Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1906-08-23
* Local News *
"LAllD OF SUNSHINE .
Mr. H. S. Wattles Writes Interest
ingly Of His New Home Down
At Aztec, New Mexico

EDITOR OF JoURNAL-Pursuant to an
agreement herewith hand to you few
lines from what is called here "The land
of sunshine" and very truly it has been
so called. WE'LL four weeks ago tomorrow,
we landed here at Aztec, town of be-
tween five and six hundred inhabitants,
and nearly all Americans. We have here
three general stores, drug store, three
hotels, one saloon, court house, and
better school house than Extra can boast
OF, while it is not as large; two churches,
with third under course of construction;
blacksmith shop, post office, and all other
appendages necessary to live town of
this size. This town is situated in the
Los Animas Valley, named from the riv-
er that flows south, and about the center
of the valley This river is about one
hundred yards wide, and from two to ten
feet deep; running over stone and grav-
ell bottom and has a fall of about twenty
one feet to the mile; soyou ste that there
is ample water for irrigation. Any fruit?
Yes apples, pears, peaches, plums, ap-
ricots in abundance, although the april
cots are nearly all gone; also the early
peaches, but the later varieties are just
coming into market; they sell at two
cents per pound at present. l have not
been around very much as yet and can
not tell you as much of the country as
you would like to know. About two
weeks ago l went east from here about
fifteen miles to a little town of about
fifty inhabitants called Blanco; the peo-
pie are mostly MeXicans. This town is
situated on the San Juan river which
ranges from one hundred and fifty yards
to four hundred and fifty yards in width
and reminds me of the Platte river in
Nebraska or the Missouri in appearance,
sandy bottom and current changing con-
tinuously; this river runs in southwest
course. An irrigating ditch has been
taken out of this river about five miles
above Blanco, running on the west side
and running; about twenty-seven miles
down the river, intending to cover about
six Thousand acres of land. have been
assisting the engineers in running the
preliminary survey, and go out again in
the morning to finish the preliminary
work, after which will cross-section
and have charge of the grading-that is,
if can stand the work, for tell you
there is something to do, and no play
about it. That will probably take about
four months. After the ditch is COM
pACVC0 ~ Will OC UWClNC lCCG WluS Ol Vic
bottom with one to one slope and from
three to twenty-five feet deep. There
the ditch will have to be tied up to sec
tion and quarter section lines, which is
no childs play to do. Say, tell Brink
would like to have him for flag pole
when get to doing this last work.
The climate? Yes, and lots of it and
its the finest in the world OF all the
running around here have not seen
cemetery and have not heard of any
sickness yet. There are three doctors
here, but they have nothing to do. The
days are hot and the nights cool.
Say, 1came near forgetting to describe
the Aztec ruins to you. Well, last Sum
day all of us Iowans went on across the
Los Animas river, about one mile away,
to view them. You will have to bring
into play your Imagination to certain
extent for l have not time or room to
diagram them. If you please, draw a
line Imaginary east and west 400 feet
long, and from the west end draw an
other one 400 feet south, this forms the
north and west sides. Now these lines
represent stone wall three feet thick.
Now continue these walls south and east
of these first lines at a distance of nine
feet in the clear, until YOU have five
tiers of rooms. Now cross partition so
as to make the rooms about square, and
build tier upon tier until you have them
seven stories high and this building con-
tains 700 rooms. Now from the south
end of west wall build wall to the east
to point south of the east end of north
wall, also build wall on east side and you
have an enclosure of say 400 feet square,
and you have one of the ruins. do not
wish to be understood that these ruins
are all now intact for they are not. The
hand of the spoiler has done its work and
only seven or eight rooms have been pre-
served. Their burying grounds extend
along the river bluffs, am told, for forty
miles.
Not said anything about grain2 Well,
you don't expect a person to tell all he
knows in one letter do you? Now look
out! l saw some wheat in the Index
printing office, that had been pulled up
that measured five feet ten inches high,
and there were seventeen acres in the
field, all as good as the sample, and oats
that measured four feet seven inches
And l saw another thing the other day,
too. saw three Mexicans in a field the
other day with sickles, the same as they
used in Bible times. reaping and gather
ing in the grain. Now will you let me
stop? have only to say that we are
well and able to eat nearly all we can
reach, Respectfully yours,
| II. S. WATrLEs.
| P. S.-More anon.