Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1904-03-10

LETTER FROM OREGON.

LETTER FROM OREGON.
Some little time ago, when H. j. Golf
and family were taking their departure
for their new home at Forest Grove. Ore,
the DEMOCRAT asked Mr.. Golf to write a
letter giving his views of things out
there, knowing that at the present time
that locality is the home of number of
Cavalier county ex-residents and natur-
ally of much interest to many readers.
The letter is written under date of
February 9th, and in substance says:
'We had fair trip coming out here
and being only ten minutes late in
reaching Larimore, had no trouble in
making connections with the "Flyer."
The first incident along the road was an
unlocked for stop in the middle of the
night, owing to hot box on the tourist
car. The first day of the journey from
North Dakota to the Pacific coast does
not give the traveller much to look at
from the car window. All the way
through Montana there is nothing but
the rolling prairie and range county,
with an occasional bunch of cattle to
break the monotony once in while.
The following morning it was different,
we had passed over the Rockies and
we're going down the west side of the
mountain, running at two-forty gait,
that would almost made your hair stand
on end as the train would swing around
the curves, with the mountains thou
sand feet high on one side with canyon
at least thousand feet deep on the
other and rushing mountain torrents at
the bottom. We gotinto Spokane about
two hours late and then the passengers
began making bets as to how late we
would pull into Seattle, betting was
about even money that we would get in
there not more than fifteen minutes be-
hind time. From Spokane on the train
was going about as fast as I care to
travel on this. kind of road. 1t would
be swinging from one side to the other
in way that made you think it might
topple over any minute, but we kept 60
ing and got along finely until nearing
the Cascades, when we began to find
great deal of snow. However we still
kept making up time until the middle
of the afternoon. At four o'clock our
train came to sudden stop and on
l1o<>1y;,,r. <Io J,;ft
each side reaching above the level of
the car windows, with the engine tightly
wedged in bank of packed snow fully
five feet deep. They here uncoupled
the hind engine and backed up, in order
to try and clear the track ahead. After
monkeying around in this way for an
hour without accomplishing anything
they tapped the wires and sent a mes
sage to division headquarters that No.
was stuck in the snow about twenty
miles east of the Cascade tunnel. Word
came back that there was japanese
gang about three miles back and in
structing the conductor to send the
breakman back after them in order to
get dug out. The message also stated
that the snow plow would come down
from the tunnel and clear the track
ahead of us. There was nothing for US
to do but sit there and wait. We learn
ed through the same source that No. 3
was off the track between Everett and
Seattle and that No. 2, which we had
passed half hour previous had run off
the track only five miles from where we
stood. So you see we were not the only
ones in trouble. About seven o'clock
the breakman came back with Jap
anese gang of about sixty men. He told
us that back about hundred and fifty
yards there had been snow slide across
the track from eight to ten feet deep
and nearly hundred feet in length.
Most of this would have to be shoveled
away as the snow plow could not work
there because of the rocks. 1t was
good thing that we had got passed this
or We would have been delayed goodness
knows how long. It was half past
twelve o'clock before We got started al
though the Japs had completed their
task by nine o'clock The train was
taken out in sections and coupled up
about two miles from where We got
stuck. We were still hundred and
fifty miles from Seattle and ought to
have been there at eight o'clock. 1t
took US until daylight the next morning
to get to the top of the mountain and get
through the tunnel. We now got along
pretty well until between Everett
and Seattle when another delay was
occasioned, owing to the track not yet
being cleared where No. had run of.
From Everett to Seattle you run along
the Sound, by the edge of the water
when you are not running over it. At
the scene of the accident we found the