A Wooden Wagon In The Forest

This is a story my mother described to me just after the night it happened. This however, happened a couple years ago. So here it is. My family and I live in the northern part of New Mexico on a reservation. We lease a couple of cattle ranges and we were staying at one of them for a weekend. A brief description of how the area looked. Our camp was situated on a slope of a low hillside and a 5 minute walk below, were where the corrals were located. And around us were red cedar and Ponderosa pine that led up into the farther valleys of the mountain. While south of our camper trailer was an aluminum tractor garage and between us was a dirt road that went through the trees and led to a gated, and padlocked fence. The road however, continued further up the valley.

On the first night we stayed there. It was okay. Nothing unusual and it felt like a normal weekend out in the woods. We ate dinner and roasted marshmallows, while our dogs laid content next to our fire. When we went inside and fell asleep. My mom said she woke up later in the night. It was perhaps maybe just after 1 in the morning. She moved around to get comfortable again when she heard a wooden wagon echoing in the woods. She heard the creaking of the wagon swaying side to side in a rush and the driver yelling for the horses to move faster. She had laid in paralyzed fear as the wagon came closer. She swore the wagon came so close she could hear voices on the wagon Laughter. Talking. It was like the rushing wagon looped through the woods and drove directly between the tractor garage and where we slept. It came quickly and rushed by. She said after it was over, everything was silent again. No one moved to suggest that any one else was awake during this event. Outside the dogs were silent. It was if she had a dream. Just a dream nothing else. But, the fast pace of her heart told her she heard this.

When my mother relayed this information back at home, in the comfort of loud cars and tv, we were stunned. We had slept through it like we were in a silent movie. From what my dad has said and others... Back around when the reservation was first established, there used to be tons of people that lived within those valleys. They herded sheep and lived about their lives. At times when their relatives passed unexpectedly. A lot of these families that were always on the move would bury their people in unmarked graves. At one time there also used to be a train that went through. It was just 10 minutes walk from our camp and this too, my mom says she saw a person walking along the remains of the train tracks, and never seeming to get any closer.