The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1921-11-25
LAKE CRYSTAL NEWS
An Interesting Letter From
Mrs. John Williams; Notes
! And Persona i
Especial to Yhe Free PRESS

interesting account of their trip. DIR.
and Mrs. Williams left here accom-
panied by Leslie Guttersen on the af-N
ternoon, of September 80. Making
the trip in their velie car by easy
s.sas which gave them chance of
enjoying the beautiful scenery they
passed through. The following is Mrs.
Williams letters giving detained &C
count Of the trip.
Dear friends: Will give rou'
short account Of our western trip.
After leaving Lake Crystal shortly
after p. M. that Friday afternoon,
we drive to Fairrnont where we spent
our night with our old friends, Mr..
and Mis-. Howard Waite who gave US
some very good pointers as to the
trails. Saturday we drove to Storm
Lake, Iowa. Sunday we arrived at
Omaha and were welcomed by our
friends, Mr.. and Mrs. G. S. Ingalls,.
with whom we spent the night, ieav
ing there Monday morning and arriv-
ing at Atchison, Kansas late in the
afternoon. Nothing worthy OF note
happens thus far on our journey ex-
cepung some rats ate portion Of my
lunch basket in their endeayor to get
at some eats on the inside. They got
the eats and spoiled the basket. Tues
day at 230 P. M. we arrived at Kan
sas City, Missouri. 1t surely is a
beautiful city and a very busy place.
We spent the rest of the day in sight.
seeing q, out the city and resting. We
had followed the X. Y. Trail from
/ Omaha. Nebraska to Kansas City, Mo.
We resumed our journey Wednesday
/ Trrn niYno nun hn
which starts from Kansas City. ano
spent the night at Council Grove.
Our Thursday night stop was at
Great Bend and Friday night we
| stopped at Garden City. which is a
| much larger place than our home
Garden City, Mimi. Saturday noon
found us at Lamar, Colorado arriving
at Trinidad for the night. Trinidad
was by far the best town we had seen
hsince leaving Kansas City. After
! leaving Trinidad we came through
! Ration Pass in New Mexico, an eleya-
( ton of S79S feet.
"Our next stopping place was Los
Vagus, which is an old and interest
ing town inhabited mostly by Mexi-
cans. The streets are very narrow
and short here Adobe are far more
numerous than any other in the
dwelling line. From Santa Fe to a
small place called Wagon Mound, we
came over seven miles of the worst
road in America. albuquerque was
our next stop, decidedly busy town
spoken than Welsh. The next day.
before reaching Magdelina we en-
countered shower OF rain, the only
one on our whole trip, lasting a. out
ten minutes which settled the dust
for that day. 1t was in this part Of
the country the horseshoe and hair
rin curves which afterwards became
very common. After coming down
one Of these curves we came to
Springville, an inland town situated
one hundred miles east and one
hundred fifty miles west OF the rail
road. Here we paid fifty cents q gal
l'lon for gasoline, only bought four
gallons to go to the next station call.
ed st. John. While enroute there we
picked up two tacks, one in each
wheel on the righthand side Of the
car, delaying us an hour and a half
for repairs and costing $1.25. We
drove, later than usual that night to
make Winslow, Arizona; our next
staff, this also is very good town.
/ Called at the P. o. and received some
mail from our former Lake Crystal
neighbors, Mayor Davis and wife, al
! so letter from our daughter.
AT this tine, we decided to take
side trip of one hundred sixty
miles each way, to the Grand Can
/ yons of Arizona. This trip is one of
! unusual interest. the canyons and
scenery surrounding it are one of the
wonders of the world. Don't go to
ed States first. Here we met people
! from all parts, many of whom we
had met earlier on our trip. We
spent the week end here. / will not
attempt to describe the scenery, but
will say, to see is to appreciate. On
| our return to Williams, familiar name
Sunday we stopped for chicken din
nefs we enjoyed before leaving home.
| AS Ashford. a hotel man told us Mr..
there Saturday. We did not recog-
! nize any parts of his car along the
road within the next few miles, al,
| though 1t was rough enough to tear
any car to pieces. All the dirt had
| been washed from the stones, leav-
ling nothing but large boulders to be
seen. Heua Amrait Guy wrote ON b
a large card, speed limit forty miles
an hour, but we doubt IL you. could
spent at Seligman, and for once we
were a tired trio, the only time dur
ing the trip any of us had complained
: Of being tired. We drove 1876 miles
the next day to make place called
Needles, called the dividing line. 1t
, is the first town in California and
derives its name from so many sharp
pointed mountains surrounding It.
From there we came to what is
commonly called Mogave Desert, but
were not interested as we had de-
cided long before that we had not
seen much of anything, with the ex-
ception Of the few citnes mention
ed, but deserts for miles. We next
passed through a place called Amboy,
which Is rather familiar name to
us. Our next stop out OF Needles
was Baiston, which was our last
stop before reaching Pasadena.
While In the desert we noticed so
many varieties of flowers and their
perfume is very pleasant to the nos
tris. Between Amboy and Bagdad
stands an old crater, Jet black, and
is surrounded for more than a mile
In every direction by an equally
black overflow Of what is called NAL
pals. On the other side, In great
contrast, Is a cream co1ored dry
lake, and the landscape looks like
safnor. The effect is very unusual.
On passing through the sparsely set
tied parts of the country, we were
- See N$AI Lrya eta