Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1917-05-02
OUT in THE SOUND lREGION
SOME WONDERS oFlTHE GREAT
WEST
Former ViFoqua Boy Writes Enter
tainiDgiy-fxtends Greetings to
Old Friends

BELLINGHAM. WASH April 20, 1917.
EDITOR CENSOR: Enclosed find check
for which please send nae the good old
CENSOR ] obtained a few copies
through the kindness of MIR Allen, a
resident here, and an old Wisconsin
man who has taken it for years IL
seemed like visit 90 the old home af-
ter all these years. to see the names
OF friends and schoolmates. After
twenty-thTee years absence the names
of old places we frequeuted when chill
dren. the names OF old friends and
families arouse many pleasant recol-
lections, though II really seems to
me like dream from another world
and not as though VirOqua was real.
though | spent all the early years of
my life there in her schools until /
was IL years of age My three sisters
and brother graduated from Viroqua
schools, all except the Youngest. They
are rather scattered now from New
York city to San Francisco. My broth.
er is in Alaska, near the Arctic circle
where ! spent some years. This broth
er and two sisters Taught school for
many years in Vernon county and will
doubtless be remembered by their
many pupils. My father, r. B Meach-
am, who is now nearly eighty years
of age, sends kindly greetings TO the
old veterans of the G.. a. r anu |
am sure will be kindly remembered
by them in return His health is fine
and | guess he is good for 20 more
years at least, though he was not in
good health when we left Viroqua
He is now in the jewelry business with
me and walks from his residence to
the store nearly every day.
This town Of Belliugham. by the
way, is very pleasantly located on
Puget Sound, and has the finest eli
mate any of us have yet found, not
excepting California We have 25,-
600 people. about thirty miles of paved
streets in the CITY limits. are only
highway from Vancouver, British
Columbia, and five hours over the
same road to Seattle, fine citv of
250. GOO people. This Pacific highway
is mostly hard surfaced now. We
have some ship building going on.
Salmon fishing is a great industry;
Mm bering is carried on extensively as
this is the home of the big trees, and
one can see train loads of logs being
hauled in any day that run from four
to six and eight feet in diameter. The
soil here, too. is unsurpassed. We
raised the record Oat crop of the world,
$50 bushels per acre. That, of course,
was a record, but one can see large
fields every season that run from 100
to l25 bushels per acre. [ would not
say how large crops of potatoes we
raise, as { would sound unreasonable,
bat ian safely say we raise twice as
many per acre as l ever saw grown in
the east.
We had little snow last winter.
Some years we don't have any. 1t
lasted two weeks, think The sum-
mers are certainly wonderful, seldom
too warm to wear coat. Sun=strokes
and oyer-heating or heat prostrations
are unknown here. \ o electrical
storms or thunder. This may sound
queer to Wisconsin folks, but such is
the case. 1t is certainly an ideal eli
mate and land is far cheaper here
than in Wisconsin or anywhere else
have ever been, and | spent several
years travelling before settling here.
| went as far west as Honolulu. as far
north as the arctic circle, and as far
south as Mexico. have been going
to drive back TO dear cid Wisconsin
for some time. | want to come in
May and fish the old trout streams
again which / fished when a boy |
have been waiting until YOU get your
end of the National Park highway, or
the Yellowstone trail finished. You
will find our end from the Yellowstone
this way, fine. How is yoursy / have
heard it was not finished yet. Ours
is mostly hard surfaced. with still
some gravel, but good all the way.
We are now building a road in our
national park in this country Mt. Bak-
err right up to the perpetual snow
line. We have a fine automobile road
to Tacoma right up to the glacier,
where YOU can pick snow balls in July.
Any Wisconsin folks coming this way
/ would be glad to meet and give all
the information and assistance could.
Well, here are pleasant greeting 10
any of my old schooimates who may
read this, and / would be glad to hear
from any of them.
Respectfully yours,
&. J. MEACHAM.
~ -, ,~ke