The San Francisco call., 1899-07-02
BEAUTIES OF THE TRIP
ACROSS THE CONTINENT
DR.. Wetzel Tells of the Route That
May Be Traversed by The
Calls AutornohiIe

To the Editor Of The Call-SIr: The
transcontfnental automobile trip will have
a peculiar interest for me. Perhaps of all
the thousands none will better appreciate
the pleasures and dangers more than 1.
l have Travelled both for business and
pleasure by river and by rail, South and
North, East and West, but the pleasant
est of all was by one-horse conveyance.
Even through the Rockies, with the song
or the coyote to lull me to sleep and at
times the roar Of the mountain lion to
lull me awake again. l found the Stanton
pike to be the best macadamized road
and the easiest grade from near the capi-
tai Cd. c. to Parkersburg on the Ohio
River. 1t traverses the length east and
west Of West Virginia, through some of
the grandest scenery to be found outside
of Switzerland. Deer and smaller game
add zest to the trip that only sports
man can enjoy. The worst roads are not
through the mountains, but anywhere
and everywhere in the Mississippi Valley
from the Ohio to the lakes and as far
West as the Missouri River. Chuck holes,
dust and mud will be the automobiles
portion on every road for many hundred
miles. Prairie chickens duck and small
game will alone be found in all this re-
gion. The almost monOtonous level Is
varied by small hills and streams with a
few stretches of rough country, but the
roads are primitive and poor in bad
weather, with but few exceptions.
P Near one town in Indiana I paid toll
upon three roads upon entering and leav-
ing the town, costing an average of 3
cents a mile for driving a one-horse
buggy through the sticky mud.
Through Kansas and Nebraska the
roads are, in the main, as level as q
floor and free from dust or mud. BY
keeping north of the Platte River,
through Great Bend, the automobile will
not have to cross a single stream worthy
of the name of river until It is well over
into Utah in the Green River country,
and boats are here to bear it across.
Along all this route gasoline is a COM
upon this score. Wood and water are in
some places harder to get. The red
bed roads upon the Rocky Mountains
are uniformly the best to be found upon
hard-packed sand with no steep grades
after once reaching the top. have
hunted big game from Trinidad, Colo, to
Cheyenne, Wyo., and advise the auto
mobile to avoid the passes between these
two points. The old Laramie trail from
Cheyenne to Salt Lake City is by all odds
the best. The only steep or rough road
is in the western foothills. The mountain
roads are perfect. The sagehen and jack
rabbit here continue into and through the
mountains Antelope, deer, bear and 81
few elk will stand and stare at the auto
mobile from a safe distance, but the buff
falo has ceased standing or staring for a
dozen years.
Every hour the automobile will pass
some ranch along this route. Every
spring is the key to a grazing area.
Horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, eggs, but
ter, etc. are a source of large revenue.
These houses and their inmates would
compare favorably with any in the New
England States, and every one will give
the automobile a hearty welcome.
From Salt Lake west to Portland the
roads are good, except for the dust in the
great wheat district of Eastern Oregon
and Washington. Nevada l have no per-
sonal knowledge of and cannot advise,
but again I will say the mountain roads
across the Rockies are grand.
JOHN f. WETZEL.
San Francisco, July l, 1899.