The Washington times., 1921-10-30
PASS Of GREAT
BEAUTY IS DOOR
[ ITO CALIFORNIA
Beautiful Spring Is Dedicated to
A. G. Batchelder. Late
A. A. A. Head.

Motor tourists OF today travelling
toward the sunset via the Midland
T"1iI will enter California through a
pass OF majestic beauty. writes Will
lam Ullman in American Motorist for
October.
This entrance to the Golden State IL
located just short distance west OF
the Nevada boundary. in the stately
White Mountain range, towering like
rampant reared by Cyclopean forces,
and through which nature by toll OF
centuries has fashioned a natural gate
way between the land of sage brush
ana the land OF flowers.
A halt to survey the beauties un-
folded so suddenly will reveal, among
other things, huge sign, situated wei
up the mountainside, bearing the let
tering "Westgard Pass" This name
was bestowed upon the cut by the
State of California in honor OF the late
A. l.. Westgard, for many years field
representative of the American Auto.
mobile Association and discoverer of
the pass in 1911.
Half way up Westgard Pass, and
partly sequestered from the hot sun
an ancient spring. On Saturday. Au'
gust l3, this was dedicated to the
memory of Amos Grant Batchelder,
late executive chairman of the Ameri.
can Automobile Associa ton, and the
man who sent Westgard on his first
tanscontinental trip.
at the same time and place there
was planted and baptized with water
from the Pacific ocean, ten-year-old
elght-foot-high Sequoia Gigantea, n
type of the worlds largest Redwood
evergreen tree. many examples of
which, in California, are of great
height and girth and more than 1000
years old. The one planted in West.
gard Pass is to be known as the Three
A. Ire and was dedicated to the ma
tional organization of motorists.
These dedications at the point where
the renowned A. A. A. pathfinder dis
covered a long sought and beautiful
passage through the mountains were
Intended as a token of the Far Vests
appreciation of the American Automo-
bile Associations great work for mo-
torists and of the ability and loyalty
of Batchelder, who for twelve years
directed the organizations course. The
tree was especially selected and Is ex-
pected to become one of the worlds
largst and longest lived. And all the
while 1t grows and rises higher and
higher above the surrounding trees, II
will be fed and nurtured by Batchelder
Spring, just as the A. A. A. was
brought to its present eminence by
the man.
: Westgard Pass is the ten-mile cross
ing over the White mountains. 1t Is
in the thirty -five-mile stretch from
Oasis, Cal, on the Nevada line, west
ward to Big Pine. This stretch As
part of the Roosevelt Midland trail,
which also, in 1915, was chosen as
the Lincoln Highway branch from Ely,
New, southwestward to Big Pine.
The pass is open all the year. From
Big Pine, FL Canine Sierra is USED
Eorthward to reach San Francisco, or
southwark, to reach Los Angeles,
miles nearer.
The dedications were due chiefly to
the initiative of Wisner Gillett Scott,
often called the Cecil Rhodes of east
ern California, and for many years
prominently identified with highways
advancement in the eWst. In carry
ing out his plans, Mr.. Scott, in turn,
was aided largely by Editor George
M. Schell, Of Motor West, the Pacific
Coasts leading automobile magazine.