Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1920-12-09
Travelling Toward the 'aH'0s
Land of Gold

Tor California and arrived at Los
Angeles on Sunday, travelling over
two thousand miles through prai-
RE, mountains, deserts and flowers.
No snow except on the mountains
and no accident of any kind to mar
the trip. We did not change cars
and we ate, rode and slept in the
same sections all the time and with
courteous treatment and a most
genial porter, this trip was alpleas-
ant one. Leaving Carroll at 10
?. M, we reached Kearney, Neb-
raska, at daylight. This town has
an interest to me for Buffalo Bill
u his writings often referred to
Did Fl. Kearney. About this re-
gon is a wonderful countryg much
ii which has never been ruined by
sasturing. Thousands of stacks of
wild hay are waiting to be shipped
to markets farther east. Passing
on / noted dilapidated oMFsprai-
RE schooner headed westward and
the old-fashioned cowboy was still
i evidence too. OF course these
emily to small extent, but they
brought back old memories Just
the same. In Wyoming | should
Judge we ran fifty miles alta stretch
with no house in sight, just rolling
hills of prairies, fine sight to me
who had seen Audubon J county
thinly settled in an early day.
The Lincoln Highway follows the
Union Pacific railroad much of the
way and there is a wonderful lot
Of work being done on it at pres
ent. The big cornstalks WHICH we
saw in Iowa that are backing ap
the four hundred dollar land were
not seen much farther wests. They
kept growing smaller andss smaller
and by the time we had sreached
Cheyenne it was goodnight stos the
eornfeld. But it was q sheep
country then and on account of
being so rough was better adapted
to that than to farming Pretty
dry here too even before the Con
stitution was amended. In the
country around old Laramie the
scenery was pretty good and the
many pines made me think that
we were almost on The Trail of the
Lonesome Pines. At Sherman
Wyoming, an elevation of better
than eight thousand feet is reached
which is the highest point on this
route. The great plains which we
we're crossing were Buffalo Bills
old playground, but greatly
changed since his day. Severa
small prairie fires which | saw OF
the way brought back MEMORIES o
Audubon county in earl days
The great American desert pic
tured in my old school geography
is true to quite large degree TO
we crossed over many miles Of coun
try suited to that name. Salt LAX,
Guy is a magnificent plae. @0l
leaving there we-had a fine-yiew o
the Great Salta2Isake couahay saat
for quite awhile we crossed 6hsougl
rathee sw,,ampy region, side
of which were bounded by beauti
full mountains covered with snow
We ran all day toward the, la
southwest in plain with mount all
ranges on either side coveNs WIT
snow. Pretty hard sometimes t
tell where the mountain saeneie'
and the clouds began. A lanesen
country this where miles AND mile
were rolled off without sigtf ofss Blu
man habitation Or sanilrlA5 s!He
Further. on, however, There Wer
hundreds Of little shacks noslteablt
the homes of homesteaders., The
were nearly all vacant nawt &c
many of the homesteaders live heI
the required time and thertkbsbac
east or to the cities during tn
winter where home has more TO
than. merely name. At 6st'
Nevada, the scenery is Alen
Beyond here we ran as far
eighty-one miles at stretch-stol