Title: The Road of a Thousand Wonders - The Coast Line—Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Company - from Los Angeles Through San Francisco, to Portland, a - Journey of One Thousand Three Hundred Miles
Author: Co, Passenger Dept. Southern Pacific
Language: English
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[Illustration: MAP]



                             THE ROAD OF A
                            THOUSAND WONDERS


The Coast Line-Shasta Route of the Southern Pacific Company from Los
Angeles Through San Francisco, to Portland, a Journey of Over One
Thousand Three Hundred Miles

          These Pages Picture and Tell of This Region and Its
            Wonders, of the Varied Charms of Sea and Sky, of
              Mountain and Valley, Field and Forest and of
                 Climatic Features Which Make Pleasant
                  All the Year; of Numberless Resorts
                     Attractive for Health-Seeking
                         Idling Enjoyment, and
                            All Out-of-Door
                               Recreation


                          PASSENGER DEPARTMENT
                        SOUTHERN PACIFIC COMPANY
                       SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
                                  1907

Sunset, the Magazine that Pictures the West and stimulates interest in
all things beyond the Rockies, here points the way of tourist travelers
to a most attractive and instructive feature in Far Western
sight-seeing—the Wondrous Rail Highway Along the Pacific, joining
California and Oregon, skirting spectacular Shasta, and over the sightly
Siskiyous to the fast-flowing Columbia, through thousands of acres of
roses and sweet peas, oranges and walnuts, wheat and hops, apples and
apricots, with new things to see at every turn, and every comfort all
the way. And don’t forget that you’ll find a continuation of this story,
and will find other stories and pictures that will prove as interesting,
in _Sunset Magazine_ every month, in every year.

And now—

  Shake hands! Kiss hands in haste to the sea
  Where the sun comes in, and mount with me
  The matchless steed of the strong New World
  As he champs and chafes with a strength untold—
  And away to the West, where the waves are curl’d,
  As they kiss white palms to the capes of gold!
                                                      —_Joaquin Miller._

[Illustration: Illustrated “A”]

A thousand wonders? The man who gave that as a result of his count
evidently dodged his task. If he’d counted all the things that set one
wondering—things God-made and hand-made, things of sky and sea, of cañon
and mountain, and field and forest—along this thirteen hundred miles of
highway he would never have stopped at a mere thousand. Ten thousand
would have been something like it, but modesty is a decent and not
over-worked virtue, and ought to be cheered wherever seen. Let it go at
a thousand and see if the glory of these wonders may be impressed upon
you. The climate is first, of course. You cannot overlook the novel joy
of a region where on New Year’s day, they battle with roses instead of
snowballs. In the country around Los Angeles they do that sort of thing
as a fixed festival, but the same floral ammunition, and the blue sky
and soft air are the winter characteristics of a hundred other places
along this road that joins Los Angeles to Portland, passing through San
Francisco—this Coast Line and Shasta Route.

[Illustration: THE BUSTLING CITY OF LOS ANGELES CROWDS CLOSELY THE OLD
MISSION CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS]

[Illustration: IN THE HEART OF LOS ANGELES WEST LAKE PARK IS AN
ATTRACTIVE RESTING PLACE]

[Illustration: FAN PALMS AND SEMI-TROPIC TREES FRINGE THE WALKS BEFORE
LOS ANGELES HOMES]

[Illustration: SQUABS BY THE MILLION, WAITING TO GO INTO PIE—A SIGHT
NEAR LOS ANGELES]

Away down in the southwest corner of this great nation of ours, behind
mountain barriers, is the sun-kissed region that draws each year to it
an army of tourists and seekers for that priceless joy that’s valued
most when it’s lost health. It’s the great Land of Out-of-Doors here,
with sunny skies and a climate that invigorates all the year around, all
the way across the mesas and tablelands of the Painted desert region,
across New Mexico and Arizona, across sandy wastes and cactus-spread
plains into the Californian oasis country, where water and wisdom have
helped make a paradise for all who believe that Nature is the best of
doctors. It’s a sunshine orgy all the way. And Los Angeles, with its
palms and olives, its crumbling adobes, side by side with thirteen-story
fire-proof steel business blocks, electric railway cars whizzing
everywhere—what a marvel of the Past, jostled by Progress! Here are
hotels of all sorts and sizes, and homes that are marvels of luxury and
elegance. Here you can study climatology and sociology, with variations;
can view the simple life through the eyes of the man whose only home is
a covered wagon; or, you can get a permit to enter the iron gateway of
the park of some retired millionaire. Los Angeles, however, with all its
charms, is only one small corner of Out-of-Door Land. The holy fathers
of Mexico and old Spain found that out over a hundred years ago, when
they started from Loreto, in Paja California, to make their mission
pilgrimage up the Alta California coast. From San Diego and Los Angeles
they headed northerly, establishing their mission stations a day’s
journey apart. In sheltered valleys, on slopes that look far to seaward,
by never-failing water courses, they planted the cross and marked out
the boundaries of their holdings. No wide roadways could be thought of,
but connecting these stations there soon was marked a broad trail—_El
Camino Real_—the Highway of the King. Perhaps—who knows?—this name was
given to do double honor—to the King of Kings, whose cross the padres
bore, and to that monarch of Castile, whose bidding they were doing in
aiding to carry his dominion into the newer world. Up the coast this
old-time highway ran and to-day the steel highway of The Road of a
Thousand Wonders follows it closely at many points, joining the missions
of Los Angeles, San Gabriel, San Fernando, San Buenaventura, Santa
Barbara, La Purisima, Santa Ynez, San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, San
Antonio, Soledad, Carmel, San Juan, Santa Cruz, and others, just as
musically named. The railway touches or runs close to all of these. At
all these spots these wise men of the long ago found attractive sites,
all under health-giving sun, and bathed by pure air, with a benign
climate the year around. At Sonoma, a little north of San Francisco, the
King’s Highway ended, but adventurous spirits pushed on northerly, up
the headwaters of the Sacramento, and over the mountains into the Oregon
wilderness, meeting before then trails of trappers and _couriers du
bois_ of the old Hudson’s Bay Company. And, over this trail of the
trappers, runs the steel highway of to-day, bearing the traveler in
comfort amid historic scenes. All of which—that well-worn Highway of the
King, the missions, the trail of the trappers—sounds like romance with a
liberal blend of realism. These twain are characteristic of all the big
West—webs of romance and realism, lines of sentiment and science
crossing and recrossing. It’s a garden land for poet or novelist.

