Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1908-01-04
THRU DESERTS TO FLOWERLAND
Letter by w. L. olyer i'm His Usual
Happy Vein.

To the Editor of the Tribune.
I promised you would write when
I arrived here and let you know what
thought of the country and the trip
here. We left Minneapolis on the eve
ming of the 10th over the Rock Island
and Southern Pacific to Cotton, four
miles from Rialto, which is on the
Santa Fe. All the impressions I can
give you of the country were in day
light. 1t is fine country all through
Iowa and Northern Missouri, but in
the southern part the country is brok-
en- and the farmers do not look pros
porous. The same conditions exist in
southwest Kansas and Oklahoma, on
ly worse. New Mexico and Arizona
that country is the limit. You need
not go to Africa to find desert, for
hundred of miles nothing but sand,
sagebrush and few other shrubs not
enough for goat to live on. I meant
to include the western part of Texas
you could not raise disturbance there,
altho Gen. Miles some years ago raised
one with the old Apache chief Geroni-t
mo.
We reached Ell Paso in the morning.
That is nice looking city. There is
some interesting scenery there, the
Rio Grande forms the boundary be-
tween Texas and Old Mexico and the
railroad runs along the river for some
distance. We crossed the Colorado
river Saturday morning about a. m.,
which forms the boundary line between
Arizona and California and were at the
Salton Sea about 10 a. m.
This is worth all the trip. Here is
an inland sea formed by the breaking
away of the Colorado river. 1t is 80
miles long and in places 40 miles wide,
and all the way from one foot to 80
feet deep. The Southern Pacific runs
along the shore of this lake or sea for
nearly so miles and it is a beautiful
sight with mountain peaks along
the southwest. There is no way for
the water to get out only by evapora-
ton. 1t is going down some but it is
claimed it will take 25 years for it all
to eyaporate. This has cost the Uni.
ted States government fifty millions
and the Southern Pacific twenty three
millions of dollars. They have moved
their tracks several times. The train
stopped on large tressel over an arm
of the sea and we fed the fish. They
are large ones but I do not know the
kind. -
After leaving the Salton Sea the
country begins to get little better.
At Indio and Palm Station, there are
some mountain streams and they are
like cases in the desert. After leaving
those places we began to see eviden-
ces of oranges, lemons, flowers and
beautiful trees, but cannot tell the
names of all of them. We arrived at
Redlands Junction about p. m. Sat
urday and at Cotton at :35: where our
daughter and husband met US. This
is four miles from Rialto on the Santa
Fe road and four miles from San Ber-
nardlno. This is beautiful country,
especially in the winter. Rialto is a
town of about 200 or 1900, with nice
wide streets. You might term it a cot
tage town, as the buildings are. mostly
one or one anc half story and very
nicely built. Oranges, lemons, roses
and other flowers are around almost
every home. All along the northeast
are mountains from {, 1000 to 1000 feet,
some of them covered with snow.
San Jacinto lies about so miles to the
east, but you can see it plainly. Chill
dren are all around the streets bare
footed and with sunbonnets on. There
are birds and butterflies and other flies
(some on my head now.)
What I have seen OF the country
here I like very much. This is the
orange belt, nearly 1000 cars were
shipped from here last year. There
are five or six large packing houses
here. The season of packing is just
coming. Vegetables of all kinds are
in the market-the Chinese do the
vegetable farming here and you can
buy of them cheaper than you can
raise them.
expect 10 go to Los Angeles the
last of the week and will write you
later about my impression of that To-
cality.
We had pleasant trip. Our COM
pany was mostly married people and
all very social, neither beggars nor
millionaires. We had concert last |
as we were going thru Tex :
as In a snow storm. This ID all this
time.
My wife and send our kindest re-
CARDS to all our Morris friends.
FraternaIly YOURS