Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-04-27
About California.
TFrom a Private Letter.1

|
snow in these mountains in abundance
and it is three feet deep eight or ten
miles north of here now, and there has
been seven feet. But the snow is go.
ing off fast. am living with Thos. B
| Polk; he lives about one mile inside
| the snow range. When it does snow
here it melts off in two or three
days.
| / have been around but little until
last Sunday. We, Mr.. Polk, Mr.. S.
Sebastian and myself, rode about sew
en- miles to stream called Chico creek
| where there had been some mining
done several years ago. Mr.. Sebastian
and myself went back there on Mon
day following, and on Tuesday pros
pecte(, with but little success. In go
ing to the mines, We travelled over
some mountainous country-and some
| places being SO steep we had to walk
and lead our teams, an throw OH
brakes heavy to hold back. The seem
cry is grand. One can see range after
range of mountains-sOme SO high
that they are perpetually covered with
snow. (All the mountains within a
short distance of where we were were
covered with snow.) When standing
on some high eminence, and looking
round, ones mind is carried back to
the mountains of Lebanon; for here are
the lofty cedar and fir, interspersed
with yellow spruce, sugar and other
pines, and-I came near saying, the
oaks of Basham; but do not know
what kind of oaks they were.
The oaks that are here are the live
and the black oak. The live oak is ali
evergreen, with short trunk-not more
| than eight or ten feet long. Some fork
out near the ground. They have Won
derful tops and thick foliage. The
black oak is low and scrubby, crooked
and knotty. The most of them have
heavy tops, and some have large
punches of mistletoe on them.
The cedar is a tolerably large tree,
some of them being four and five feet
in diameter, about 125 feet high, and
from twenty to fifty feet clear of limbs.
The limbs droop down. The cedar is
being worked into posts very fast.
The fir is a good-sized tree, 250 feet
high, very straight, and makes good
lumber. The spruce is larger than the
fir, and about the same height; it is a
for railroad ties and telegraph poles.
The yellow pine is very large tree,
some OF them being seven feet in di
ameter, and from 200 to 800 feet high,
and look as though they had grown
by plumb line. This pine is worked
into lumber by the wholesale.
The sugar pine, [ might say, is the
king of the forest; they are large,
straight, and taper very little, and are
200 feet. They make excellent lum-
ber, which is preferred for fencing; and
almost all the shingles and boards Tor
'shakes'D for covering buildings are
made of sugar pine. There are hun
dreds of men engaged in making
''shake~" (what we call Inards) and
cedar posts for a living. The bur of
the sugar pine is from eight to twelve
inches in length, and are full of nuts.
Hogs winter on pine nuts.
There is another species of pine that
is called the "digger pine" 1t is rath-
er on the scrubby order, and of but
little value but for the mast. 1t has
bur four inches in diameter and six
inches long, and the nuts drop out of
them by degrees i'll winter.
There are many other varieties of
timber here. The maple and alder
(tree size) grow along the mountain
streams; aDd there is pepperwood, an
evergreen, which makes excellent axel-
trees for wagons, when you can find one
large enough. There are white oaks in
the valleys, all of scrubby nature.
Some of them are large, but have short
trunk and tremendous top.
Well, I will tell how they get lun1-
ber. There is mill OH Chico creek,
about thirty miles up in the noun
tains, and there is a fiume made of
plank on trestle-work the whole length.
The creek is damned so as to run the
water into the ffume. and shute
made to run the lumber into the same
and the water carries it to the valley.
There are other mills on Deer creek and
other streams.
Now I will tell you something abon t
our little settlement in these noun
tains. There are thirteen families, ami
children enough for good school. /
Have preaching in summer and fall.
but none in winter. The citizens are
good inoralists and professors, aud sp-
pear to live for one another and not for /
themselves alone. A saw mill will be /
started in u short time within one ,
fourth of a mile frome here. We look
for an addition to our community i
soon. There is room for all that may I
come.