The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1912-11-22
THROUGH THE OREGON COUNTRY
Miss Leila Knautz Writes of Trip Over
land from Hedges to North
Powder, Ore,

We left our dear Hedges home and
Finley friends at about 2 p. m. Tues
day, Oct. 20, for our new home at
North Powder, Ore. We did not enjoy
this day a great neal, as our hearts
were heavy after the sad services of
the forenoon and our good-byes. We
left with four horses, buggy, covered
wagon, bedding, eatables, etc. The
weather turned out rather nice and we
had no trouble crossing the Wallula
ferry. Mr.. Finley crossed with US.
Mrs. Knautz and myself stayed at
the Wallula Hotel Tuesday night while
cousin Ben and brother Charles stayed
with the wagon. Ben shot duck be-
fore we got to Hover, which he dressed
for our BREAKFAST but we didn't get it,
dog had lunch instead.
Wednesday morning we started be-
fore breakfast at o'clock after bid
ding our last Finley friend, Mr.. Finley,
goodbye. Wewent up hills and through
canyons, like those of Horse Heaven,
until noon. 1t reminded me of scenic.
Ben and l couldn't live on scenery so
we had lunch about a. m. At noon
the boys built camp fire and boiled
coffee. That, with some of our buns,
roast chicken and dressing was fine and
dandy. This was near a small town
called Holdsman. After dinner we
reached the top of the hill from where
we could see Mount Hood, Mount Raj
nier and last glimpse of the dear old
Columbia river.
All day the roads were as good as
could be wished for and the weather
like spring. We covered forty miles
that day, passing through some very
good wheat country. All the way from
Holdeman to Pendleton we saw "Short-
les, ;" bills" and headers at work on
the hills. The Russian thistles seemed
to be fewer the nearer we got to Pen
dleton and finally disappeared. We'd
nesday night we spent at the new Grand
Hotel in Pendleton.
At 9 o'clock Thursday morning we
left Pendleton, after trip over the
city. During the forenoon we went
through an Indian Reservation where
we saw number of amusing things,
and were called down by some of the
squaws for taking their pictures. The
roads were not so good and mostly up
grade so we didn't travel far. Four p.
m. found US pretty well up the noun
tains and in the timber We ex-
pected to reach Meachem by night but
it was getting dark already in the
forest and by six o'clock we were travel
ing by the aid of a carbon lamp. Think
ing we were near Meachem we drove
on, looking for lights among the trees,
but none were seen, although we i'm
agined we saw one every few minutes.
We had not passed house since noon
and were out of civilization. About
seven o'clock we were stopped by
man-no, not robber or thief. but
man travelling the same way we were
and didn't know exactly where he was
either. So we decided the best thing
to do was to camp for the night.
The boys soon had big fire which
we certainly enjoyed as it wesn't ex-
actly like summer up there. We soon
had supper, minus coffee, as it was too
dark to hunt for water. All day without
water and we we were rather thirsty.
We could see the big dipper in the sky
bnt it was empty.
After supper we sat around the fire
for three or four hours writing letters