The Sinister Story Behind This Popular Iowa Bridge Will Give You Chills
It happened more than 130 years ago, but people are still talking about it.
The Kate Shelley bridge made the list of Spookologist’s 5 Scariest Iowa Spots. They noted that although the original bridge is long gone, the nearly identical bridge that replaced it is home to phantom train sightings. Some people report that they’ve witnessed the ghost of Kate Shelley crawling across the tracks.
There's more to this bridge than its age and construction details, though. The story of Kate Shelley is well documented, and even though it happened in 1881, we know a lot about her and what happened on July 6th of that year.
The evening of July 6, 1881, there was a terrible crash. The trestle over Honey Creek gave way to flood waters, sending an engine crashing into the creek. There were four men aboard.
That night, there was a wild storm complete with thunder, lightning, and high winds.
Near midnight, Kate set out on her journey.
She made it across the bridge inch-by-inch, and the personnel at the depot got word to the passenger train. It stopped just in time. Kate didn't stop, though. She knew the men in the crashed engine in Honey Creek were probably injured, and she knew how to get to them. She led a rescue party back to the two survivors of that train wreck.
The schoolgirls of Dubuque also gave her a medal. Both of those artifacts and the lantern that Kate carried as she crossed the bridge on the night of July 6, 1881 are in the Kate Shelley Museum.
The park and museum is in a wooded valley about five miles southwest of the town of Boone. Inside the depot, you can see a video about the Kate Shelley story. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for youth, and children 6 and under are free. To make an appointment, call 515.432.1907.
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