The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1905-09-07
OUR TRIP TO THE WEST
What The Reporter Editor Saw on
His Trip to the Pacific Coast
and Portland Exposition.


recent trip to the Portland Exposition
the description will necessarily be
brief, as our time was limited, we will
endeavor to give our impression of the
country as we saw it on the hurried
trip.
Leaving Leon on the afternoon of
August 11th, we reached Des Moines
the same evening over the Burlington
route, where we took the Chicago Great
Western Railroad for st. Paul, the gate
way for the transcontinental lines of
railroads, reaching that city early the
next morning. After visiting the gen.
eral Offices OF the Northern Pacific
Railroad and securing the necessary
transportation for ourself and wife to
make the journey of over two thousand
miles from ST. Paul to Portland, we
found we had time on our hands for our
train would not leave st. Paul until
1915 that night, so we had plenty OF
time to see st. Paul and also her twin
city Minneapolis, there being great
rivalry between the two cities, which
are in reality only one for there is
simply an imaginary line dividing them,
although they are in different counties
and each is county seat. ST. Paul has
a population of about 100000, and is one
of the best cities of the north, it's rail
way terminals giving it great prestige
as shipping point. 1t is flourishing
and progressive city, and both St. Paul
and Minneapolis are noted for the many
big elevators in which are stored the
grain products of the northwest. You
can see elevators in every direction for
miles and they have capacities extend
ing into the millions of bushels. st.
Paul is the capitol of Minnesota and
! they are just completing the new cap
itol building, one Of the finest in the
west. From the outside it greatly
resembles the Iowa capitol being located
on high hill which gives it command
ing position. The interior is beautifully
finished in marble and the St. Paul
people are naturally very proud of it.
After strolling through the business
district of the city we took a trolley
car for Minneapolis, which is the larger
of the twin cities by about fifty thou
sand people, and it shows very quickly
that it is a business city, the streets
being as crowded as they are in Chicago.
One of the greatest Industries of the
city is that of milling, the most extern
sive Touring mills in the United States
being located here. But city life was
not what we were looking for, and after
lunch we decided to 60 out to Mime
haha park and see the beautiful falls
made famous by Longfellow's Hiawatha.
the falls are about five miles from the
city and the street car company have
built fine summer resort which at
tracts thousands of people during the
heated term, and it is an ideal place to
spend day. We went direct to the
falls upon arriving at the park, and for
several minutes stood in mute admira-
hon Of the beautiful scene. The water
of the falls is from Minnehaha creek
which comes tumbling down in a narrow
channel from a lake twenty miles above
clear as a crystal SO that every rock
and plant can be seen at the bottom
Suddenly the water takes a sheer drop
of 81 feet to the basin below, which is
solid rock, with massive cliffs arising on
either side, the fall being so great that
the water is simply heavy mist when
it strikes the pool below, and it is i'm
possible to get very close without
getting pretty wet. From the pool the
water flows swiftly through winding
channel for over half mile, leaping
and tumbling over the rocks until they
are absorbed in the waters of the great
Mississippi river. Following the course
of the creek through winding dells, all
filled with native vegetation, there
being a strict penalty for anyone who
removes any of the rocks or changes the
natural scenery Of the park. We Ger
tainly never spent a pleasanter after.
noon than while meandering along this
beautiful stream and it is no wonder
Longfellow was inspired to write such
a beautiful poem.
Reaching the big river we found we
could take steamer back to st. Paul
stopping at Ft. Smelling for half an hour
to view the old fort, cree ted in 1872 as
a protection from the Indians, and it is
still in good state Of preservation
although while it successfully defieC
the arrows of the Indians it would soor
be Knocked to pieces by modern guns
The ride down the Mississippi river was
a fine one, and we had an opportunity
to see the loggers at work sorting the
pine logs which came floating down the
river in an endless stream, and tying
them in big RATS to be towed to the
various sawmills down the river. The
season has been good one with better
| "oCSA obetu iOI SCNCEdl years dIlu Uut
lumbermen are feeling pretty good.
Our train was due to leave the big
union station at 1915 p. M, and we hat
taken the forethought to secure sleeper
berths in advance, and were sooI
snngly settled in a sleeper for the long
Journey. The western travel is very
heavy this year, nearly every trair
being run iu two sections. We left ST
Paul in two sections, the first consisting
OF the baggage, mail and day coache,
and the second entirely of sleeping car,
and dining car. Tired out we were
soon asleep and awoke next morning a
Fargo, arriving on time, notwithstand
ing the telegraph operators on tn,
Northern Pacific were on q strike, bu
the company was equal to the emergen
cy, and while they did not move man,
freight trains for few days they dem
ostrated that they could run through
passenger trains practically on tim
without the aid of the operators. ",
had an all day ride through North Dako
ia before us, and expected to find i
pretty hot and dusty but a lipht pa