Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-09-17
Santa Cruz Man
Tells of Ashland

The following excellent article on
Ashland was written for the Daily
Sentinel of Santa Cruz California by
Walter c. Fogg of that place, who
camped in the canyon with his fam
lily during the recent Chautauqua.
The article was published August
ninth but has just come into the
hands of the Record editor. The
Foggs were on a Gypsy Auto Tour"
tof California, Oregon, Washington
and Arizona. The article:
Coming down out of the higher
Siskiyous, we ran right on into Ash
land, the first city over the line in
Oregon, and we were very agreeably
surprised to find the Southern Ore
gon Chautauqua there in session,
which was to continue for ten days.
They were all camped out in the
beautiful city park, which is right
in the heart of the city, and the sur
roundingS were so attractive that we
were not long in deciding to pitch
our tent among them and take in
the Chautauqua ourselves. This we
have done, and have met some very
! pleasant people among the Oregoni-
ans. OF course the red label on
our car, and our Santa Cruz pennant,
which we have been carrying, pro-
claimed us to be foreigners and
our camp has been the stopping place
of all those who have ever been in
any part of California, or who have
friends there. In this way we have
met people from all over California,
and some have known people whom
we know in Santa Cruz. all of which
has tended to make our stay in Ash
land one of the most pleasant of any
of the stops we have made on our
| trip.
The city of Ashland itself lies at
an elevation of about 1000 feet on
! the eastern slopes Of the Siskiyou
range in Oregon. Ones first impress
sion of Ashland, as they enter the
city, is that it is a clean, quiet, de-
lightful little place of nice homes of
retired people. Business, what there
is of it, is conducted in a leisurely
manner, much as it is done in coun-
try villages back in New Jersey and
Pennsylvania; in fact, one could cas-
lily imagine, that here the slogan is:
When business and pleasure clash,
Let business go to smash,
so completely absent is any indica-
ton or suggestion of the strenuous
life. Anyone who has grown tired of
the busy whirl of the larger and more
active business centers could find in
Ashland the ideal atmosphere and
environment in which to taper
down to a little lower station, with
out actually going out of business
} because they really do considerable
business in Ashland-only it is done
differently.
LAS you may have surmised from
the above description, Ashland has
no saloons, but instead it supplies al
, convenient corners of the streets, in
artistic sanitary fountains, an abun'
dance of ever-flowing, clear, spark
E ling mountain water. 1t is the most
beautifully supplied city in this re-
spect that we have visited. Not con
tent with this, however, the city has
just voted $175, 900 to develop near
by lithia, soda, iron and sulphur
springs, which will be free to all Wis
, itors and residents of Ashland, the
same as the ordinary water now is
The plan is to make Ashland a favor.
= ite health resort, for which its mod
5 crate altitude, beautiful situation anC
, remedial waters it seems ideally sit
uated and especially favored in this
respect, and no doubt we will heal
more of it in future than we have
S in the past. The lithia water they
have, it is said, is second in medicina
properties only to the famous Buffa
10 lithia water, of which we have al
heard, and should, in itself, be {
= great attraction to Ashland. While
| soda, iron and sulphur springs are
quite numerous in both California
and Oregon, this is the first lithif
= spring we have run across, and may
be the only one on the coast, for al
know.
1T was while going out in the
country one morning early that | saw
the first flock of Mongolian pleas
7 ants. 1t was just after sunrise. W.
, were driving along leisurely, the
rancher and myself, when / noticed
some large birds feeding on the wilC
e oats which grow abundantly in tina
| vicinity. They were jumping up t
reach the tops of the oat stalks, 81
that / could see they we're quit,
i large, and / at first wondered wha
llltN wei dhNhpl AbONe1
;. they were some eastern Bob White
|, which had been planted arount
there. and which they were protect
: ing until they could become NOR
}, plentiful, but having seen the Bo
+ White on its native heath back il
n New Jersey | told him | did not thinl
those were quail, so to settle the mat
: ter / got out of the rig and jumpe,
y the fence into the field where the
# were and scared them up. The
h arose with whirr and a clatter o
wings which was almost startling a
. first, as / was close to them, and a
1t soon as the rancher saw them h
t, shouted, They're Chinas.' And, sur
= enough, there were probably twent
or more nearly grown Mongolian O
u Chinese pheasants, all chaperoned b
~ one large male bird of gorgeou
ID plumage, with long tail feather
lv which made him look nearly as larg
as a small turkey when he flew, wit
VI the youngsters, across the road an
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