The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1921-09-30
PINE NUTT|NG IN THE CITY Of ROCKS



Did you ever eat pine nut?
Well. now, that sounds perfectly nut
ty to the squirrels and other resi-
dents of these here pinion-pine-clad
hills-but, remember, brothers and
sisters, this valuable paper goes ev-
erywhere, and may perchance fail
into the hands of the hurrying New
Yorker, the sleepy Philadelphian,
the smoky Pittsburgher, the windy
Chicagoan, even the foggy Lon
donerl and all these ignoramuses
will have to answer 'No What S
the joke? Shoot"
Well, sir. first you get the pine
cones; not any old kind, mind you
only those of the pinion pine, and
these must be of the right age, per-
fume and gumminess. Then you
/ extract the nut from the cone; then
you take off the shell; then you
/ take off a sort OF union suit thai
envelops the kernel; and there you
arel
But-hold on There won't be
any story to tell if we eat our nuts
nowl How do you suppose we ge.
these cones? Think you go out to
the city limits and whistle for
them? No, you don't-you go a
long way over bad roads and work
like the devil for every cone you
get. Wen tell the world that, be-
cause we've tried it.
We put in most of one day tun-
ing up the old car for the trip
frightened the bolts, drove down the
nails, oiled and creased everything
fastened the tenders and other tin
ware more securely, and put sup
ply of bailing wire in the tool box.
able about a car will be missing
when one gets back from trip
over the Birch creek road. For iil-
stance, a man travelling on this
road heard something drop; investi-
CATION showed he had lost the rear
light and license bracket from his
car Another had his car come to
a sudden stop, with symptoms of
starvation; on looking his car over
lie found he had shaken off his gas
oline tank
We were unanimously of the opin-
ion that the City of Rocks would be
the best place to go. Not that
there are SO many pinion pines
there; but people always harbor
within them a little spark of hope
that they might find that treasure
that was hidden years ago in the
City of Rocks.
The story goes that the City of /
Rocks was on the old Overland /
trail to San Francisco, over which (
the Wells, Fargo Express Company
ran its stages. Three bad men
learned-that on a certain date a
shipment of one hundred and TWEEN
ty-five thousand dollars was to be
sent over this road They hid in
the City of Rocks, waylaid the stage,
and got the treasure. However, the
willy stage driver caught them off
their guard for moment; address, I
ing some AS caliber remarks in
their direction, he put two of them
IN the long road which furnishes
no return tickets; the third, badly
wounded, crept in among the rocks
with the treasure. Later he was
,ound dead, hut for these many
years no one has ever had sight Of
he wealth he hid.
So, with fortune or pine nuts,
either or both, as our objective, we /
tarted one morning on the twenty |
i've mile trip. Down here in the
ALLEY the car plowed thru a lava ]
sh, fine as -four, and foot deep; |
lropped into an occasional dust I
lole that seemed bottomless, the re- {
'ound from which would send the I
of the car violently !
gainst the top; and stirred up such I
louds of dust that evefy now and
hen the road was absolutely hid
EN-. In the Birch creek canyon the
ust was not quite so deep, but the .
Dad became rougher and sleeper;
he car wheezed and squeaked and 4,
roaned as it twisted over boulders
r dropped down into a rut; the !.
Tater in the radiator boiled on the :
teeper grades; occasional remnants :
f sagebrush beat tattoo on the :,
ustpan where new road had been
lade thru the brush; and undoubt-
dly the passengers were inclined to !,
uake inwardly-
And each particular hair to II
stand on end, r.
Like quills upon the fret s
full porcupine II
as the car lurched now and then is
ward the precipitOus drop into II