Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1932-02-25

wintering on the Golden Shores
| of California at Hanford, located in
the middle of the great San Joaquin
valley, which is 90 miles wide and
| 26 miles long, with the Sierra
Nevada ranges bordering on the
east and the coast ranges on the
west, with my son Prof. Herman
Harper and family, witnessing an
unusually rainy season here. While
the average rainfall is only six to
eight inches, nearly double that
amount has really fallen this year,
together with correspondence
heavy snowfall in the Sierra Ne
vada ranges, which melts during
the warm summer days, and is
spread out through the orange trees
and vinyards through the large
irrigation canals, gives promise of
bountiful fruit crops this summer.
Last December l attended the Great
Western Live Stock show and rodeo
at Los Angeles, seeing most of the
aristocrats of the Hereford beef
cattle as we'll as hundreds of west
ern sheep, hogs and horses. / also
saw many places of interest at
Long Beach and Hollywood. At
that time several u S. battleships
and destroyers were stationed just
off the western coast OF Long
Beach. One Saturday afternoon }
took a small boat out to the Lex
cyfn nF fxry0 lor ho r.
tleships carrying airplanes. One
hundred and twenty-five airplanes
| each carrying two large bombs, may
take off from the upper deck of this
giant destroyer. About 20 minutes
being required to clear the deck of
this number of planes. Along side
of the Lexington were the Okla
homa, Leviathan, Saratoga and sew
eral other battleships, some of
which have recently sailed for
Shanghai. While in Los Angeles 1
saw the large Olympic stadium,
where the 10th Olympiad will be
held this summer, July 30th to
Aug. 14th, inclusive). At which
time preparations have been made
to entertain thousands of Wis
itors to the Golden state. In the
major sports of football and track,
California colleges have won many
western, as we'll as national hon
ors. The city of Los Angeles and
the state Of California have spent
millions of dollars in preparation
for this worldwide event.
/ spent the Christmas holidays
with H. D. Stokes and family of
Modesto, and DR.. Stanley Dougan
and family of San Jose, the latter
having recently moved into their
new home in the mountain view
district, an exclusive residential
section overlooking the city of San
Jose, and have a beautiful view of
San Francisco bay. twenty-five
miles west of Hanford is located the
Kettleman Hills oil fields, the
worlds largest light oil, gasoline
and natural gas field. The wells
are over one mile deep. and Of the
80 recently completed wells are
of oil daily, besides supplying. the
cities of Los Angeles and San Fran
cisco and many others with gas
The present unemployment situa.
tion in this state is more acute
than in sections of the east, due to
the incoming of thousands of unem-
ployed men who hitch hiked, walk
ed, rode box cars, or drove cars
here from the east, expecting to
find employment, or at least to win
ter in a mild climate. They soon
found that California was no place
for a man without money or a job.
In order to feed and care for the
large number of unemployed men,
! the state established large labor
camps in the national parks, where
the men cut brush and cleaned ur
the parks for their food and cloth
| ing. Others more fortunate to
have sufficient money to buy a
grub stake, began prospecting for
gold with the result that hun
dreds of men were able to make fair
wages in the old gold mines. This
winter saw the greatest revival of
| the gold prospector in California,
since the famous days of "49,"
when eggs sold for one dollar each
and other food stuff accordingly.
February is blooming time for
the California poppies. The fields
and foothills are covered with mil
lions of the beautiful yellow pop
pies, the state flower.
Along the rim of the San Joaquin
valley are located three of the larg-
est national parks, Yosemite, with
it's beautiful waterfalls; Gen. Grant
and the Sequoia national parks,
both noted for, the large, giant Sc
quota trees. Certain limited Sec
tions of California are the only
places in the world where these
giants of the forest are found
growing in their natural habitat /
plan to return to my home in CO.
lumbus via the Grand Canyon and
Pueblo, Col, stopping off at the
latter place to visit two of my
brothers, F. M. and F. H. Stokes
and families.
Each Monday 1 look forward with
pleasure to reading the Morgan
County Democrat, and hearing of
the folks back home.-Mrs. Ada
Harper.