Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-07-22
Trip to Salt Lake.

the Union Pacific Railroad, has Just been
received by the publishers of the HERALD,
and is of such interest that we cannot re-
frain from giving it to our readers, many
of whom are acquainted with the estima-
BILE lady who writes the letter:
OMAHA, July 18th, 1869.
We left Omaha on lovely morning
the first Of July-a party of four, in
Pullman Palace Car isn't it wonderful to
what perfection they have brought them,
one can be as comfortable as in their
own parlors at honey To the ladies, the
trip was entirely new, but to the gentle
men the road had been travelled many
times, which made it all the pleasanter
for us. The frst.two hundred miles takes
us through a delightful farming country,
upland prairie, not as well wooded as
Vermont, still, wood, water and hills are
plenty enough to vary the landscape and
make it beautiful to the eye. An i'm
mense crop of wheat, oats and corn are
expected all through Nebraska, and sure
ly they will not be disappointed for every
where you see them in abundance. The
Union Pacific is opening up an immense
farming country. Land can be bou ght
very reasonable, and innumerable little
villages are springing up. The beautiful
wild flowers drive US ladies almost to de-
spair that we cannot stop and gather
them; many notice that we cultivate
with such care in our eastern homes,
larkspur of every hue and shade, spider
worth, lilys, red, white and yellow, and
vines in infinite variety. Friends at
Cheyenne tell us of an afternoon spent
on the prairies, and of finding more than
one hundred different varieties in bios.
som in the month OF June, and every
month brings its flowers. We pass Lone
Tree Station, where the Indians have
been making some trouble, and from time
to time we see block houses with port
holes, that show the settlers have had to
think of their safety, as in olden times
You would imagine from the name of the
station that at least one tree was il
sight !; but in vain we look, even with oul
glass, not one is OBSERVABLE; but, as we
follow the river more or less trees are
seen from time to time. Occasionally o
red granite bowlder rises up, hundreds OF
feet from the earth, and stands there alone
like some sentinel guarding the hunting
ground, for here, every few miles, the
anta1pro and oh No fD,,,l 1Thov
fire from the train, but none are brought
down yet at any eating station we re-
gale ourselves upon them, and upon the
trout, which are found in abundance
almost the whole length of the road w,
often see a camp of Indians, but they
seem quiet and friendly. We tire early
after days ride, and at ten you will find
the two dozen beds all made and filled
with their occupants, there to rest al
sweetly as in their own beds at home, til
the notes of the cabinet organ (which our
car has) call US up in the morning (ar
improvement on gongs, we think to
breakfast at Cheyenne, SIC miles west
From Cheyenne to Laramie it may well
be called the garden of the Union Pacific.
As far as the eye can reach, flowers Of
every shade greet us-roses, peoples, yer
benas, petunias, lupines and peas--many
of them as beautiful as you will fine
in our Rutland gardens, and here
at Laramie, hundreds of feet higher
than at Mount Washington, we fnd
fine gardens, though but little farming
has been done as yet. Mr. Rrownson pro
empted 160 acres last fall and built him q
house to comply with the law, but we
find some one has pre-empted the house t
file in their claim some where. TIL,
black hills are at our right, while at the
left the Wasatch range are covered witt
snow. Here is Fort Saunders, and Lar
annie will soon be a large town-thre,
churches already, and soon another to b,
completed. Here the Union Pacific hos
pital is located. The surgeon in com
mand is from Windsor, Vt, and is beau
tifying the grounds with great care
From Laramie we see little but sag
brush, cactus and the prairie dogs, which
amuse us very much for day. In tn
fight we pass Carbon, the great coalin:
country, which will be an immense bene
fit to the road and all its towns. w
wake in the morning and breakfast a
Wahsatch, and find ourselves in tn
Rocky Mountains. Church buttes, Pro
montory and Black buttes, with thei
wealth of moss agates we pass How
much we wish we were on a Speciul, tina
we might gather them with our owl
hands. Rocks thousands of feet higl
bound us on every side. Snow is to b.
seen within almost stone throw. Soor
we find ourselves at Creston, where tn
waters divide, and we are on the western
slope, nearing the Pacific. We have beer
creeping up grade and around the hill
for 500 miles, and now we go down, dow
all the way. Imagination cannot pictur
the grandeur of the scenery. No NOR
prairies Near the thousand mile tree
two men climb the highest point-fror
two to three thousand feet-and plan
the flag on the glorious fourth, a goo
sized flag; still, as we look at it, we ca
scarcely see that It's larger than on
handkerchief, while the men seem lik
mere flies in the distance. Soon we com
to Echo, the Devils Gate, Bridge, Devil
Slide, where so many people have bee
killed in imagination but the train slow
to four miles an hour, and carries US safe
ly across, and here we find li:tlo garden
around white cottages and green blinds
that tell US Eastern people are here. A
Nintale, a city of one week, we find
population of thousand or more, an
here we took the stage for Salt Lake Cit,
ninety-eight miles of staging. Wells
Fargo stages take us the whole distane
in a trife over three hours, for the sum
ono dollar Thev chapUe horcea avar