Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1913-05-08
BRITANNIA BEACH
BRITISH COLOMBIA
Letter Tells of That Far
Mining Town on the
Ocean Bay.
MOUNTAINS SNOW CAPPED
Ore Comes Down Five
Miles in Buckets--Com-
pressed Air Goes Up
MOUNTAINS SNOW CAPPED

The following letter is from Mrs.
Leon Walker, daughter of Mr.. and
Mrs. Dudley of Durwards Glen, Bar
aboo. Mrs. Walker went west some
years ago and was marie there. She
has two sisters in the west. The letter
is as follows:
BIi tannia Beach, British Columbia,
April IA, 1913:-You will see by this
we have left Seattle. Icons brother
wrote telling him there was fine
chance up here to make money so
here we are. This is little mining
town owned by some New York firm.
Every thing we want, wood. groceries
or dry goods, we buy from the COM
pany. The houses are oil cheaply built
ones, just board walls and rough floors.
My mop is full of splinters. We left
all our furniture at Seattle as we
thought we were to go up to the mine
and there is no way of getting any
article up there. Now that we are at
the beach we wish we had our own
belongings.
We are surrounded by mountains
and most of them have snow on top.
Up at the mine they have snow about
eight fee 'eep. They dig the copper
out, ship it down here in buckets on a
cable, here it is separated from the
rock and washed and then it is ship
ped to Tacoma to be smelted. This
place is located on Howe Sound.
There is q hotel here where most of
the men board, nearly all being single
men. We stayed ct tnis hotel for four
days before we could get a house. They
have Chinese cn"'l and walters. We
had a hard time to understand the
waiter. Every morning he'd ask
"YOu want ma, she?" we said "Yes",
and found it was mush. Leon under
stood the waiter to say they had
pork steak one morning, and ordered
some. When it came to the table 1T
turned out to be ''poached eggs" The
company furnishes us with three
room house with a bath. All The
fixtures are here but hot water tank.
The kitchen and bed room are furn-
ished for us nut the stove is an awfully
poor one, must be crammed with wood
10 keep it burning.
Things at the store are higher priced
than in Seattle. Eggs are twenty
cents dozen in Seattle here they ask
forty cents per dozen. Furniture is OF
the very cheapest make but away up
in price. There is a car line which
goes past our front door, just used for
hauling wood and crushed rock. There
are gravel walks but no fences. Leon
is working in the air compressed room.
The machines are run by water,
doesn't dare leave the place so must
carry his dinner. 1t is only a short
wav to 60 and don't mind. The air
is forced from here up to the mine a
distance of five miles straight up the
mountain.
The weather here is the same as in
Seattle. Big white clouds showed in
the sky this morning and looked funny
to see the tops of the mountains up
higher than the clouds. Will tell
more of this place next time. AS they
sell cameras 1 intend to get one and
teach myself to use it. Ho! for some
pictures of this spot. Work is done
here in shifts; seven in the morning
till three in afternoon, eleven at nigh
to seven in the morning, then three
in afternoon to eleven at night, e1gh
hours work at 1915 per day. Coco
wishes to all the friends.
MRS. LILY A. WALKER.