Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1916-10-11
5000 NILES BY AUTO.
MIR. AND MRS. SCHADE RETURNED
FROM WESTERN TOUR LAST
WEEK. WONDERFUL TRIP.


and Mrs Schade had certainly seen
enough to last most people a lifetime
Wedding Bells and Westward.
In the first place the Schades went
by automobile. The car used was a
Paigne-Detroit, and the stock of mater
ials taken was something enormous.
Three extra tires were carried, sup
plies of water and gasoline, camping
outfit consisting Of sleeping tent and
cooking utensils, provisions and many
other things.
Fifteen states were visited in the
trip which began through Iowa, Mis-
souri, and Kansas over muddy roads
and extended into Colorado, New Mex
leo, Arizona and California going to
the coast.
The Great Unknown Southwest.
1.-THE Great Unknown Southwest"
Mr.. Schade calls it. For hundreds of
miles the car travelled over painless
deserts where the only human beings
were Mexicans and Indians. In
Arizona gasoline sells for coo the gal
ION and cylinder oil for $3.50. The
L
that water disappears quickly and
about four or five miles an hour is
everything possible from a car owing
to the evaporation of gasoline. Water
must be carried in ample quantities
or one is likely to stay in the desert.
Where Desert and Cactus Meet.
Up through the Mojave desert 485
h0 IxyI0
the only vegetation is cactus. There
are 76 varieties Of this plant though
from the size of tree down to lit
tie plant. The cactus are covered with
beautiful blossoms of every color, but
they can't be picked on account Of the
thOrns.
Seeing Big Trees.
In California they visited the Yo-
semitic valley and Mariposa Grove de-
scribed in the account of Mr.. Groen-
ier's trip several weeks ago. One
thing Mr.. Groenier failed to mention
was the dimensions of Old Grizzly
the largest and oldest tree in the
world. This giant of the forest is 224
feet in height and 104 feet in circum-
ference at the diameter. The first
limb extends out 100 feet up and it is
six feet in diameter.
A Wonderful Cave.
Over heavily wooded and steep hills
and roads so narrow that automobiles
going to and from the park must run
on schedules to avoid meeting each
other, the party went to COulterville,
California, where they saw the famous
Bower cave This cave is so named
because a tree grows up through
narrow opening 85 feet from the bot
tom of the cavity and to the blue sky
above. A stairway is used going down
to the bottom and there indescribably
interesting things unfold themselves,
Mr.. Schade says. The cave contains
a large lake filled with fish, some Of
them being pets of the owner who feeds
them regularly. At one side in a crew
ice high up tiny fern has grown out
each summer since the discovery Of the
cave nearly so years ago. Just enough
light penetrates down through the
chasm to furnish this plant with sun
shine. A peculiar fact is that the
shore of the lake is simply limestone
crust about one inch thick and large
numbers Of people have stood on it at
one time without any breaking thru.
In Pleasant Places.
A visit was made to San Francisco,
San Rafael, Santa Cruz, Monterey,
Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and
other west California points. The
Schades also saw the famous Cliff
hotel, Sutro Gardens, Golden Gate
park and the Japanese Gardens in
san Frisco. All are highly interest
ing.
At Tahoe, the Beautiful.
They drove east then to Lake Tahoe
a beautiful body of water lying in the
Sierra Nevada on the eastern bound
airy of California. Over good roads
they went to Carson City, Nevada, and
over bad roads to Reno, and the Carson
sink, where a car can be entirely lost
with little effort-Owing to the spongy
condition of the ground for many
miles, Here the roads must be follow
ed very carefully. Alkali flats came
next with thirty miles of smOoth-as-
glass surface stretching in every di-
rection. Automobile races are held
on the flats when the weather is right.
Idaho a Great Garden.
After visit in Salt Lake City the
Lancaster folks went north into fer
tile Idaho which has become a garden
in the past ten years-irrigation ditch
es are everywhere and all sorts Of
grain and fruit.
Bears Won't Eat Doctors.
Yellowstone Park is great place,
Mr.. Schade avers-the bears will eat
all the tourists up in a few years if
allowed to roam unchecked and the
poor tourists remain deprived the use
of weapons. While there the bears
stole the provisions right out of the
Schade car at night, but did not mo-
est the sleepers as they kept liant
q