[Illustration: THE SPHINX ROCKS IN CHATSWORTH PARK CAÑON WHICH HOLDS
MANY CURIOUS ROCK FORMATIONS]

[Illustration: A CORNER OF MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY]

[Illustration: BELLS OF THE GARDEN AT CAMULOS]

[Illustration: CAMULOS, THE HOME OF “RAMONA” HEROINE OF HELEN HUNT
JACKSON’S FAMOUS NOVEL]

[Illustration: STURDY, SHADY, OAKS, SWIFT FLOWING STREAMS AMID A WEALTH
OF GREENERY, MAKE A TINY EDEN OF THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF OJA]

Thus Joaquin Miller, poet and philosopher of California, sings:

  Behold this sea, that sapphire sky!
  Where nature does so much for man,
  Shall man not set his standard high?

And plots for novels like Helen Hunt Jackson’s “Ramona,” are lived not
at all infrequently. The old Del Valle ranch—Camulos—where the author of
“Ramona” stayed for a while—is yearly becoming a more popular
pilgrimage. It’s a quaint, low-porched, thick-walled adobe ranch-house,
close by the train—a type in its way of the California life that is
past.

[Illustration: SUGAR FROM THE SOIL—THE BEET SUGAR FACTORY AT OXNARD.]

Some years ago the books of Charles Nordhoff, correspondent and
journalistic freelance, were widely read, largely because he had the
gift of seeing and of making others see through his words with his eyes.
His letters to eastern publications were filled with his vivid pictures
of this southland country. In the snug Ojai valley, close by the Coast
Line, where now a town bears his name, he came and made his home for
many years. Here, beautifully framed by rugged mountains, is one of
Nature’s sanitariums where crowds of health seekers come annually to
enjoy the dry air, cooled to reasonable comfort by the nearness to the
sea. Not far away, traveling by the direct Coast Line from Los Angeles,
is Oxnard, site of a beet-sugar factory that sweetly influences the
freight shipments with its large annual output of the finest sugar.
Something like 23,000 tons or 46,000,000 pounds of sugar are turned out
here annually. In the regular season over 2,000 tons of beets are
handled daily.

[Illustration: ANCIENT DATE PALMS AT VENTURA, AND THE PROTECTING LODGE
BUILT BY DAUGHTERS OF THE GOLDEN WEST]

[Illustration: THE MISSION SAN BUENAVENTURA ESTABLISHED 1782]

Walnuts, olives, oranges, beet-sugar and beans are the notable features
of orchard and field in the region about San Buenaventura. The old
mission, in excellent preservation, established in 1782, is still used
as the parish church for that region. All the way from here to Santa
Barbara and beyond, the traveler is continuously under the spell of the
sea, for the track skirts the coast upon the bluff high above the
booming surf, by ever-changing pictures of clouds and sea and sky, with
an occasional steamer or sailing craft to give them life. Along here is
Carpinteria, an old Spanish settlement, which possesses among its
features of interest, an ancient trellised grape vine, nearly three feet
in diameter at its base. At Summerland there is a veritable forest of
oil derricks stretching along the beach, many of them in the surf and
even at sea far beyond the low tide mark.

[Illustration: THIS IS THE LARGEST GRAPEVINE IN THE WORLD—SIXTY YEARS
OLD—TEN TONS OF GRAPES IS ITS RECORD CROP]

A vivid contrast to Summerland’s forest of derricks is Miramar, by the
sea, as its name suggests. It is a colony of summer and winter homes,
with climbing roses, and palms and tropical foliage waving in the
gardens all about. Miramar is a suburb of Santa Barbara, as is
Montecito, another charming foothill site for country homes.

[Illustration: WHERE OIL AND WATER ALMOST MIX—DERRICKS AT SUMMERLAND
WHERE OIL IS PUMPED FROM BENEATH THE OCEAN]

[Illustration: AT MIRAMAR THE TRAIN SPEEDS BETWEEN BANKS OF BRILLIANT
AND SWEET SCENTED BLOOM]

[Illustration: THE VALE OF MONTECITO, FAIREST OF FOOTHILL FANCIES HAS A
SEMI-TROPIC CHARACTER WITH ITS ORANGE, OLIVE AND LEMON GROVES, ITS
FLOURISHING PALMS AND FLOWER-SET RESIDENCES]

And then Santa Barbara, peerless among all-the-year-round resorts. It is
backed by mountains that rise high above the city and shelter it from
every wind, facing a channel and bay of remarkable beauty and calmness,
with a temperature of wonderful equability, with groves of oranges and
olives and lemons, with the tropic foliage of date-palms and bananas,
magnolia, oleander and other graceful trees and shrubs, with unrivaled
gardens of perpetual bloom and fragrance: easy of access, unexcelled for
its schools and libraries, with social advantages among people of
culture and cheerful living. The place has ever been a favorite winter
resort for health tourists, and in summer Californians have long
frequented this beautiful coast city, with its remarkable stretch of
bathing beach and its charming walks and mountain drives, its
opportunities for athletics and all out-of-door sports.

