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Notes from Letters

OF

Charles E. Bolton, A. M.
Written while lecturing
IN
THE NORTHWEST

Privately printed by his son

Cambridge 1892

Cleveland, Ohio,
May II, 1892,
My Dear Son :
I now regret that I did not jot down all I saw,
with a better touch of color and imagination, as
then the letters might have entertained and in
structed some who, from lack of funds or time,
will never be able to see the glories of the Western
part of our magnificent country.
It is wearisome work to lecture every night and
travel almost constantly. It unfits one for serious
or sprightly literary work. I see no harm in print
ing the scraps of letters which you have selected,
though, of course, they were written hastily.
Your affectionate father,
C, E, Bolton.
To Charles Kno-wles Bolton, Cambridge, Mass,

C^l.ifUi^us^

Notes from Northwest Letters.

On the Cars near Escanaba,
December 14, 1888,
Left Lake Linden (5000 population) 8 a, m, ;
reach Escanaba, 5 p. m, , , , We pass over rolling
country, and most of the forests have been cut.
There are many lakes ; only a little snow. Cap
tain H., at Lake Linden, drove me over to Cal
umet and Hecla copper mines ; $30,000,000 out
and $35,000,000 in sight. Nothing like it in the
world. Yesterday, went through gigantic s'amp mill that
consumes 3000 tons copper ore pt;r month. Also
dropped down a shaft 2,700 feet, deepest in Amer
ica — Nevada only 1,600, Have several specimens
of ore. There are 1000 acres of ore of a fourteen-
foot vein. Bitter cold, but we saw the sight of
sights. Also visited iron mines. One, the Cleve
land, has yielded 4,000,000 tons, worth $20,000,000,
On the Cars,
100 Miles west of St, Louis,
March, 1889,
Great elms and sycamores a,Iong the river banks,
and soil ten feet in depth produces 100 bushels of
corn to the acre. One farmer, a tramp twelve

6 NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS-.
years ago, owns 1200 acres of land now; last
year raised 10,000 bushels of corn and 15,0001
bushels of wheat. We saw hundreds of cattle,
crossed many ferries, and wondered at the unde
veloped wealth of America, March 13, 1890,
WlNN|PEG, 11.30 p, M, L
Gave lecture on Russia at Victoria Hall this
evening to a large audience, though it is twenty de
grees below Zero, All the people here, men and
Women, wear abundance of furs. A prairie wind
has forced me to sit close to the stove all day.
Tamarack wood costs $6,00 per cord, and coal
$6,50 per ton ; brought 600 miles. Winnepeg is
sixty miles north of our boundary, near some large
and fine lakes, with finest of wheat lands, level as
far as the eye can reach,
Here, on the Canadian Pacific Railroad, in 1882,
Winnepeg had a great boom, and prices fell flat.
Hence many vacant lots ; but, in general, public
and private buildings are as good as in Cleveland.
There are 25,000 people. Most of the money used
is foreign capital. The residents are chiefly Cana
dians from Eastern Canada. Most of the stores
and buildings are of cream-colored bricks, like
those in Milwaukee. A vast country is tributary
to Winnepeg.

NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS. ^
March i6, 1890,
En ro^ute to Grand Forks, North Dakota,
100 miles south of Winnepeg,
The road from Winnepeg to Grand Forks is
south, up the famous Red River of the North, and
the prairies are level as the sea. Snow at Winne
peg is three feet -deep. Here the rich, black ,s<3il is
in sight. Little farm buildings dot the country as
far as the eye can see. The occupants are pio
neers, and willing serfs for the well-dressed children
to be. March 30, 1890.
Lectured at Bozeman, Spokane, Walla Walla,
Victoria, Seattle, Salem, Sacramento and Fresno,
On Cars, May 4, 1896,
We left Spokane at 1 1 a, m. Every day full of
sunshine. Fifteen cars loaded on the express.
Seven trains daily leave St. Paul and Portland,
People of every class on the train seeking homes
in the sunset country. Cars hot and very dusty.
A baby in red flannel makes everybody miserable
with its fretting. Mr. A  — sits near, covered
with dust, head out of the window, watching the
engine climb over ridges in this sage-brush desert.
The ride from Bozeman to Helena and Spokane
: interesting and picturesque. Among the Rockies is

