroad station, which I had noticed the day before. I had just got ready to return when I noticed a hand-car coming up the railroad track, with several men on it. I signaled them to stop, which they did, and inquired the distance to the station. They answered, ‘About four miles.’ ‘I came here yesterday and finding the river high, I dared not cross it.’ ‘It is very high; never saw it so high before, you had better go back to the station and take the road to Fort Bridges, you there cross the same river over a bridge, about a mile from the station,’ one of the men answered.
“I went back to the station, and on my way I came to a small village. The first building I came to was a store and post office. I introduced myself to a woman who proved to be the postmistress, relating my travels from California to this place, and telling her that ‘yesterday I came to a river about four miles below, but finding it very high, dared not cross and remained overnight, hoping that the waters would be lower in the morning, but instead they were higher, and so I was advised to take this road to Fort Bridges.’ ‘Well, but I don’t know but the bridge on this road has been carried away. I will take my horse and carriage and we will go see,’ said the postmistress. We went to the river and found the bridge all right, but the road had been washed away and the river had made a new bed. Just above the bridge there is a bend in the river which was full and overflowing, so that the waters washed out a new passage. We turned back and reported the condition of the road, and that it looked as if several days would pass before travel could be renewed. When we got back, the postmistress told me to take my horse from my carriage and put her and the cow in the barn and give them some hay, as I might have to stop several days.”
The Slower Road 