[Illustration: AT SANTA BARBARA THE ARLINGTON IS A FAVORITE RESTING
PLACE BOTH WINTER AND SUMMER]

[Illustration: DOWN BY THE SEA AT SANTA BARBARA THE POTTER GREETS AN
ARMY OF GUESTS ALL THE YEAR]

[Illustration: AN OCEAN BOULEVARD, DRIVEWAY AND PROMENADE COMBINED,
EXTENDS FOR MILES ALONG SANTA BARBARA’S ATTRACTIVE BEACH]

[Illustration: THE BOULEVARD LEADS TO A BATH-HOUSE OF UNIQUE DESIGN—LOS
BANOS—CLOSE BY THE SEA]

[Illustration: SANTA BARBARA RESIDENCES ARE DESIGNED TO CONFORM TO THE
SEMI-TROPIC SETTING OF TREES AND FLOWERS]

[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD STATION AT SANTA BARBARA IS
SUITABLY BUILT IN MISSION STYLE]

The hotels are first-class in their equipment, the principal ones being
the Arlington and the Potter. The new railway station of the Southern
Pacific has been built close by the Potter, and the city grows close
about it. The hotel grounds are elaborately laid out, running down to
the long boulevard that fringes the stretch of perfect ocean beach.
Close by is a well-equipped bath-house, with the ocean itself as an
annex for more ambitious swimmers. The population of Santa Barbara and
suburbs is made up very largely of people world and climate-weary,
driven by stress of storm or cold from more rigorous climes. Here, upon
these foothills, surrounded by Nature’s lavish bounty, they have built
their homes, prepared to face their future in climatic comfort. The
city’s chief attraction is Mission Santa Barbara. The church is of
dressed stone and adobe, with massive walls heavily buttressed. The
towers yet shelter the chime of bells, and the famous garden with its
fountain, so often pictured, still fills the air with fragrance.
Buildings have been carefully preserved, and form to-day the most
interesting and imposing of all the California missions. The average
annual winter temperature here is fifty-four degrees; the summer,
sixty-five. Seldom does the temperature rise above eighty degrees or go
below forty, but there’s a tonic of new life in the air, even though it
has no month so cold as April at Atlantic City, nor any month so warm as
New York’s June. Here Stewart Edward White, the man who wrote “The
Mountains,” that stirring epic of Out-of-Doors, has his year-around
home. To seaward from Santa Barbara can be seen the Channel islands,
wondrous isles for fishermen and tourists. The marvelous caves running
in from the sea, the seal, the Indian relics, the plants and trees, are
all of strange interest. The run up the coast from Santa Barbara to
Surf, and nearly all the way to San Luis Obispo, is, to him who loves
the sea, a never-ending source of delight.

[Illustration: AT MISSION SANTA BARBARA (ESTABLISHED 1782) THE BEST
PRESERVED OF THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS]

[Illustration: THE BELFRY OF MISSION SANTA BARBARA—THE BELLS HERE WERE
SENT FROM SPAIN A CENTURY AGO]

At Elwood, one passes the pioneer olive farm of Mr. Ellwood Cooper, who
came here from Boston over a quarter century ago, when olive oil, oil
pickles and kindred industries were almost unknown in this country as
commercial enterprises.

All this region, the rolling hills to the east and the high plateau that
runs far out on the Point Concepcion peninsula, once formed the domain
of the native Californians, many of them grandees of old Spain. Like
lords of the Middle Ages these land-holders held large possessions under
grant from the king, ranging their stock over vast ranches of from fifty
thousand to one hundred thousand acres. Of such was El Cojo rancho
around Point Concepcion; the Santa Margarita, El Sur, Piedra Blanca, and
a hundred others. These ranches are being cut up very rapidly to satisfy
the demands of increasing population and of appreciative home-seekers.
To these old families California to-day is indebted for many musical
names—Arguello, Castro, Estudillo, Pacheco, Vallejo, Peralta, Alvarado,
and many others are here, the lingering of early-day nomenclature amid
the present made-over maps.

[Illustration: THE CHAPEL DOOR AT SANTA BARBARA]

Beyond Point Concepcion, to the east are two of California’s most
fertile valleys, the Lompoc and the Santa Ynez, fruitful, progressive,
ideal locations for the farmer and fruit-raiser. Here, too, are located,
two of the most interesting of California’s missions, La Purisima
Concepcion and Santa Ynez. La Purisima mission is reached from Lompoc by
way of Surf, and Santa Ynez from Los Olivos, by way of San Luis Obispo,
or from Gaviota, by a picturesque highway, leading over the mountains,
through the Gaviota pass, and close by the wildly beautiful cañon and
falls of Najoqui.

[Illustration: THE PAINTED CAVE ON SANTA CRUZ ISLAND RIVALS THE BLUE
GROTTO OF CAPRI IN ITS COLORING OF ROCK AND WAVE-DEEP IN ITS VAULTED
CHAMBERS SEALS AND SEA LIONS MAKE THEIR HOME]

[Illustration: THE LIGHTHOUSE AT POINT CONCEPCION IS ON THE SHELF OF A
SURF-BEATEN CLIFF THAT RISES TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FEET ABOVE THE SEA]

[Illustration: AT EL PIZMO BEACH IS A NEW HOTEL WITH ATTRACTIVE COTTAGES
AND TENTS]

Down San Buenaventura way the traveler has seen beans in thousand-acre
tracts, beans by the million, shipped in sacks to help out the world’s
food supply. Along here, at Occano and Arroyo Grande, enterprising
seedsmen are growing peas, peas by the million, but they are sweet peas,
whose value is in the blossom and not in the pod. It is a sight worth
crossing many continents to look upon—a sweet-pea farm in full bloom. A
resort near Oceano is El Pizmo beach, over twenty miles long and several
hundred yards wide—as pretty a piece of sand stretch as uncle Neptune
ever bade his ocean minions to build. The pounding waves of countless
centuries have here rolled the white sand upon a firm, gentle slope
forming a bathing beach large enough to wash half the world upon, while
forming an automobile speedway that can hardly be surpassed and that is
largely patronized. And a good part of the world is learning about El
Pizmo, surely and enthusiastically. An elaborate resort hotel has been
built here; attractive cottages have gone up on the sand dunes here
about, and a tent city has been built. Near here, too, is La Grande
beach, a wonderful sight to see.

