The Treasure Hunt (4 page)

To Joe the train seemed to be traveling uphill much of the time. Peering westward he asked Sam, “That dark ridge along the horizon, is that a mountain ridge? Are those the Rocky Mountains?”

“Not yet. What you see are the Black Hills. The Sioux Indians called them that because they look black from here. They're all covered with pine trees, you see. That means they're not nearly as high as the Rockies.”

“And those are still not the badlands?”

Sam shook his head. “We'll change trains in Rapid City and head south again. Then we'll see the badlands. You'll know them when you see them. Nothing grows there.”

Sam was right. The badlands were unmistakable. What a scene of desolation! What strangely shaped cliffs. The steep gullies were carved into the limestone! Joe had never seen anything like it. “It makes me feel like I'm on the moon or something,” he said to Sam.

“Almost gives you the creeps, doesn't it?” Sam replied cheerfully.

“You sure couldn't make a living in this area—not from farming, anyway.”

Soon after leaving the badlands, they crossed the border into Nebraska, which held few surprises. The whole state was made up of plains, hills, and valleys, broken only by occasional streams and rivers, the largest one being the North Platte River.

The boys enjoyed looking out the train window.

The conductor on this train took a liking to Joe and Sam and came back repeatedly to talk with them. “That river's the South Platte now,” he said, pointing out the window. “And that means we'll soon cross the border into Colorado. Yep, here we are now in Colorado.”

“Will we see the Rockies soon?” asked Joe.

“Oh, it'll be a while, but it's a nice, clear day, so keep watching toward the west. The mountains will look like a jagged purple blur along the horizon.”

That was exactly what Joe saw later on when the sun was going down, a jagged purple blur. “Are those mountains or just clouds?”

The conductor stooped to peer out the window. “That's the Rockies all right. Good for you! You saw them first.”

That night they came to the bustling town of Denver. In the morning the mountains were much closer. “Looks like I could just walk over and touch them,” Joe said to Father, who smiled and said the mountains were farther away than they appeared.

The sheer, rocky peaks took Joe's breath away. He couldn't tear his eyes away from them. He felt sorry for Ben, who sat on the other side of the train and, therefore, had no west-facing window.

After leaving Denver they traveled east again on the Union Pacific Railroad. Joe was sorry to be traveling away from the mountains, but then Sam told him, “Now we watch for Pikes Peak.”

Nobody had to tell Joe what it was he was looking at when the peak came into view. He knew the kingly mountain rising head and shoulders above the more distant mountains had to be it. He knew it before Sam cried, “There she is! There's Pikes Peak!”

It was beautiful. Its high, snowcapped ramparts gleamed in the sunlight. Joe thought,
It sure would be something to live where I could see this mountain every day!

At a town named Limon, Sam announced, “Some Amish are buying in this area. Elbert County, I think it's called, but we're going on to Cheyenne County.”

Wild Horse. The name on the weather-beaten sign seemed to jump out at Joe. He turned excitedly to Sam and asked, “Is this the place?”

“Sure is,” Sam replied with a grin. “I told you. Wild Horse, Cheyenne County, Colorado.”

They quickly gathered their baggage and got ready to disembark. The land agent was right there at the station with his Ford car to take them out to the homesteads. As they drove, Joe turned his head this way and that, trying to take in all the scenery. It was just as Sam had said—tall, waving grass as far as the eye could see. “Does this look like North Dakota did when you first got there?” he asked Father.

Father's eyes had a faraway look. “Yes, it does.”

The land agent kept up a steady chatter. He told them about the land, where to buy lumber, seeds, and other
things like that. When they finally stepped out of the car, they found themselves standing near a creek that reminded Joe of the creek back home.

While the men began shoveling the soil to see what it was like, Joe went to explore the creek. He wondered if anybody had ever panned for gold along this creek
. Maybe there are pebbles of gold lying down there beneath the rippling water!

Joe heard a sudden noise, like a twig cracking on the bank above him. He quickly turned to look up and caught a fleeting glimpse of a moving brown object.
Was that a rabbit? Or was it a man's boot disappearing into the underbrush?
Joe wasn't sure.