8 NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS.
Montana. Twenty-five thousand in Helena, grow
ing fast. It is built in a gulch from which early
gold diggers took $17,000,000 in gold. Many new
and costly blocks and homes. Hotels at Helena
fins. Twelve years ago the Congregational church
paid for a lot at Spokane $33,33, Last August
they sold it for $29,000, They bought for $15,000
three lots, 50 by 150, and in sixty days sold them
for $25,000, $io,ooo profit; and bought three lots
more for $12,000, on which they will build. Why
should not good people turn an honest penny?
May 5, II A, M,,
On Express Train
Between Seattle and Tacoma,
Left Seattle at 10 30 a. m, for two hours' ride to
Tacoma. The road is through a lovely, rich valley
of tall pines that brave people are clearing away.
Every few miles thrifty little towns are coming to
light. Pine logs are split into poles fifteen feet
long, and used for hops, which greatly enrich the
f.irmers. A rainy Sunday has freshened grass and
trees, and Nature seems at her best. I often wish
four other eyes could see this western slope of
America. Sky is very blue, and clouds hang pret
tily over snow-clad mountains. Fine blocks and
buildings everywhere in Seattle, Last June 6th,
date of the fire, it had 25,000; now. Phoenix-like,
it has 43,000, Cars crowded, climate lovely.

notes from northwest letters, 9
¦Walla Walla, Washington,
May 7, 1890,
Walla Walla is sixty miles east of Pasco, or 150
miles south of Spokane, in the southeast corner of
Washington, Seven thousand population. Very
fertile section, and yet the cry is, Rain ! rain !
Talked in all the schools. Buildings fine. Also
at Whitman College; 120 bright young men and
women. Asked how many here whose parents
came across the Rocky Mountains, All save two
or three raised their hands. We were driven over
the town and out to the fort. Five companies of
U. S, Infantry and 7th Cavalry Regiment, In
Walla Walla, this morning, an Indian bride with a
papoose rode a cayuse, and suddenly the pony
stopped and knelt to let the bride off, and I caught
the scene in the Kodak, . . . The Snake River,
that flows into the Columbia River, we cross ; very
large. The Columbia breaks through the Blue
Mountains. Years ago the mountain dammed the
waters back and made here an enormous sea, and
the Columbia River, third in size in the United
States, poured over the Blue Mountains, making a
cataract or falls 1000 feet high, or six times as high
as Niagara. Portland, Oregon,
Am sitting on the banks of Willamette River,
mother's silver moon full in the sky, chuich bells

10 NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS.
ringing and weather warm. Left Victoria Satur
day, 6 a. m,, and rode eighty miles up wonderful
Puget Sound to Tacoma, the N. P. R. R. city.
Left Tacoma at 8,40 yesterday morning and arrived
at Portland at 3,30 p. m. next day.
Victoria is a very beautiful city of 12,000. A
dozen real estate men at work booming this con
servative English town and prices have advanced.
A few years ago a poor Scotchman discovered coal
on the east side of Vancouver's Island, and now
the whole family is very rich. Their new home is
to cost $250,000, of stone, and one of the finest in
Canada. The outlook across the Straits of Juan
de Fuca is beautiful, with the white Olympic
Mountains in full view. He secured from British
Columbia a land grant of 1,250,000 acres; two
years ago sold 100,000 acres of fine timber at $5
per acre. May 16, 1890,
On Express near San Francisco,
Two nights and a day brought us 600 miles, out
of Oregon, over mountains, in sight all day of
majestic Shasta, down the wild upper Sacramento,
and to the capital; 40,000 population. All the
stores have verandas. Ninety degrees in the shade
yesterday. . . . Sacramento River very 'high.
Like the Nile it overflows its banks. Far and wide
rich fields and fat cattle. Long ranges of moun-

NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS. I I
tains that fade into misty blue. Large vineyards
and orchards well cared for.
Have been talking with young civil engineer on
the train. He is stationed on the famous Siskiyou
mountains. The road blocked with snow last
winter for a month. He said, "Fine sport to see
eight engines with snow-plow plunge into snow
drifted fifty feet." On the plo-w' is a "safety man
hole " into which the men dodge, if the plow tim
bers creak badly. On the Mojave Desert.
Took the 6 p. m. express for Sacramento, and we
reached Fresno at 3 a. m. All Fresno expresses
arrive and depart at this " early-bird-catch-the-
worm " hour. ... In sight are long, high
Tanges of the coast mountains that melt into soft
skies. Sage brush and struggling palms, like
scrubby pines, cover a broad old sea-bed. Sun
warm and blinding. A breeze almost removes my
eye-glasses. We now and then kodak a sage brush,
a bayonet palm or sub-tropical landscape. Reach
Santa Barbara at 7 p. m. May 25th, 1890.
We left Santa Barbara at 1 1 A. m. The railway
runs for 30 miles south in sight of the Pacific
Ocean, then southeast for 50 miles, up the Santa

