The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-03-05
CALIFORNIA LETTER

Our Correspondent Describes Mountains
and Valleys and Old Ocean on
IT the Western Slope
Written for The Cook Conn ty Herald. .5s
DEAR EDITOR: T hirty five miles west
Of La Panza, which settlement Z de-
scribed in my last, is. the little town Of
Santa Margarita. Here we are after
having driven four days and covered 1877
miles. He have come off the mountains
and are 10 narrow valley with beautiful
home and cultivated fields all about US.
TIE last ten miles Of our journey has
been pleasant except that it has been too
cool tor comfort. We are but few.
miles from the coast and the wind blows
keenly. But how cloudy it is, and the
air has an edge that ch1lls. This is fog
comes off the ocean I am told rises
every afternoon by two or three o'clock
and hovers over the earth like wet
blanket until nine or ten o'clock the next
morning when it lifts, the sun peeps out,
and for four or five hoursit is as pleasant
and bright as in Minnesota. This is
p OCULAR climatic condition, and what is
stranger. still the farmers hereabouts tell
me that they depend on these logs for
moisture for their crops. There's very
little rain here. but these fogs are driven
far inland by the ocean breeze and the
result is dampness is cast over the
earth in the form of spray or mist.
Every day durinP early summer this
occurs for weeks.
Santa Margarita is an old Spanish
town and it has more of that nationality
today than English. This is farming
country but the principal industry now
is stock raising. There is one big ranch
here owned by the heirs of Patrick
Murphy. They own thousands of acres
and thousands of head of stock and
vaqueros handle the herds and drink
most of the whiskey. At both they are
adopts. 1t was Saturday night when we
arrived and we put up with, the post
master who is merchant and hotel keeper
over Sunday. And Sunday is the iivel1est
day oil the week as it is the only day
when the vaqueros can come in to
enthuse. They always come in the sad.
die and tie in front of the first saloon
they reach. If I may Judge from their
ac's they have most enjoyable time.
They rotate in tours and skies and tens
from saloon TO saloon from early morn
until late at night. To sum it up they
they are shiftless vagabonds who are of
little benefit to the country. Few of
them can speek English. They cling
tenaciously to native dress and mother
tongue, and look to the bowl for their
enjoyment. Yet there are some good
and thribty farmers hereabouts. Barley
is the principal gram raised, great quaint
tiles OF it being cutgreen for hay.
L have not seen an acre of Timothy or
clover hay, and no corn is grown here.
Neither is 1t an orange or lemon coun try.
But vegetables grow to enormous size.
This is the head of Salinas valley which
extends in nortbwesterly direction 1875
miles to the coast. In an air line am Is
or IL miles from the sea and there is q
range Of mountains between this valley
and the coast, some of the peaks of which
are 1000 feet high. I did not before
realize that California presented such an
uneven surface. This valley varies in
width from three to ten miles, and is fiat.
level and sandy. All about us are the
mountains and against their sombre
peaks hangs the drifting fog in dense
sheets.
Santa Margarita probably has popul
alton of 400 people, three-fourths of
which are Of Mexican descent. There
isn't church here, and Sunday is an
ever recurring holiday. I never before
witnessed such utter disregard and
desecration of the holy Sabbath day.
Stores are all open, the saloons are
rushed with business the live-long day.
Southwark we start early Monday
morning for the coast. A smooth, hard,
well-graded road leads us up mountain
nearly 200 feet high and down again on
the other side to San Luis Obispo, twelve
miles away. This is wonderful drive.
In Places the Southern Pacific railway
track is 500 feet directly above us-at
other points it is rs far below us. The
view from this mountain at midday
when the fog has been dissolved, and the
sun is shining, is grand beyond descrip-
ton. Below us lies the valley stretch
ing far away with patchwork of green
studded with pretty homes. And the
air, oh how bracing and exhllarating, and
delightfully."- cool! There is stunted
growth of fir and cedar on the mountain
side and it grows SO thick and the bran
sches are so intertwined and interlaced
that it would be most difficult to thread
ones way through it. The roadway
twists and curves and winds in and out
continuously, SO that there's scarcely a
hundred feet of straight roads, This is