Months later he was to recall this moment in vivid detail.

5

Moving

B
ut, Mother, what if Jake and Sam haven't got our house ready for us when we get there?” Ever since leaving North Dakota, this worry had gnawed at Lydia's mind and caused her to fret.

“Oh, the house will be far enough along that we can move into it,” Mother said soothingly. “After all, they started building two months ago.”

From the seat behind Mother and Lydia, Polly spoke up. “We'll survive, Lydia. Why, when we arrived in North Dakota in 1894, there were no houses at all! Just prairie! We all had to get to work to build that sod house.”

“You're always talking about that,” Lydia grumbled, “but we're not going to make sod houses. Real, wooden houses take longer to build.”

“Sod houses are real too,” Polly insisted. “I wouldn't mind living in one again.”

“Hmmm,” sniffed Lydia. With that, the girls fell silent, each staring out the train window at the jagged skyline of the Rocky Mountains in the distance. Lydia still felt she needed to pinch herself to make sure this was real. It was January 1910, and the Yoder family was moving—actually
moving
to Colorado! They had been on the train for several days now. They had seen South Dakota with its Black Hills and badlands. They had trundled through Nebraska and crossed the North Platte and South Platte rivers. They were now in Colorado, and soon, according to Joe, who enjoyed pointing out the sights from his seat behind Polly and Lisbet, they would see Pikes Peak. It was all very exciting.

Still, that worry about the house gnawed at Lydia. How sorry she had been to leave their snug home in North Dakota.
Yes, Sam and Jake had promised they would have a house ready when we arrive, but would they really? What if something has gone wrong? There are so many unknowns when moving to a strange, faraway land!

Mother seemed to sense how Lydia felt. “Remember the story of the little maid of Israel,” she said softly. “Syrian soldiers broke into her home and stole her from her parents and then carried her hundreds of miles away to be a slave in Naaman's house. God was with that little girl. He is with us today.”

Lydia gave Mother a grateful smile. She felt better already.

Suddenly Joe shouted, “That's Pikes Peak!”

Before Lydia's eyes, the great white peak seemed to rise slowly from the horizon. Mother murmured some verses from Psalms, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the L
ORD
, which made heaven and earth.”

It was evening when the train slowed down and stopped in Wild Horse. “This used to be a busy town,” Joe informed them. “It was built in the days of the gold rush, you see, but it's become a sort of ghost town now.”

“Why a ghost town?” Lydia giggled nervously. She didn't believe in ghosts, of course, but still—

Joe said, “A ghost town is what they call a place where there are a lot of unoccupied buildings. See those boarded up windows? They're that way because those stores are not in use anymore.”

“Oh, I see,” said Lydia, feeling relieved. “What do we do now? Do we get off the train?”

“You may if you like,” replied Father from his seat beside Joe, “but this train car is being left here for the homesteaders. Not everyone was able to send carpenters ahead to build houses the way we did.”

“Will Jake be here to fetch us tonight?” asked Joe.

Father shook his head. “We didn't let him know exactly when we'd be coming, just that it would be in January. We'll
sleep on the train car again tonight. Tomorrow we'll get our team out of the livestock car and drive out to our home.”

“Jake's home, you mean,” Joe said with a grin. The place was in Jake's name because he could still get cheap land under the homesteading law. Father was buying a section right next to Jake's homestead, but the house was being built on Jake's land. The law said that the homesteader had to live on his land to secure the title.

So Lydia spent one more night with Lisbet in the upper bunk of the train car.

In the morning the light coming in the window had a blinding white quality. “Why, there's snow on the ground!” Lydia exclaimed when she looked out. “So it does snow in Colorado!”

“Of course it does,” answered Lisbet. “We haven't moved to Florida or anything.”

After boiling some eggs for breakfast on the train car's stove, the Yoders set out across the prairie with Ned and King. They piled the wagon as high as they dared with household goods. The girls squeezed in among the baggage, but Joe decided he would rather walk. At first it was a challenge to keep up with the team, frisky as they were after days on the train, but after a while the horses settled down, and Joe could keep pace.