[Illustration: THE COAST NORTH OF SANTA BARBARA IS RUGGED AND WILD. WITH
THE SURF POUNDING RESTLESSLY UPON JAGGED ROCKS AND HEADLANDS]

[Illustration: MISSION LA PURISMA CONCEPCION. IN THE BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF
LOMPOC—THE OLD RAFTERS, WITH THEIR RAWHIDE LASHINGS, STILL REMAIN AND
KINDLY HANDS ARE PRESERVING AND RESTORING THE BUILDING]

From far away the traveler approaching San Luis Obispo—the city whose
mission was named by the Franciscans to honor the memory of their
beloved bishop of Tolosa—sees a series of mountains that make him wonder
if he is in the land of the Ptolemys. There are few more interesting or
stranger formations than these pyramids that form the setting of San
Luis Obispo; one that is peculiarly cleft, suggests a bishop’s miter,
and this quaint freak of nature is said to have inspired the Padre
Lasuen to give the city its name. The well laid out city is finely
built, with many shade trees, well made roads, excellent water system,
electric light and gas. In location it resembles Los Angeles, though it
is nearer the ocean. The summer temperature has a maximum of ninety-four
degrees; the winter minimum is thirty-two degrees. Lemon and orange
trees thrive and roses bloom the year around. The many drives include a
twelve-mile ride to El Pizmo, already described, a seven-mile trip to
the famous San Luis Hot Springs with its sulphur plunge and baths
located amid a beautiful sycamore grove, a nine-mile journey to Avila
beach, near Port Harford, a fourteen-mile excursion to the famous Morro,
with its singular rock towering above the ocean, and a seven-mile ride
up Reservoir Cañon. In the heart of the town is the old mission, founded
in 1772.

[Illustration: ON THE GRADE TO SAN LUIS OBISPO HOT SPRINGS]

[Illustration: FISHERMAN’S COVE NEAR SAN LUIS OBISPO—A FAMOUS RESORT FOR
ANGLERS, AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL]

[Illustration: A SECTION OF MISSION SAN LUIS OBISPO TO-DAY, SHOWING THE
SUBSTANTIAL CONSTRUCTION]

From San Luis Obispo northerly, the railway climbs the Santa Lucia
mountains, spurs of the Coast Range, noted for the beauty of their
cañons, their oak-clad hillsides, their trout streams, their wild
flowers in springtime, with marvelous bits of highland scenery at every
curve of the road. The train comes close to playing crack-the-whip at
several points over the Santa Lucia grade, and one may see at frequent
intervals, far below, the track which the train has just covered. Down
the upper or northern slope of the Santa Lucias the train enters the
Salinas valley, producer of wheat, of fruit, of stock—one of the oldest
settled and best known of the paradise valleys of the state. It is
narrow here at this upper end, with heavily wooded slopes and hundreds
of streams that come tumbling down to the Salinas river which flows in a
northerly direction to the beautiful bay of Monterey.

[Illustration: THE MISSION OF SANTA YNEZ, NEAR LOS OLIVOS, STILL
PRESERVES MUCH OF ITS OLD-TIME OUTLINE]

[Illustration: CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL NEAR SAN LUIS OBISPO, WHERE
DIPLOMAS IN USEFULNESS ARE AWARDED]

[Illustration: LONELY MORRO ROCK, THE HAUNT OF SEAL AND SEA FOWL.]

[Illustration: NEARING HORSESHOE CURVE—AFTER LEAVING SAN LUIS OBISPO THE
TRAIN CLIMBS THE SANTA LUCIA RANGE—MARVELOUS SCENES AT EVERY TURN]

At Atascadero one may see the maneuvering ground of a recent encampment
of national guard and regular army soldiers. If men who go to war could
have their choice of an ideal camping and fighting country they would
surely select a spot like this, with plenty of shade, plenty of water,
rolling hills for defense, and ambuscades of chaparral and manzanita on
the hillsides for shelter. This site is one of several recommended for
one of five permanent army camps, where volunteers and regulars may be
drilled side by side. Another is the great Nacimiento ranch that lies
beyond the Mission San Miguel.

Beyond this point the valley broadens and the road enters the hot spring
region, in the center of which is El Paso de Robles, the “pass of the
oaks.” Here at Paso Robles and at Santa Ysabel, close at hand, are
mineral springs of all sorts and temperature, clay-mud, sand, iron,
sulphur, soda, lithia; all within a small area as if marshaled for the
healing of the nations. The elevation is 720 feet above sea level, about
that of Carlsbad, Baden-Baden, or Kissingen. A flowing well furnishes
2,000,000 gallons daily of hot sulphur water, excellent for both
internal and external uses. The hot lithia spring is 124 degrees; the
great sulphur spring 107 degrees. The sanitary value of these wonderful
founts of healing was recognized long ago, and every season seekers for
health come to be cured, as the sufferers of France make pilgrimage to
Lourdes; the dry air, the sunshine, the healing waters from Nature’s
laboratory soon make the patient feel as good as new.

[Illustration: MITER MOUNT—ONE OF THE MANY WONDERS OF THE SANTA LUCIA
MOUNTAINS WITH THEIR OAK-CLAD HILLSIDES AND INVITING CAÑONS WHERE EVERY
CURVE SUGGESTS AN IDEAL HOMESITE FOR YOUR CASTLE IN SPAIN]

The hotel here fulfils a joint mission, entertaining recreation-seekers
as well as those looking for the boon of health. It is a modern,
elaborately equipped hotel, with every twentieth-century convenience,
and an annex that expresses the last word, architecturally and
scientifically, in the line of a bath house. It is completely fitted for
the use of all modern water cures. It cost over $100,000. Into it has
gone the thought and suggestion of the best authorities in hydrotherapy.
The baths are fitted with a splendor that suggests the bathing luxuries
of ancient Rome—pure white marble from Carrara, glazed white tiles,
“novus” glass for the mud baths, porcelain tubs, spotless woodwork. All
the patients are scientifically treated by a competent physician, expert
in the methods of securing the most effective results from water
treatment. The latest apparatus has been secured, and nothing in the
scientific application of water, hot-air, hot-mud, vapor, or
electricity, is wanting. Paso Robles is the center for many interesting
drives, and time runs rapidly driving, riding or automobiling about the
hills, to the seacoast, or to Mission San Miguel. Any of these drives
among the hills, under the oaks out in the sunshine, will produce
results that any doctor would be proud to send a bill for.

