Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-06-29
Miss Florence Minis Writes
From Heart OF, the Rockies
in Bear Tooth Mountains.

Lear AQVertlSer:
If allowed myself to think a great
while, I would know / could not ade-
quately describe the wonderful
scenery here in the very heart of the
Rockies, in the Bear Tooth Noun
tains. think we cannot exaggerate
the really good and beautiful things
of life, for beauty is truth, and moth.
ing that 1 could say would overesti-
mate this secluded spot where we are
living in rustic lodge or hotel, mod
ern, and yet rustic enough to suit the
rugged crags around it.
Richel Lodge is seven thousand
feet above sea level, so am up in
the clouds above Edgefeld, where it
is cold enough to have huge logs
burning in the mammoth fireplace in
the dining room and the living room:
The lodge is just at the conyerg--
ing point of two very swift noun
tain streams, which flow together and
go on to join the Yellowstone River
have an even larger appetite than
I had in the woods and lakes of Min
nesota and my friend and thought
we would eat about five loaves and
three fishes, mountain trout, for ev-
cry meal. The streams and lakes af-
ford the pink and black mountain
trout, some of which were brought up
to the lodge yesterday. These fish
are caught in the swift, dancing cur
rent of the mountain stream, SO I
am sure it would take great skill to
hold 'one's line and at the same time
fool the fish.
The mountains rise precipitously
just at the hotel and there are two
snow capped peaks in plain sight. The
mountain sides and meadows are COW
cred with large mad small boulders.
Unlike the mountains of western
North Carolina, the Rockies are rock
covered rather than tree covered. The
valleys are alight with, flowers of
every color and clumps, of gray
green sage, brush with pleasant
|pnngent odpr. Quivering aspenatrees
grow grow the sIaes "a The
In the earlier spring about Seventy
five thousand logs were rolled down
the mountain side and sent down the
stream in what is called log jam.
Here the lumber jacks start them
safely on their destination to Red
Lodge, the nearest town to Richel
Lodge, where the logs are used for
props in the coal mines.
Coming up the trail from Red
Lodge we passed one peak which has
an extinct volcano crater which has
not erupted for fifteen or twenty
years. The trees along its sides were
dead, proof of some past eruption.
One of the earliest pioneers, a
typical westerner and famous guide
and horseman, "Pack Saddle Ben"
Greenough has camp only few
yards from the lodge. He is well
known all over the state of Montana.
1 am anxious to talk to him and get
some lore of the mountains from one
who knows them as only woodsman
can. He probably will think me too
much of tenderfoot to bother with
Some forest rangers have their
government station near here, with
a high flag staff rising out of primeval
wilderness. The rangers were up at
the lodge the night we arrived and
we all gathered around the huge
open fire, which made it seem like
Christmas, with the Yule logs burn.
ing.
The Southerner who speaks with
out affectation is as surely branded
with his native heath as though it
were stamped on his brow, so one of
the rangers remarked to me that he
thought I must have come from a
good many miles south of here. I ask
ed him if he could guess the right
state and he said virginia or the
Carolinas."
1 am afraid that l have not only
not lost my dialect but accentuated it,
since it isn't displeasing, rather the
oher way, to Westerners. :
My next adventures will <be in
Yellowstone Park before / travel
much farther north and west.
My friend is playing Dixie on the
piano, so that I have to stop and lis
ten.
E1opENcE MINIS