Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1889-06-20
Among the Hills.

waste and wholesale destruction of our for :
ests. He said it would be but few years
| before all of our forests will be DESTROYED.
So, having few days to spare, saddled old
Stewey and filed my saddebags with a
change of clothes and good stock of lunch
for a man gets very hungry riding through
the woods and mountains. With good
thick shawl Oh top of the saddle, and we are
off. l took the road to Sabula as the first
point; from there | had intended to cross
over into Reynolds county and then north
through the west part of Iron county home
| by the way of Caledonia. But found it so
wet and showery | was afraid these rapid
streams would be unsafe to cross, so | con-
| fined my trip to the south and east parts of
Iron county. As | rode past the farms /
| took particular notice of the crops and crop
prospects, and must say l., in a life of fifty
one years in this country, never saw the
| fields of corn 50 far advanced, so clean, and
stand so even and so tall, on the Goth day of
June. | never saw the faces of all the in.
habitants wear such smiling countenances.
| saw some fields the corn was waist high,
| and one small field the corn was higher than
my head. 1t was a general remark among
| the farmers, they never saw the ground in
such good working order-just wet enough
to make the corn grow and not too wet to
plough. Oats are fine every where, and the
largest acreage / ever saw in this country.
Potatoes every where, and new ones on the
table. did not see single potato patch or
field where the potato bugs had touched
them. | saw nor heard chinch bugs men,
toned. did not see but one field of wheat
in all my trip, but that field was just splen-
did, almost ready for the scythe, and that
field was way up in one Of the mountain
valleys. | reached Sabula about two O'Clock,
spent part of the time with nv brother
looking ut the lumbermen and pile haulers.
| never in all my previous visits saw SO
many of these long logs rs at this present
time. l was told years ago that the timber
was being exhausted. In the year 1S69-l0
the first mill was built 1T Sabula, and there
has been mill at that place up to date.
Millions and millions of feet of lumber are
made and shipped from that point, and to-
day there are five mills sending lumber to
that point for shipment. As we sat and
watched those men loading those long logs
on the cars my brother said, "do you know
how much those two men have earned to-
day with that yoke OF oxen and themselves
loading those logs" "No: how much:"
''Seven dollars and one half" Do you WON
der their faces wore smile The next morn
ing it was very cloudy and damp. My
brother said we will take our gum coats
along and " will take it right through the
mountains regardless of roads. We took Il
due west course for Black River six nniles
ava! as the crow nies-aDout twenty If you
count the ups and downs; for of all the
broken countries | ever rode over that beats
all; there is surface enough if it was
smothed out to cover half dozen such
counties. We rode down places so steep it
the mouEtsiu h4elg eyer heads tlen pp the
other side, you felt as though you were
spider crawling up the side of Il wall. Some
of these places were so steep and the
gulChes SO deep the distance down the side
would reach across the chasm, and those
mountains are covered from top to bottom
with heavy growth of timber of all descrip-
ton. When on top of some of the highest
mountains you look way off and as far as
the eye could reach you saw nothing but one
vast unbroken forest, the mountain side
olaak wta The ieavy growth OF pine. but
when you look all around you see thousands
and thousands of stumps where for years
the saw has cut the trees down and into saw
logs. The axe is no longer used to cut
down the trees, all the timber is sawed down,
and we see all these mountains covered
with dense growth of rich grasses, and the
f1ora, eterY foot If t4e WY .lale lovely
with flowers which Gil the air with the rich
perfume until you taste it with each breath
you draw. Some of these wild flowers
would be considered beautiful if they were
transplanted to our gardens. A. last we
reach the Russell Brothers mill, near Black
River, in Reynolds county, here, else
where, all is life, every man is busy; some
stocking lumber in drying kilns-fOr all fin
ehing lumber is xii cried bsfQre shipped
some hauling: ~ man is idle. you see
10 loafers about these mills. After looking
about As long as we cared we mounted our
horses and took the road to Annapolis. This
road is a very fine, smooth, hard dry road,
winding up through those smooth grand
bottoms. | will here remark, these noun
tains are covered with fine flint, YOU see no
porphyry ro:.k IL sill ghiis rsst OF the ooun-
try; the base Is limestone with flint covering
When the heavy rains come il washes the
fine gravel down to the valleys. Although
the valleys are gravely they are very pro-
ductive in a wet season; and such clear
streams of water run along these valleys;
the water so clear that every little speck Of
gravel can be seen. AS we crossed the creek
ct Annapolis the water was so clear could
not .ssist ms lesiFe 10 bat AeWn ana natna
nv face and hands IN its crystal depths. At
Annapolis we got off our horses, and how
good it seemed to stretch our legs once more
after that tiresome ride over the hills and
mountains. The ride and breathing the
pure fresh air had made us hungry. Just
then taa bell rang at the hetel for dinner.
snd we we're pot Qiow 20 answer 10 its call.
After seating ourselves at one OF the tables
our plates were soon surrounded with little
dis hes, like little ducks around the mother
duck: in one was new potatoes, another
with snaps smothered in butter, another