As a child, Kate is fascinated by the railroad tracks. She imagines what it must have been like to lay the tracks and how hard the railway crew must have labored to do so. She listens to the trains roaring by, feeling a deep connection to the sound. This fascination is a clue that, despite Kate’s childhood fear of being separated from her family, she will eventually be tempted to travel far from Crow Lake and forge her own future.

The railroad tracks also serve a more practical function. Although the Morrison siblings don’t take the train as children, they walk along the tracks to get to and from the ponds. The trains are the main method of transportation out of Crow Lake, as well as being the path that guides the Morrisons home. They hold great symbolic weight in Kate’s childhood, while her perspective changes as she grows up and it becomes easier to drive into and out of the community. 

The novel opens with an anecdote about Great-Grandmother Morrison and her deep love of learning. Kate’s great-grandmother becomes a symbolic figure in her life, with Kate often thinking that she can feel her presence trying to lead her descendants to make something of themselves.