The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-04-04
The Phantom
Wagon Train
BY SALLY MENDAM
Copyright by American Press Asso-
citation, 1911.
BY SALLY MENDAM

Shortly before the buffalo disappear.
ed from the western plains l joined
hunting party to get last crack at
this noble game. We took the old
freighting road from st, Joseph, Mo,
to Denver, on which many n wagon
train had passed before the compile.
ton Of the Union Pacific road as far
as Laramie enabled merchants to
transport their goods by n much more
advantageous route. We had been out
but few days when an old plainsman
wandered into our camp. He was the
ghostliest chap ever saw. lie looked
to be very old-how old we could not
tell-and yet he didn't seem to have
any home. SO far as we could judge,
he was an inhabitant of the plains,
sometimes living with Whit men,
sometimes with Indians.
One night after the others had turn
ed in | was before my tent sitting
with the old plainsman smoking when
l heard the creaking of wagon. II
was bright moonlight, and | saw to-
ward the east what appeared to be an
old fashioned plains schooner-a wag-
ON drawn by four horses coming
toward us. We were n quarter of Il
mile from the road on which 1t was
movng-the old st. Joseph and Den
yer freighting road--so that we got
only distant view of the team.
~ didn't know" l said to the plains
Ia. tltS road
since the railroad has been finished"
"They don't; that's the phantom
team"
laughed incredulously.
"Ef you'd like to hear the story" he
replied, I'm tell you. But you won't
believe It nohow.'
The wagon numbered along west
ward and disappeared. The old plains
man told me the yarn.
"One mornin' about twenty years ago
a spick and span wagon with a new
canvas cover drawn by four shiny
horses was ferried across the Missouri
river from st. Joe and struck out for
Denver. Inside was a family of emil
grants. Jim Ringler, the husband and
father, drove, while the mother and
four children were inside. They were
goin' out to make home In some OF
the new territories into which the
western world was divided There
wasn't anything about the emigrant
his family, his wagon or his horses
that wasn't prosperous looking. He
had sold out his business and put til,
: money into this outfit.
"Six months from that met RingleI
= movin' south OF Colorado Springs
His family didn't look so comfortable
e a good deal of the paint was wore OF
Il his wagon, and his horses We're lean
5, He said he'd been disappointed in find
). in good place to settle. He'd trieC
}. the plains and the mountains. Tn
# plains was too low and the mountain
G was too high. He was lookin' 70
sOmethin' intermediate. | recommend
/. ed the foothills, and he said he'd tr.
n 'em
d Purity nigh year passed, and me
& the Ringler family ag'in In Utah
/. There wasn't one of 'em that didn'
(. look like skeleton, there wasn't bl
Il of paint on the wagon, two of tn
h horses had died, and the other two wa
skin and bone. He said he was still
y lookin' for place TO settle, but hadn'
/. found anything to suit him.
e THE last time ever seen Ringler'
g outfit was after another year had pass
4; ed. 1t was on this road. The famil.
n had just been murdered by party o
It Indians. The wagon was turned NJ
e side down, the Indians had taken tn
3" horses, and the bodies of Jim Ringlei
his wife and children were layin' be
side the road scalped. I've seen 'em
good many times since, always on tn
old st. Joe and Denver road headir
+, westward. I've often tried TO git nea
. enough 10 'em to see Of they was spic
= and span like they was when the
. started or with the spOkes rattlin' fror
= bein' dried out as they was when tn
f., Indians got EN-"
, There was something about tn
>, creaking of the disappearing wager
a the story and the old plainsman (
make me shuddcr. As for real wal
. on passing over that deserted thoi
i oughfare that had been abandoned 70
the railroad, il did not seem posslbl
that any emlgrant or freighter woul
: take route so dangerous and so @,
pensive, Yet | could hear the WACO
- rattle, and, catching faint view Q
ii in the moonlight, | saw that II wa
'e a yerltable schooner Of the olden tim'
ie without II word | said good night
the man who had told me the stor
u and turned In.
10 In the morning the old fellow wa
n not In camp He had gone withor
leave us he had come without inv
tation.
That day We met some plains pc,
pie. / told them about our visitor an