Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1905-11-09
-FOUR. 1t is a regular desert from the

hour, 1t is a regula, desert from the
city to the lake Near the lake for
quite ways it is p!:c salt. They sack
1T up and some is pat in cars loose.
They have Il switch and run cars there
TO get the salt The water from the
lake is run into great watts made by
dyking and wllc the water cvaporates
there is lots OF salt left
ut $3.50 p M we started from Salt
Lake City for Los Angeles Went over
the new road that was Just finished. 1t
is called Salt Lake City, Los Angeles 4
San Pedro r. r. 1t took two nights
and day. We arrive in Los Angelo,
at 7:3O in the morning. Did not see
Utah but Nevada is q re .sular desert
some mountains but much very level
Looks drcary. but might he all right if
they had water You 60 for milo, and
miles and don't sec a thing but few
stations, many of the houses made of
canvas. 1t was fcarfullv hot during the
day Everybody on the train suffered
with the heat Tho next mornin. we
were in California
That Los Angelo, is u pretty place
goes without saving. Such nice build
ings, such fine palm, pepper, magnolia
umbrella and eucalyptus trees, and the
tlowers-wel, they arc immense and
lots of them, and they say we saw
southern California in the ugliest time
of the year would like to see the
place in winter at their hest time. The
first day'ir Los; Angelo; we took an all
day observation trip through the city,
in several suburban towns and several
ocean beach. Oar car stopped in many
J,ll Al ha 81, .a.,.l Ila n
we gathercl shells 1t was a great
sight for me to sit on the beach and
watch the waves roll in. Wherever we
stopped we would see lots of people in
the ocean bathing The next day we
/, went to San Pedro and took steamer
for the Catalina Island 1t is an island
in the Pacific about 80 miles from San
i Pedro, far enough out in the ocean that
4 you lose sight of the mainland. 1t is a
pleasure resort both summer and win
tier You can battle in the ocean the
whole year round. We put in two days
there. We went from there to Seal
| Rocks, where you can see seals on the
rocks summing themselves. Then we
took a ride in the glass bottomed boat
to see the submarine gardens, the veg
citation in the bottom of the ocean,
You can see all kinds of fish swimming
around way down in the water and in
some places all sizes of rocks, shells,
sea moses, etc, from 35 to about 1875
feet deep. That is about as far as you
can see clear. Well, | can't describe
those gardens, but if you ever go to
southern California don't miss the trip
to Catalina Island and sec those sub
marine gardens. We went back to Los
/ Angeles from there and then went out
to Whittier 1t is about VI miles from
Los Angeles Whittier has popula-
ton of about $500 John Pritchard' S,
who lived near Modalc, live near this
town, and that is where we stopped.
\ They have a fine country We like it
around there better than any place we
saw while we were away. There may
be nicer places, but we saw this better,
that is, we drove around the country
Albcrt's Mr.. Pritchard's have liNcl
on what they say being just as they see
it, They wouldn't sell out. They think
their climate is almost perfect. Around
there they have orange, lemon and wall
nut groves. Some have peach, pear
and plum trees, and all kinds of small
fruit docs we'll Some alfalfa is raised.
Pritchard' $ have mostlyoranges. Now
you told Jasper if he found a place that
you could make money without work
ing hard to tell you about it. Well, the
easiest thing we saw was around Whit
tier and it was aa English walnut
grove. not the kind we have in Iowa,
but the soft shellcd English walnuts.
The grove commences bearing in three
wears and we saw some trees forty
years old with quite a crop on. We
were told that a walnut grove only
needs irrigating twice a year and does
not need spraying or fumigating as
other trees do, so about all they do is
to keep the ground we'll WORKED and
not allow anything to grow in the orch
ard but the trees. Improved land
around There, that is with an orchard
or grove on. sells from $3.50 an acre up.
Around $1,000 an acre is about tho
price of a very good place with build
ings ON it. That looks big to us but
many families make good living on 5
acres. Some say Southern California is
too hot in summer. Pritchards say not
and we we're there in August and it
was not as hot as it sometimes gets
here We went to Pasadena, where
We visitcl the ostrich farm. We
stopped in San Francisco, and took in
the Exposition in Portland. My letter
is getting long, so will cut out lot
about our trip. Lovingly yours.
leila McCrillis.