The daily sentinel., 1909-03-05
LOCAL PEOPLE TELL
OF TRIP TO TEXAS
Most Interesting Narrative of n
Journey Recently Made Through
the Lone Star State-Many
New Towns Visited.

+ Editor Sentinel i.
+ SO many people have asked I.
i us about our trip down into the !.
: Pecos valley of Texas and what j.
j. we saw there, that we have /.
+ jointly decided to write an ac- !.
+ count of our 10-days travels. !.
+ On Monday, February Il 3, we +
I. left Grand Junction on the Col i.
= orado Midland for Colorado +
+ Springs. Our party consisted of I.
i II. j. Gray, agent for the Pecos +
j. valley land II. II. Dresser of I.
+ Montrose: Ernest Walters of +
+ Palisade; Moses Limbaugh and +
+ j. w. Barnes. both of Grand +
+ Junction. and with us was Hall +
+ Harrison. travelling representa- +
i. tive of the railroad i.
i. I. 1. + 1. .s++ 1. T.
We arrived in Colorado Springs at
an early hour on Tuesday morning
after having had a very rough trip.
In fact, il seemed as though we were
having a storm on the ocean because
the train rocked and jumped so, and
we did not get a great deal of sleep.
In Colorado Springs we tried to
look as much as possible like tourists.
and after getting breakfast and taxi
ing a long look at Pixies peak, we
Southern train, going through Pueb-
10 and Trinidad and arriving at Am
arillo, Tex, Tuesday night
Amarillo is in the very center of
the Texas panhandle. Land around
there is really very well worth see
ing. and some day, If the rainfall
increases, the land will become i'm
time the government figures show an
average rainfall for the last ten years
of 25.7S inches during the year The
principal crops grown are kaffir corn,
milo maize and millet. OF course
some wheat and corn is grown also
The land itself is wonderfully level
and the soil very rich.
Here is where one finds the wind
and dust storms that Texas is known
for. "Wednesday morning. while sit
ting in the union depot waiting for
the Santa F'e train going south we
looked out of the window at the dust
blowing up and down the street in
clouds. One of the old residents told
us that if we wanted to see the town
we would better go out and look at
ii then, because when the wind blew
it was impossible to see anything.
There in the station of Amarillo
we ran across our first bunch of
WAMPUS CATS. We had met quite
few coming down on the Colorado
e. Southern. and by this time we
were almost immune. However, one
wampus cat who was particularly ag-
gravating would not leave us alone
We therefore took away from him
one of his victims, John Andrews of
Oklahoma, who added one to our par
ty. This made the party seven in
number.
Leaving Amarillo Wednesday
ff1e J.,
the panhandle of Texas. From the
train the land looked very attractive.
but very dry.
About the middle of the afternoon
we ran across the line between Tex
as and New Mexico, at town named
Texico. This town was originally a
division point on the Santa Fe. Some
two years ago however. they changed
and ran the much-talked-of Belen
cutoff into Clovis, n. NJ. which is a
few miles beyond Texico. where we
stopped for supper.
The town of Clovis is 6 months
old. There are 26 2-story brick
buildings on the main street, and the
25-foot business lots that were sold
is months ago for 500 each are
now selling for between s2,5OO and
$4,000.
Continuing south we passed
tesla. This part of the upper Pecos
valley has been longer developed
than any other section in New Mexi-
co, but we were unable to see it at
night.
On getting to Carlsbad. where we
spent the night, we found a very at
tractive town indeed. The soil here
was very sandy. We did not have
time to get out and see any of the
irrigation works. but the very large
cottonwood trees on each side of the
principal street made the town very
good to look at
Thursday morning we left CarIs-
bad, N. NJ. and continued south on
the Santa Fe to Pecos. Tex. where
we stopped long enough to get din
ner.
We neglected to mention that
from Amarillo down to Pecos we were
continually bothered by the wampus
cats of which we have sDoken here