Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-10-05
LOST IN THE FOREST.
FrightfnI Experiences OF q Family
VINO Missed Their Way.

VINO Missed Their Way.
MS A dispatch from Bradford, Pa, says:
William Patterson, of Buffalo, who is
building a basket factory at Howard's
Hill, left this city few days ago to drive
to the place, accom- panied by his wife
and children. The locality is an isolated
one among the mountains, and the road
leading to it lies for q great part Of the
way through a deep forest. While pass
ngthrough the wilderness Mr.. Patterson
became bewildered in the darkness and
lost his way. After many attempts to
discover the road he finally let the horse
take its own course through the
woods, following it with lighted
lantern. After houndering aimlessly
about for sometime, they came suddenly
upon railroad track. Mr.. PATTERSON
did not know what road it was, but felt
crossing somewhere in the vicinity. He
at first intended to walk along the track
until he came to one or the other, but
his wife was afraid to remain alone in
the woods, so they concluded to take
the chances of meeting a train and
drive along the track in search of a way
out Of the wilderness.
Mr.. Patterson led the horse on the
light Mrs. patterson and the children
followed in the carriage. A mile or
more was travelled without finding any
crossing or indication of station, and
then to insure the safety or his wife and
children. Mr.. Patterson took them from
the carriage, and they followed it on
foot by the side of the track, SO that at
the sound OF the approaching train they
could climb the bank.
After going quarter Of a mile further
they came to a bridge. They could not
1etrace their steps, and they resolved to
share the risk of leening on their way
and attempting. the crossing. They
found narrow plank foot. path at one
side, and Mr.. Patterson succeeded in
leading his horse upon it. The wheels ON
one side ran ON this walk bnt on the
other side they jumped along the ties,
The bridge was swept by high wind,
and it was with difficulty that Mrs. Bat
terson could make her way along with
her two children. 20 add to the terror
Of the situation gust Of wind extin.
guished the lantern. The darkness
was intense, and they CROPPED their
way along slowly, tortured by the
fear ~~that they would be crushed OF
hurled from the bridge by train before
they could reach place of safety. They
were ne arly half All hour in crossing it,
and then they found themselves in 8
narrow rock cut, through which they
felt their way and stumbled along, and
when they finally emerged from it they
were almost overcome with Joy to see a
light just ahead Of them. At the same
moment they heard the whistle Of an
approaching train. The horse was
turned off the track into an open space
below the cut, which proved to be &
road, and Mrs. Patterson and the chill
dren followed it to q place of safety
They had not gone twenty feet from the
track when a coal train went rushing by
into the cut.
Both Mr.. Patterson and his wife were
so overcome with the sense of their peri
that it was some time before they coulC
they found that they were at small sta
ton known as Palen's Switch. They haG
driven for a mile and a.half over thu
most dangerous portion of the Johnson
burg Extension of the Erie Railway
and had crossed the great Kinzua via
duct, the highest railroad bridge in the
world, which spans the Kinzua ravine
| at height of 1903 feet above the creek
TAe viaduct Is nearly half mile long
Their es'ape from death was owing sole
~ to the stopping Of the mol tn bound
coal-train mile below the rock on ac
count of a hot journal. The train was
due at the cut just as they were picking
their way through it. Howard's hill
was only four miles from Palen's Switch