The news=record. [volume] (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon) 1907-1910, 1908-09-03

ben Blow" writes the following
beautiful description Of Wallowa can
ION, lake and valley for the Septem
jer number of Sunset Magazine:
In northeast Oregon there is a val
ey peaceful. The mountains lift
lround it on all sides and through
t, whispering, tinkling, clear and
;ool, there winds a ribbon of a riv.
er born of SHOWS that whirls and
bubbles into pools where lurk the
ialmon and the trout. There is nc
,lang of steel-shod wheel on steel
aid ties, no scream of locomotive
yet to echo and re-echo through the
purple canyon de )ths, but day by
lay swarm OF human ants, indus
.rious, implacable unthinking, toll.
ng olly for the weary wages of the
ay, builds up, tears down and
.nooths a pathway there that com
nerce may be served with steam
md steel.
The valley is Wallowa and its
peaceful fields lie broad spread un
lerneath a summer sky that rivals
Naples in it's blue. Along its length
lot tiny settlements with houses nea
md new and through it runs a mere
hread of a road where once each
lay, each way, there swings a six
lorse stage from Joseph into Elgin
md the world. Far at the valleys
eastern end and cuddled by the
'owder river mountains lies lake
t waters are of crystal, cold as ice;
is surface mirrors all the peaks that
lift around; its depths hold spotted
"out that wait the lure. Sixty miles
,ast IL, Idaho the Seven Devils noun.
aims lift, grotesque, satanic, serrated
suggestive of the pictures that Dore
lrew for the place where souls are
lamned.
And at the lake is Joseph, named
or the famous old Nez Perce chief
ain, Joseph, who made his last stand
here before the whites. The valley
vailed in by its lift of peaks, was
his until slow-moving prairie schoon
'rs that had crawled across the
,lain to barrier mountains found the
,ass, and the Anglo-Saxon, lord O.
I'll the world, laid claim to it, bap.
lied it with his blood and took it
night his right, for his children and
he children OF his children to build
lpon and make the west that is tc
)e.
AT Elgin Is the end of steam. A
)ranch road of the Oregon Railway &
Navigation company threads through
he Grande Ronde valley from La
irande and there yields to the stage
hat yields unwillingly, for day by
lay the silver-ribboned stretch O.
les goes on and on, until before
he early SHOWS begin to crown the
highest peaks the way of the Wal
owa stage will go to history and all
he little furred and feathered people
)f purple-shadowed canon and EN-
erald hill will shiver at the shrek OF
some new demon born of man that
ihrills their wild. From Elgin the
stage way climbs hill for seeming
endless miles. Behind, below. the
irande Ronde valley, hamlet flecked
spreads out diminuendo until i
seems the playground of some fairy
,eopl" that have clustered there ant
b III their tiny homes.
With mail in boot and women with
he driver, place aux danes. the
stage has right of way and takes /
srandly, swinging past slow freight
ers with their jangling mountain
BELLS. Four horse, six horse and
eight horse team, two wagon cou
pied, loaded with the goods and
wares of all the world, climb weary
grades. slide down the slopes. creel
slowly on until darkness makes them
camp, but past them all the stage
wings on until the curtain drops I'M.