Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-08-19
FROM THE WEST.
Interesting Letter From President
w. o. Carrier.

WAUKEsHA, Wis, August 6, 1913.
MY DEAR Mr.. THAYER:
At your suggestion | am going to
give you little account of the jour
ney to the Pacific coast that Mrs.
Carrier and l have just returned
from. 1t may seem a little tame to
the many who are privileged to visit
this country, but there are very many
more OF your readers who do not
have this privilege to whom it may
be OF interest. We left Waukesha
July 4th, our objective point being
San Francisco to attend the Morten-
son-Carr wedding, and to take advant-
age of summer vacation.
One thing one cannot help but be
deeply impressed with, in the whole
Journey, is the yastness of our coun-
try and its marvellous resources. In
leaving the great thriving, commerce.
ally feyerish and wonderfully enter
prising city of Chicago, we travel out
over the rich fertile farm lands of
Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska, and re-
alize that there is no more fertile
country in the world, as we see its
bountiful crops of growing corn and
waving grain and its loaded orchards
and beautiful farm-houses. When
we reached Denver we have come to
the gateway of the Rockies, the
metropolis of Colorado, a clean, thriv-
ing, wholesome city of two hundred
| thousand people and with hardly a
wooden building in the whole corpora
tion. Here we spend day, viewing
| the sights. Denver is a mile above
the sea and has a sun park on the
summit of its highest hill, that is
known as Sunshine Park, and per-
haps more attractive in winter than
summer. We visit Colorado Springs,
with its interesting trips to Pixies
Peak, Garden of the Gods, and natures
wondeT-works of beauty. Our journey
is over the Rio Grande, and through
that indescribable Royal Gorge, where
the roar of the Arkansas below the
rocky shelf of the mountain ledge on
which our train runs combines with
the lofty towering peaks above to
hush us into silence and admiration,
as we pass on through the kaleido-
scope of some of the most beautiful |
scenery in the world. There is a |
e l. ~, III
orado of desert plains, and sage-brush |
and naked rocky peaks, but We are |
informed that here are the richest |
mines of silver and lead, and many of |
these valleys by irrigation are being
transformed into luxurious gardens. |
| met man on the train who told |
me that, just back from Mercer, |
where he had come from, there is a |
mine of purest asphalt, more than |
forty miles in length, and the thick
ness of many feet, and more than |
seven hundred feet in height, that |
was visible. Being an engineer he
had estimated that there was more |
than billion tons easily mined and |
a sufficient amount, he said, to supply |
the markets of America more than
one hundred years.
We reached Salt Lake City after a |
delightful ride, coming up through |
the great fertile valleys, to this city |
of enterprise and. culture, and yet, |
overloaded by the shame o. polygamy,
which is still unquestionably prac-
ticed in some forms and taught as a |
part of the faith of the Mormon |
church. We visited buildings and at |
tended, for time, the National Ed |
ucational association, which was in |
session at the time, and then hurry
on across the barren plains of Nevada |
and A AriZona and eastern California to |
that wonderful paradise in southern
California, centering in Los Angeles.
This land, fe' Cile in soil, and rich in |
climate, and delightful for its beauti- |
ful scenery. We spent nearly week |
here, making our headquarters with |
friends in Pasadena. We were sorry
to miss our old friends, Mr.. and Mrs. |
James McCrossen, but their home |
was closed, and SO we contented our |
selves, in their absence, by helping |
ourselves to some of the roses that |
are in abundance about their charm |
ing residence. We went from here to
San Francisco, via of the coast line, |
where much of the way the ocean is
on one side and the mountains on the |
other, making it one of the most de- |
lightful days journey that one could |
imagine. We reached San Francisco
day before the wedding. Many of
the Wausau friends are much inter |
ested in Chis wedding, because Miss |
Katherine Mortenson, the daughter
of Mr.. and Mrs. Jacob Mortenson, |
was born in Wausau and spent most
of her girlhood days there. The we'd
ding of her father and mother was
one of the first that / attended when
coming to Wausau, twenty-five years
ago this coming fall. Miss Mortenson
Is all dJOidCbiNo DIlilldHb SCiiOldi, d
graduate of Wellesley college and an
exceptionally fine musician. She has
had great advantages in travelling
abroad, and is a young lady of excep-
tional beauty. The bridegroom, Mr..
George Carr, is graduate of the
University of Illinois and one of the
leading young business men of Chi
cago, being at the present time gen
eral manager of the Dearborn Chemi-
cal Co, The wedding was held on
the Pacific coast, due to the fact that
the Mortenson family have heen there
the greater part of the year, and that
the bridal trip was to be to Honolulu,
where the bridegroom could combine
both business and pleasure. The
wedding was held in the spacious
/ l.