The Rails through Mohawk: Adventures on a frontier Arizona train route

by John Culea, Patricia Culea (Illustrator), Heidi Dechief (Editor)

It’s 1880 in the Arizona Territory. Former stagecoach driver Joe “Whip” Adams, now a railroad detective is on the first train into Tucson. His story unfolds from hidden journals transcribed more than a century later by young schoolteacher, Rachel Adams. Unlocked are adventures of a family she never knew existed, beginning with Joe Adams and his Cocopah wife, Kateri who lived 50 miles east of present day Yuma. The Rails through Mohawk bring first-hand accounts of life, death, hardship, betrayal, and courage in frontier Arizona. Included are stories of the infamous Yuma Territorial Prison, encounters with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, train robberies, devastating fires, floods, earthquakes, public hangings, and the first automobiles in Arizona. The Rails through Mohawk connect Rachel Adams to a 19th Century family who had many of the same questions about life that she is coping with. Book two in a three-part series is a gritty, action-packed journey that allows the reader to be part of a sweeping adventure and follow the love story of Rachel and the man of her dreams, Albert.

448 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2012

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed all the history this book exposes the reader to, and the author clearly researched extensively to include the major historical events and minor important details to enhance his characters' journeys. Fascinating to think of what life was like not all that long ago in the "Wild West" of Arizona before it joined the United States of America. The nation grew enormously in the years covered in the book as well as the advancements in transportation from the train to the automobile. And how quickly each of those transportations evolved! There were a few typos and mistakes (like Rachel announcing to Albert that they were to have a son in June but later in the book, he was born in August). The female characters were far less prominent than the males. Why did Keith have a journal and not Annabelle? Keith's wife Natalia did, but the broken English was painful for me to read as an English teacher. I also wondered why Keith's son Louis had such terrible grammar when he wrote his journal. His father wrote fine, why would his writing be so much worse? Overall, these are minor points as I did enjoy the journey into the past to travel the rails that were swiftly being taken over by the roads in America's past that are now our present and future.