[Illustration: SUNSET AMONG THE OAKS AND SYCAMORES THAT BORDER LAKE
YSABEL]

Beyond San Miguel and its mission, quaint and interesting, is Bradley,
where there are large coal deposits, and oil experts look wise when they
rove in this region. Westward from San Lucas and King City is the Jolon
valley and the San Antonio country, in the heart of which is the Mission
San Antonio de Padua, established 1771, one of the most ambitious in
architecture of these citadels of faith. It has crumbled sadly from lack
of care, but the restoring hands of the Landmarks Club are planning to
put the old pile in the best order possible for preservation. More hot
springs are close by; the Paraiso, reached by stage from Soledad, near
where is Mission de Maria Santisima de la Soledad, established 1791. Two
hours’ drive away is one of the wonders of the trip, Vancouver’s
Pinnacles, now a government forest reserve. Here are vast piles of rock,
that form an interesting study to the geologist and naturalist.
Vancouver, exploring this region long ago, is credited with the
discovery of this strange grove of granite and basalt monuments. Going
on, the Spreckels beet-sugar refinery, the largest in the world, is seen
to the west, just south of Salinas. Every season more than 200,000 tons
of beets go into the capacious mouths of this modern monster that works
a chemical miracle—turning raw root product into finest sugar. The
output last season (1906) was close to 30,000 tons of sugar. The
factory’s daily capacity is 3,000 tons of beets. Over 20,000 acres are
planted to sugar beets, annually.

[Illustration: NEW BATH HOUSE AT PASO ROBLES HOT SPRINGS, PERFECTLY
EQUIPPED WITH ALL THE LATEST DEVICES FOR MAKING THESE HEALING WATERS AS
HELPFUL AS SCIENCE CAN SUGGEST FOR TREATMENT OF ALL AILMENTS]

Salinas is the county seat of Monterey county and a big shipping point,
sending vegetable products of the valley away to the markets of the
world. Along here the road trends oceanward once more, the pure ozone of
the Pacific, fresh blown by the never failing trade winds across
thousands of miles of sparkling foam, tempers the warmth of the summer
day with tonic effect and the air once again has the tang of the salt
sea. Castroville is not far from it, and Hotel Del Monte’s park-like
grounds skirt the ocean’s shore for miles. Close by is old Monterey,
where Commodore Sloat first raised the stars and stripes in California;
where the constitution of the state was formulated; where to-day are
some of the best preserved of the tile-roofed adobe buildings of early
California. The entire Monterey peninsula, with its Pacific Grove—the
Chautauqua of California—in a pine forest by the sea, amid which is set
its Hotel El Carmelo; the famed Seventeen-Mile drive from Del Monte all
around it, under ancient cypresses of weird form and unknown history;
the Presidio of Monterey close at hand, one of the largest of government
army posts; with Carmel-by-the-Sea, a picturesque colony of artistic
homes clustered about the old Carmel mission—all form a wonderland for
the tourist traveler, where many days, profitable and pleasant, may be
passed.

[Illustration: HOTEL EL PASO DE ROBLES, WHERE ARE HOT SPRINGS OF
WONDERFUL CURATIVE POWER]

[Illustration: MISSION SAN MIGUEL ARCANGEL—CLOSE TO THE PASSING
TRAIN—HERE, SINCE 1797, THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH HAVE LABORED IN WELL
DOING]

At Hotel Del Monte one meets guests from the four corners of the earth,
for the resort is one of the recognized stopping places of interest on
the world’s highway. Here are all sorts of opportunities for recreation,
chief among them being the eighteen-hole golf course, laid out on the
oak-shaded hillside fronting Monterey bay. You can play golf here all
the year. The activities of the sport never prove fatiguing nor even
irksome, the temperature is never too high, cool breezes from the sea
are always present, and disagreeable weather never interferes with a
game. The links, only a short distance from the hotel, are the finest on
the coast, if not in the country. The greens are kept in the best
possible condition; water being piped to all of them and men constantly
employed in cutting and rolling. All the fashionable tennis, polo and
automobile clubs make Del Monte their headquarters. The race track is
for gentlemen’s races, and famous events occur at intervals, summer and
winter. Health and comfort, but always health, were the first thoughts
of the designer of Del Monte. The advantages in and about Del Monte and
Monterey are to be noted—the favorable and uniform conditions of the
weather, constant ozone, tonic and balsamic odors from the pine forests;
excellent and unusual drainage; pure water brought in pipes from the
upper Carmel river; all forming a combination not found elsewhere. The
result is best shown by medical reports from the Fifteenth Infantry,
lately stationed at the Presidio. In the three years’ time, among over
two thousand people, only one death occurred from natural causes, and
that resulting from dissipation. The winter race track at Del Monte is a
mile course, and admirably suited for the accommodation of the strings
of eastern horsemen. In season, salmon fishing on Monterey bay forms an
exciting and popular diversion.

[Illustration: THE ROMANTIC RUINS OF SOLEDAD—THE MISSION OF
SOLITUDE—FOUNDED IN 1791—HERE THE FRIARS BUILT AN AQUEDUCT EIGHT MILES
IN LENGTH]

[Illustration: RUINS OF MISSION SAN ANTONIA DE PADUA (1771) IN THE
CENTER OF A FERTILE AND FRUITFUL VALLEY]

[Illustration: VANCOUVER’S PINNACLES—HERE IN A WONDERLAND TEN MILES
SQUARE THE MOUNTAINS ARE CLEFT AND RIVEN INTO GIANT DOMES AND MIGHTY
MONOLITHS, SPIRES AND TURRETS, VAST CAVES AND SUBTERRANEAN PASSAGES]

All this by-the-sea region, including the coast northerly to San
Francisco, is the luring ground of achievement for the photographer and
artist. The art colony of Monterey and vicinity is widely known.
Canvases painted here, depicting the charm of sunlight and sea, among
the live-oaks and the cypresses, telling the romantic story of crumbling
adobes or impressions of tumbling waves on the ocean’s strand, are found
in the art collections of eastern cities and the Old World. Peters,
Dickman, Jorgensen, McComas, Hunter, Fonda, Gamble, Ivey, Mathews,
Briggs, McCormick, are among the best known of these painters. Around
Monterey bay the road passes to Santa Cruz through Watsonville and the
Pajaro valley—the principal apple-producing regions of California,
qualities of soil and salt air and temperature being here united to
produce fruits that bring prizes at all horticultural shows.

