The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1910-02-24

Continued from page l

running up and down the bay for four
miles. both under and on top of the
ground. 1t was sight to see those
mammoth guns pointing seward.
We next took in Golden Gate Park,
which is most delightful place, right
on the top of a mountain. There is
| a narrow lake extending near the
whole length of the park. Its called
/ Lost Lake. / do not know why. 1t
| is alive with wild duck: they hatch
and live there from year to year and
have become quite tame. We came
along just at feeding time and every
where ducks. ] never hunted a day
| in my life, never thought had time,
and / never owned gun; but think
/ could have done great execution
there had / had one. The herds of
elk and buffalo were also very in
lteresting: SO was Chinatown.
| We left Frisco the morning of the
5th., over another one of the Southern
Pacific lines for Los Angeles. We
took the Coast Route with daylight
run which was very enjoyable. The
Southern Pacific has corner on the
passenger business in this state. A
great deal of their line between Frisco
and Los Angeles is double tracked.
After getting out of Frisco and its
suberb, which is about 30 miles, we
struck into what is called the Santa
Clara Valley. 1t is about 40 miles
long, averaging from afnile to 5 miles
wide. 1t is a solid orchard from start
to finish. After leaving the snow
fields you can imagine it was a beauti-
full sight. There is a town about half
way down the valley called Santa Clara.
/, understand that the ThOmaSonS
live somewhere near there but don't
know where. San Jose is also very.
beautiful city located in. the valley.
We then passed over divide called
the Shasta Mountain, which reached
for about so miles, a rise of about
5000 feet. and passed through many
tunnels. From the top of this noun
tain is place called Shasta Springs.
The train stopped there for about, Is
minutes, and all passengers got of
and took a drink of the water, which
is considered very good. l think it,
beats the Ward Springs water, as it
tastes more like pop than that does.
After leaving there we come down
the mountains for about 15or 20 miles.
We strike into another valley called
Salinas, which is about hundred
miles long, which ranges from to 20
miles wide. This valley is entirely
given over to grain raising. The Sail
mas river runs the whole length of the
valley 1t was settled about $50 years
ago by the Spainards and is. still own
ed by their>children. There are mis-
sions along about 40 miles apart.
Their farms look, what should ina
CINE plantation should look like, a
lot of buildings but of a very poor
quality. Farms range all the way
from 500 up to 5000 acres. They have
been giving their entire attention to
wheat raising but they are now get
ting into the sugar beet business.
They have just built one of the lar
gest sugar beet factories in the world.
Soil is black as tar and l should judge
would raise wonderful crops. Winter
wheat was about inches high. All
farmer seem to be summer following.
The thing that interested me the
most, was the pillow teams. There
were from, 5 to span of mules Oh
gang of three plows; it put me in
mind of Fort Pierre freighting out
fit, such as / used to see coming into
the Black Hills. The length of their
burrows put me in mind of the stories
/ heard about the big farms in North
Dakota, where "a fellow. started out to
pillow in the spring and he never turn
I ed around until harvest time. and
harvestedfall thetway back. In fact,
those Spainards. have, got Dalrymple
skinned on cheap farming.
After leaving the Salinas Valley we
come out onto the ocean; we follow
along after about 60 miles. About
half way down we passed through
Santa Barbara, which is one OF the
finest winter resorts i'm the state. a
city Of about 10000 inhabitants. We
arrived at Los Angeles at $50. We
put up at the Alexandria which is a
very beautiful hotel. We remained
there days visiting different places
of note. Los Angeles seems to be the
key to whole situation, as you have
got to go into Los Angeles in order to
start to go anywhere. We visited
Pasadena, which is a delightful place.
In going there. we rode through.
orange groves for about 10 miles; trees
were just loaded and the ground was
just covered. This sight enjoyed
very much.
Pasadena is another of the wonders
of California. To appreciate it, it
must be seen; it cannot be described.