The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1908-04-23

Messages
From Arizona

From ArizO na
The following letter was received
by 1Nrs W.aBReeyes from his son. j.
waiter, who is now in the West AMI
~ Hi s. interest to all his friends.
hence wespublish5 1t in full:
PHOENIX. ArIz!.
April II. 1908.
Dear Loved Ones:
had thought II wouldn't describe
my trip TO Roosevelt until after I had
dsfromsheelng the fleet at San
Diego, but since i have some spare
4imestoIlaySI I will give an abridged do.
scripuon OF wnat 7 a and the time
wshadRgoing 10 and from the great
dam
We started from home late Sun.
day erenuing SO as to reach the last
camping place before we started to
scfosySthes desert and have an early
staff Q d the long Journey to the next
eaIping place Monday morning.
our outfit consisted OF nm Indian
DON, for a pack horse. and Jim. tJim
rs one 6fs the boys whereI stay and
mounted on our ponies. Our pack
was made up Of bed clothes. stme
barteyEfor our horses and camel
goods and bacon for ourselves with
the necessary kitchen implements for
cooking. viz. "a SKILLET, two spoons. one
sknitesan two drinking cups.
yTe5reached our first camping place
about nine miles from home. after
dark and proceeded to stake ont our
horses then by the dim light of the
cattptlre, the word for which I had
carried from three miles back. we
nroeeeded&t to- get our supper and mike
our bed down. we enjoyed our sup.
per but it was with n little hesitancy
that i went to bed for although hal
slept out i had never yet slept on
background. Notwithstanding the bell
was little hard. yet the cool breeze.
theFpnre airsand the starry sky over
heal were s%suflc!ent to soon lull us
tosa1eep! i slept as 1T were with one
eyessopen to watch ii horses to see
that they weren't bothered.
W. got up BY four o'clock the next
morning and got started by daylight.
we soon reached the edge of the des-
ert tMhereethe road reaches in n di-
TectEline across the desert for twenty
miles. We settled down to n dog
trot or pnce which we must keep
mp the whole day. The desert has
now some things of beauty. on It's
otherwise monotonons scenery. five
or Six varieties of its cacti are now
in full bloom. and al o know all OF
those kind of blossoms have that deep
wax like flowers they are very bean
tiful.
we passed the first watering sta
EtionS about ten O'clock where we pail
five cents % head for watering our
shorses. We had not gotten far be-
1yondsthis place until 1 saw n huge rat
tile snake; stretched out in the. road.
I'VE got on and dispatched him. cut his
rattles$ on which numbered nine. anil
then hurried on and reached Gov.
Wells where we stopped for water
ssandIdfnner- Here the desert stopped
and the mountains began. The seen
cry grew more beautiful the farther
weSiwent; and 1t Is useless for me to
strytoIlescribe 1t. Some places there
would be huge mountains Of stone
towering perpendicular1y above MS.
Other places there would be yawnIng
Mt u feet. which 1t seemed
we could almost jump across yet they
seemd to be, almost without n bottom
for you5 could not see the bottom until
yon approached the edge n looked
straighttdown for something near L.:
900 feet. Nearly NIL of these noun
stains are more or less of volcanic or
sigins showing that at one time Old
Mother Earth must have a wonderful
stomach ache" No doubt You won
der how a road is made over these
mountains. This road is really i
wonder and 1 wns told by good au-
&thorityt that It is the greatest road of
its kind in the world. 1t Is blasted,
Sout;Eof the solid mountain side an.
winds in and fout and up to the heads
ofscanyons until / think there is never
s. sslope or grade of more than $50.
while the road bed itself is. as solid
4ass granite and smoothe as n floor.
Over this road must be hauled every
SponndE 3 every kind of supplies for
&theslarge dam land we passed and met
mo less than 20 or 100 freight teams
going SSor looming from Roosevelt.
These ms. are made up of two wag-
ons' one hitched to the other one and
pulled by s or 10 head OF horses or
mules You generally e these teams
together with one driver for each
steam 1t takes them eight davs tn