Gritty Girl Saves the Day
By John Hafnor

The year was 1912. A black-curtained train pulled slowly out of Moingona Station with one purpose - to convey its sad cargo to the Boone, Iowa, cemetery. No, this wasn't the funeral cortege for some American president, but a special train courtesy of the North-Western Railroad to honor the stunning heroism of a former employee.

This is the story of Kate Shelley, born to peasants in Ireland but raised in fertile Iowa on a homestead by the railroad tracks near Moingona. To supplement a farm income, Kate's father took a railroad job. When he was killed in service to North-Western, the farming and hunting chores fell to 12-year-old Kate. Kate's bed-ridden mother and younger siblings could offer scant help.

Three years later, the storm of the century struck central Iowa. Kate peered from her window as a locomotive's light approached the nearby Honey Creek Bridge. When suddenly the headlight was gone, Kate knew the bridge had washed away, plunging the train into the ravine.

Not hesitating, Kate grabbed her father's old railroad lantern and dashed into the storm. From the high trestle, she heard faint cries above the thunder. Kate shouted back that she would summon help.

Even as she reassured the two survivors, Kate knew the Midnight Express with 200 passengers would soon round the curve and plunge over the same washed-out bridge - a disaster only she could avert by alerting the staff at Moingona Station.

In her life's defining moment, Kate resolved to reach the station in the only possible way, via the 600-foot-long, 170-foot-high trestle over the churning Des Moines River. The train bridge wasn't designed for foot traffic, forcing Kate to jump from one cross-tie to the next. Halfway across, the lantern failed. Kate dropped to her hands and knees, her only illumination the flashes of lightning.

Upon reaching the other side, Kate was bloody and exhausted. But there was no stopping now. She sprinted the remaining half mile to Moingona, burst into the depot, sounded the alarm and fainted. Having saved the express train, a revived Kate led a rescue train back to the bridge where the survivors were hanging on for dear life.

Soon this skinny girl was a national heroine. The Iowa legislature awarded her half a load of coal and a gold medal. The North-Western Railroad provided cash awards, a pass for life, and later offered high-paying jobs. Kate declined every job offer, as each required leaving her invalid mother. Later when the stationmaster position opened at nearby Moingona, Kate happily accepted the job.

Yet life remained as it always had been for spinster Kate. To stand in her humble farmyard one wouldn't guess it was home to a national heroine - unless you noticed each passing train respectfully tooting and slowing, or even stopping, on the nearby tracks.

Years later the old Des Moines River trestle was replaced by the world's longest double-track railroad span. It was christened Kate Shelley High Bridge, America's first bridge named for a woman.

Following Kate's death from appendicitis, some have claimed her strong spirit still roams near Moingona Station. Should you ever find yourself hiking that railroad right-of-way during a storm, poet MacKinley Kantor offers this advice:

"Be sure to take a lantern flame
To keep your spirit warm
For there will be a phantom train,
And foggy whistle cries -
And in the lightning flare you'll see
Kate Shelley on the ties."

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