12 NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS.
Clara River to Saugus on the main line (south 30
miles to Los Angeles, 200 miles north to Fresno),
The Coast Range mountains are in sight of
Santa Barbara, and the foot hills crowd the shore.
In the short valleys are snug villages near the rail
road depots. In sight, ten miles west, are three
or four large islands. The beach sandy, and kelp
along the shallow waters, A few Italians in small
boats troll for fish. The soil rich, but like most of
California needs water in summer. Latitude that
of Savannah, Ga. ; temperature about the same,
but more even.
Money, labor and irrigation develop groves of
oranges, lemons, figs and olives. Oranges from the
trees delicious. Flowers of every kind in abun
dance and large ; my room fragrant with choicest
roses, gifts from B  , an Amherst classmate, his
mother, and school children, to whom I talked, in
three big buildings. The boys and girls at matinde
came with hands full of blossoms of every color.
Near Saugus we saw the ranch that figures in
H. H.'s novel, " Ramona." Romantic! One story
(see last few pages in the book), long, and in the
midst of orange and olive groves.
Ten thousand people at Santa Barbara, a mixture
I of all nations, with large sprinkling from New Eng-
: land. No wonder my classmate calls this spot the
" Gateway to Heaven.''

NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS, I3
Sacramento, June i, 1890,
Have just come from a Chinese mission.
Several joined the church. There are looo in the
California churches. Heard them sing and pray in
Chinese, Depot, near Golden Gate Park,
San Francisco, June 8, 1890,
Have just been in the park and am waiting for
the train to go four miles further west to Cliff
House on the great Pacific Ocean, Weither bright
and cool. At 3 P, m, came by cable road three
miles west, partly out Market Street, wide and
long. Many fine streets run into Market Street at
an . angle of 45 degrees. From Oakland, 60,000
people, you cross the bay in a boat and come to
the east end of Market Street at the ferry house.
Palace, Grand, and Baldwin hotels are on Market
Street, also several newspaper offices, Chronicle,
¦Examiner, etc. Many large blocks and stores, San
Francisco, back from the bay, is built mostly on
steep sand hills ; houses largely of wood and every
possible variety of bay windows abound. The city
faces the rising sun and the sand hills west shield
the people from frequent strong, damp winds and
clouds of sand. The cable cars furnish rapid
transit to all parts of San Francisco, practically
:reducing the hills to a level.

14 NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS,
At the Park two turn-tables are in constant use,
at least just now, reversing the ends of cable cars
on several lines, and people jostle each other for
seats back to the city. Golden Gate Park has over
2,000 acres, a portion of which has been made
attractive by lawns, forests, flowers, athletic
grounds, a band park, grounds for children with
the merry-go-rounds and a score of goats and don
keys for use at five cents a ride,
I call my Kodak my "third eye," and with this I
catch pictures of ornamental bridge with stalactites
from the vaulting and of the monuments to Gar
field, and Scott Key who wrote the " Star Spangled
Banner " ; the latter of white si one and tall. Key
in bronze is beneath a canopy, and over all stands
the bronze goddess of liberty holding the stars and
stripes, I photographed a rustic bower surrounded
by marguerites. Several little children rushed into
the foreground anxious for play or to please. At
five took the steam-cars for the Cliff House. , , .
Here the yellow sand washed up and dried is
blown miles inland and would bury San Francisco
if not prevented.
I photographed the shifting sands, also the much
abused seals, and now, while I wait for lamb chop
and coffee, my heart turns Eastward.
It is 7.30 p. M. The sun has just set, yet golden
light lingers on the Golden Gate at my right, and

NOTES FROM NORTHWEST LETTERS, 15
above the sea are bands of gold and blue. Soon
they change to crimson and the mountains across
the Gate are purple, while a slight mist is visible
over the Pacific. Often I wonder what is beyond
and in the sun.

VALE
WESTERN AMERICANA
MICROFILMING PROJECT
SUPPORTH) iY tm

Graves & Henry, Printers,
Cambridge.

One hundred copies printed.

: ' ¦ , :-YALE" 'J%-,
. y/ESTERN., AMERlCAt^^v '
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