[Illustration: AT THE MISSION SAN JUAN BAUTISTA (1797)—THE BUILDING AND
ITS ENVIRONMENT REFLECT MORE FAITHFULLY THE EARLY LIFE OF THE SPANISH
PADRES THAN ANY IN THE STATE]

Santa Cruz, “city of the holy cross,” is the Newport or Atlantic City of
the state, with its long stretches of beach, its seaside hotels all the
way from Capitola and beyond, and its attractive homes on the hillsides
that look out over the ocean blue. Here, too, is a tent city, a new
pavilion, casino and bathhouse, recently constructed at an expenditure
of somewhere near a quarter million dollars. Crowds gather here every
summer and the place is fast winning recognition as a winter resort; a
modern city for health and recreation in season. Fishing sportsmen make
their headquarters here, too, salmon fishing being one of the sports
that attracts them here especially; the salmon being a fighting foe that
makes the sport fully as attractive as tuna or tarpon in other
better-known fishing grounds. Capitola, Santa Maria del Mar, Seabright,
the Twin Lakes park, and other points close at hand, connected by
electric railway, are all attractive spots where the idler may spend
weeks of enjoyment. From Santa Cruz, northerly, the road runs through
the Santa Cruz mountains, a region of country homes and farms, famed for
their table grapes, for their prunes and apricots and apples. The big
redwood trees (sequoia sempervirens) of these mountains invariably
attract the stranger. One can see many of these close by the train, but
if the traveler has the time, the trip to Big Basin Park, a preserve set
apart by the state, will show a forest display never to be forgotten.

[Illustration: THE OLD CUSTOM HOUSE OF MONTEREY—WHERE COMMODORE SLOAT
RAISED THE AMERICAN FLAG OVER CALIFORNIA]

[Illustration: THE FIRST THEATER IN CALIFORNIA—A TYPE OF THE ADOBE
BUILDINGS OF OLD MONTEREY—JENNY LIND—THEY SAY—SANG HERE IN THE
‘FIFTIES’]

[Illustration: A SWAN FLOTILLA OF LAGUNA DEL REY. DEL MONTE]

[Illustration: AT THE EIGHTEENTH HOLE, DEL MONTE GOLF LINKS]

Keeping to the main road, northerly, from Monterey the traveler soon
enters the great Santa Clara valley, passing not far from the well
preserved Mission San Juan Bautista, established 1797. Through the
valley, fertile and fruitful, parks of live oak and the seed
farms—thousands of acres of sweet peas, of marketable bulbs, vegetable
and floral—form the noticeable features. And these live oaks of
California are marvelous. They are ever green like those of Palestine.
Here are oaks that may have served as roofs to Indian council halls,
with closely-lapping leaves that shed the rain and hide the sun, with
branches that spread so wide and bow so low that they seem like great
sheltering arms that both caress and protect. And then come the prune
orchards, for this is the great prune producing valley of California. In
Santa Clara county alone are planted more than five million prune trees.
In the center of this orchard valley is San Jose, one of the oldest and
most attractive cities of California. Here are excellent tourist
resorts, the Hotel Vendome and the St. James, and up the mountains to
the east one may see the white dome that shelters the great Lick
telescope on Mount Hamilton. San Jose is a wide-awake city, with
smoothly paved streets, attractive parks, excellent schools and all
advantages of a cultured up-to-date community, including electric
railroads and libraries.

From San Jose the road continues through the Santa Clara valley, up the
San Mateo and San Francisco peninsula, one of the most attractive
sections of California. Here are more suburban residences, some with
vineyards and orchards, all with superbly kept lawns. Palo Alto is the
site of the Stanford University, a marvel among the colleges by reason
of its rapid development, its wonderful endowment, aggregating
$30,000,000, and its superb equipment of buildings and men. Burlingame,
San Mateo and Redwood, fill for San Francisco much the place that Lenox
or Brookline do for Boston with people of wealth and culture.

[Illustration: HERE IS A PICTURE OF HOTEL DEL MONTE AND ITS GROVES AND
GARDENS AS THEY APPEAR AT CHRISTMAS TIME]

[Illustration: LAGUNA DEL REY ONE OF THE CHARMS OF THE HOTEL DEL MONTE’S
FAMOUS GROUNDS—HERE SWANS FLOAT WITH GRACEFUL DIGNITY AND CHARMING
VISTAS AND REFLECTIONS MEET THE EYE IN EVERY DIRECTION]

[Illustration: AN ANCIENT CYPRESS TREE ON THE PACIFIC GROVE PENINSULA]

In San Francisco—righting itself rapidly since the great disaster of
April 18-20, 1906—one may readily pass two weeks or more in diversified
pleasure, entertainment and instruction. Here is a city of 500,000,
eighth among the cities of the United States at the last census and in
line for sixth place. Everywhere the demands of trade and of modern
civilization are crowding the city. In its harbor the ships of war of
all the nations of the world could float, with room and to spare. The
climate welcomes the health-seeker and the man who would live out of
doors all the year. The fast-growing city, with buildings going up
everywhere to replace those lost in the big fire, is the heart of the
state. Real estate sales and clearing-house figures, assessor’s
valuations, all show the city’s present progress. Still westward across
the Pacific to the Philippines, to Japan, to the Orient; southerly to
Hawaii, to Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia; northerly to British
Columbia, the Alaskan archipelago, Cape Nome, and the gold region of the
Klondike, the advancing commercial movement tends. In the nine months
following the disaster, to February 1907, building permits aggregated
$40,128,753, while bank clearings have gained steadily, amounting for
example to $204,512,323 for January, 1907, compared to $185,519,862 for
January, 1906. Here most decidedly is a city of destiny. Here is the
soft air and blue sky of Italy, the views of Naples, the hills of Rome,
the winter climate of the Riviera, and people who, in the face of
severest stress have shown themselves possessed of the combined
attributes of New England energy and Oriental luxury.

