Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1932-07-07
Letter Concerning Western Trip

Leaving Hanford, Calf, where /
spent the winter with my son, Prof.
Herman Harper and family, l mo-
tored to Yosemite National Park,
where l spent three days viewing
the beautiful waterfalls of which
there are four large ones, Yosemite,
Nevada, Vernal and Bridal Veil.
Every night at o'clock, l saw the
fire fall from Glacier Point. At this
time the rangers build a large fire
on this stony point and push the
fire over the ledge Of rock where it
falls 1924 feet down the wall Of
solid rock, to the floor of Yosemite
Valley, to the delight and amuse-
ment Of all the pleasnEe seekers at
the National Park.
Here the deer and bears are
plentiful and very tame for wild
animals, allowed to roam at large
in their natural habitat, and are not
confined in pens or cages. On en-
tering the park | saw an old brown
bear and her two small cubs. As
they were close to the road, | got
out to feed them some candy of
which bears are very fond All of
a sudden the old mother bear let
out big "gruff" and darted up the
nearest redwood tree, with the two
cubs close behind. Looking around
to see what had frightened away my
pets, | saw only few feet away a
large black bear, the natural en-
emy of the brown bear, coming to-
ward me- / fed the big black fellow
some sweets and drove on. Com
ing out, / saw three large black
bears at play in one of the small
meadows near the road.
One morning, | got up early and
taking some candy started out 10
find some deer. | had not gone far
until | found a band Of six deers
and one buck. They came up to me
eagerly to eat the sweets, all eX-
cept the buck, which was more tim
id, especially at this time of the
year when their horns are in the
''velyet stage" They shed their
uOTUS dUHudlly, anu are more tlIllld
when their horns are soft.
The waterfalls were very beau
tiful this year, on account of the
heaviest snowfall in years, in the
Sierra Nevada ranges, and the
melting snow greatly swelled the
volume of the falls.
From Yosemite | motored to Palo
Alto, the home of President Hoover,
and where Stanford University is
located, to visit my sister-in-laW
Mrs. Olive Stokes, my niece Mrs.
Ada Michener and son Francis. This
is a very beautiful college town,
with SO many pretty flowers. While
here | also visited with DR.. Stanley
This town is located on the south
end of the San Francisco bay, and
has a lovely climate the year round.
Here | took my first airplane ride,
with DR.. Dougan who is a licensed
pilot. From the air I saw the navy
Sunnyvale air base, where the
dirigible Akron was stationed while
on it's visit to the Pacific coast, re-
Gently. Flew over the city of San
Jose and the Santa Clara valley
with its large prune and apricot or
chards. Passed near Mt. Hamilton,
and could see the large dome of the
Lick observatory. We circled south
over the coast range mountains;
saw the Pacific ocean and lower end
of San Francisco bay DR.. Dougan
and family plan to fly back to Nor
gan county next year, to visit
friends and relatives, and enroute
stop in Chicago to see the worlds
fair On this trip to the Pacific
coast, I Travelled by Overland stage.
| much prefer the stage to trains, as
the stopovers are more liberal, and
the service is much better, and be-
sides it is much more economical.
From San Jose / passed through
San Francisco, the city by the "Gol-
den Gate" Sacramento, the capital
city; Reno, the city of easy df-
vorces; Salt Lake City, with hts
Mormon temple and the beautiful
wide streets; Cheyenne and Denver.
At Sidney, Neb., / stopped to visit
= few days with my brother e. s. |
Stokes, and family. Mr.. Stokes is
telegraph operator and train dis
)atcher for the Union Pacific rail
'oad. Here the large grain COM
pines were busy harvesting the |