[Illustration: MISSION SAN CARLOS DEL RIO CARMELO. NEAR HOTEL DEL MONTE
AND CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA]

Things are moving here, and busy men are learning only of progress, of
advances in value, of chances for investment while over all and around
all, is a climate of comfort, of chances for out-of-door exercise and
daily pleasures all the year round. Here is sunshine almost every day;
here one can utilize every moment for business or pleasure. The Weather
Bureau records show that the city averages 294 sunshiny days a year.

[Illustration: SANTA CRUZ BOASTS A FAMOUS ROADWAY—THE CLIFF DRIVE]

[Illustration: AMONG THE BIG TREES OF THE SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS—ALL OF
THE TREES IN THIS GROVE BEAR DISTINGUISHED NAMES]

        _In the forest, sweet_
  _The shade, the peace! Immensity that seems_
  _To drown the human life of doubts and dreams._
                                                                 —_SILL_

[Illustration: LICK OBSERVATORY’S GREAT TELESCOPE—THIS LENS IS THREE
FEET IN DIAMETER AND THE SECOND LARGEST IN THE WORLD]

[Illustration: THE PLACE TO SEE OTHER WORLDS IF YOU ARE TIRED OF THIS
ONE—THE LICK OBSERVATORY ON MOUNT HAMILTON]

For all of California’s richness, San Francisco is the centering point.
It is upon the west shore of San Francisco bay, a land-locked harbor
that has been both the pride and marvel of navigators ever since
Lieutenant Juan De Ayala, in August, 1775, sailed in to the harbor
through the Golden Gate and told the world of its wonders. The coming of
the padres and the founding of the Mission was the virtual founding of
the city, for about the Mission soon grew the small settlement of Yerba
Buena. Then on January 19, 1848, came the discovery of gold. Within two
years over 100,000 adventurous men came, and many remained to help
upbuild San Francisco and California. Across the bay on the eastern
shore is Oakland, third city on the coast, with its 175,000 people. It
is a city of slopes covered with charming homes, spreading northward to
the city of Berkeley, seat of the great University of California and
noteworthy for its loveliness. Southward and adjoining is Alameda. These
sister cities perhaps unexcelled in the world as a residence section,
are now assuming great business importance also. San Francisco’s
commerce increases steadily. In the great fire of April, all the water
front with the wharves and steamer docks, was untouched. The harbor of
San Francisco is a wonder among harbors, the bay and its connections
extending north and south for about forty miles, affording anchorage for
the merchant fleets of the world. It is entered through the Golden Gate,
a passage five miles long, and one mile in width at its narrowest
portion. These straits within recent years, 1890 to 1904, have been
fortified with the most approved ordnance, and the fortifications are
recognized by military experts as among the best defenses of any city of
the nation. Within the bay, several islands are controlled by the
government and fortified, while at the Government Navy Yard, and at Mare
Island, north of the city, and at the Union Iron Works, on the
peninsula, are docks capable of receiving modern warships. Here at the
Union Iron Works have been built some of the crack ships of the navy,
including the cruisers Charleston, San Francisco, Olympia, the
battleships Oregon, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and a number of
smaller craft.

[Illustration: THE CITY OF SAN JOSE HAS MANY MILES OF SMOOTHLY PAVED
STREETS AND ELECTRIC RAILWAYS—THIS IS ONE OF THE MAIN THOROUGHFARES WITH
ST. JAMES’ PARK, A SHADY GARDEN SPOT, TO THE RIGHT]

[Illustration: HOTEL VENDOME AT SAN JOSE, WHERE YOU CAN SPEND ANY DAY OF
THE YEAR WITH COMFORT INDOORS OR OUT]

[Illustration: THE MUSEUM—LELAND STANFORD JR. UNIVERSITY AT PALO ALTO]

[Illustration: THE BURLINGAME COUNTRY CLUB—CALIFORNIA’S FAMOUS
RENDEZVOUS FOR OUT-OF-TOWN FUNCTIONS—POLO IS ONE OF ITS GREAT RESOURCES]

[Illustration: BENEATH THE BLUE OF SAN FRANCISCO SKIES THE ITALIAN
FISHERMEN’S PICTURESQUE CRAFT HELP TO MAKE CLEAR THE CITY’S TITLE—THE
NAPLES OF THE PACIFIC]

[Illustration: VAN NESS AVENUE, SAN FRANCISCO’S NEW SHOPPING
THOROUGHFARE—THE STORES, WHILE OF HASTY DESIGN, HOLD WARES RIVALLING
THOSE OF ANY METROPOLIS AND THE AVENUE ITSELF IS A FASHIONABLE RESORT
FOR BOULEVARDIERS]

[Illustration: LOOKING WESTWARD THROUGH THE GOLDEN GATE]

As Vesuvius is to Naples, so is Tamalpais to San Francisco, though the
menace is missing, the crater no longer shows the signal cloud of sullen
fires. Its extinct volcanic summit rears itself 2,590 feet above sea
level, as one looks across the bay from the city. Up its slopes runs a
railway that is a marvel of engineering construction. It’s quite the
popular thing to hie away to the eyrie tavern on the crest of this
mountain, there to be alone with the sea and sky and one’s thoughts.
Gertrude Atherton’s latest novel was written amid these surroundings.
Around the base of this mountain are sheltered slopes on which are the
homes of San Francisco residents; across the bay, by Oakland, Berkeley
and Alameda, the home district runs.

[Illustration: EVERYONE HAS HEARD OF SAN FRANCISCO’S CLIFF HOUSE AND THE
SEAL ROCKS—HERE, EVERY HOLIDAY, GAY CROWDS PICNIC ON THE SANDS, BATHE IN
THE BREAKERS AND WATCH THE SPORTIVE SEA LIONS]

[Illustration: “TO-MORROW WILL BE FRIDAY”—GREEK FISHERMEN MENDING THEIR
NETS]

[Illustration: UNION SQUARE—SAN FRANCISCO, THE CENTER OF THE BUSINESS
SECTION, WHERE RAPID RECONSTRUCTION HAS ALREADY PROVIDED THE NUCLEUS OF
THE NEW CITY]

Heading northerly, crossing San Francisco bay, the road skirts the
eastern shore passing Selby’s where gold quartz is transformed into
bullion; the Mare Island Navy Yard, the naval center of the coast; by
big grain-shipping warehouses and across Carquinez straits. The train at
this point goes upon a monster ferry that carries it over the swift
inflow of the Sacramento river. Here at Benicia is the government
arsenal, then comes the duck country—the famous Suisun marshes. Across
the straits from Benicia shows the summit of Mount Diablo, 3,849 feet,
meridian base for this region. Near by, are the fruitful San Ramon and
Alhambra valleys. Close by is Byron Hot Springs, a famed resort for
invalids. Along the shore of the Sacramento river is Stockton, famed for
its manufactures, also the towns of Vacaville, Woodland and Winters, all
of them thrifty and rapidly growing centers of California’s fruit
industry.

[Illustration: THE FERRIES THAT PLY ACROSS THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO FORM
A CHARACTERISTIC PICTURE]

At Sacramento, the capital of California, one may spend a few days
enjoying the soft air, the semi-tropical foliage, the orange and the
olive and the palm, or perhaps getting a glimpse of Sutter’s Fort,
notable in California history. It was to this point that John Marshall
brought in January, 1848, the news, so soon to travel far and wide, of
the discovery of gold in the millrace at Coloma. The fort is now a
museum maintained by the orders of the Native Sons and Daughters of the
Golden West. Here are stored reminiscences of the past; among them an
old stage coach, riddled with bullets—placed there by ambitious
highwaymen, and a prairie schooner with its old equipment reminds one of
early overland history.

[Illustration: UP THE INCLINE OF THE CROOKEDEST RAILWAY IN THE
WORLD—CLIMBING MOUNT TAMALPAIS]

[Illustration: THE MISSION DOLORES, SAN FRANCISCO—ESTABLISHED 1776]

[Illustration: THIS IS A LILY POND IN THE GROUNDS OF ONE OF OAKLAND’S
FOREMOST RESIDENTS]

[Illustration: ON THE FOOT-HILLS OF THE COAST RANGE IN OAKLAND, ACROSS
THE BAY FROM SAN FRANCISCO, ARE MANY BEAUTIFUL HOMES—HERE IS ONE OF
THEM]

Sacramento is a modern city with many miles of electric railway and
paved streets running out to suburban orange and olive groves in the
attractive suburbs, and past the capitol building and surrounding park.
In the Crocker art gallery, established more than thirty years ago by
Judge E. B. Crocker and Mrs. Crocker is a notable collection of
paintings well worth the time of inspection by the art connoisseur. In
this gallery of seven hundred paintings, chiefly by foreign artists, are
to be found some of the canvases of Van Dyck, Murillo, Guido Reni,
Salvator Rosa, Correggio, Tintorretto, Leonardo da Vinci, Luini, Sir
Peter Lely and others, and some fine examples from Piloty, Kaulbach,
Thomas Hill and other modern masters. In addition, are many folios of
inestimable value, containing original drawings from old and modern
masters which were secured from the studios and collectors in Europe
during the Franco-Prussian war. There is also exhibited in the building
a large and valuable collection of minerals, in cabinets, the property
of the state of California. The gallery is open every day.

[Illustration: THE CLAREMONT THE BEAUTIFUL HOTEL OF OAKLAND—BERKELEY]

[Illustration: IN TIME OF PEACE PREPARE FOR WAR—DRILLING BLUE-JACKETS AT
MARE ISLAND NAVY YARD]

[Illustration: CROSSING CARQUINEZ STRAITS—THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC FERRY
BOAT “SOLANO.” THE LARGEST TRAIN FERRY IN THE WORLD]

[Illustration: THE DUCK SHOOTING ON THE SUISUN MARSHES IS FAMOUS—MANY
PRIVATE GUN CLUBS HAVE THEIR PRESERVES HERE AND RECORD BAGS OF SPRIG AND
MALLARD, TEAL AND CANVASBACK ARE SELDOM WANTING]

From Sacramento there are numerous side-trips up into the gold mine
region of California, to Grass Valley, Oroville, Placerville—regions
that are known largely through the fascinating writings of Bret Harte.
Around Oroville and along the Feather river may be seen that marvel of
gold mining, the electric dredger. These monster burrowers are here
eating their way steadily into the gold-bearing soil. In many places
this work is going on industriously in the center of profitable bearing
orchards, but the gold from within is found by this process to yield to
greater profit than the golden fruit produced by trees on the surface.
And then from Sacramento the great valley broadens out. To the north is
the vast orchard region of Sutter county, and the great granaries of
Colusa, Glenn and Tehama counties; south of the city, and close by, is
the slough country, where in the fertile, fruitful ground—fertile as the
valley of the Nile or the rich dike-inclosed country of Holland—are vast
stretches given up to vegetable growing, especially of asparagus, celery
and potatoes. This valley of the Sacramento is an empire with many
principalities. Such a region in the Old World or in the New England or
Middle States would have been as populous as the valleys of the Loire,
or the Housatonic, or Susquehanna long before this. The foothill
counties, tributary to the great interior valley, are rich in gold and
other minerals. The value of these streams, snow-fed, coming down to
water the valley is fully appreciated, and power generated on the south
fork of the Yuba river is used to-day to run the electric railways of
cities by the bay—over 220 miles away. Off here to the right, beyond
Marysville, as well as on through the Sierra slopes, is the early orange
producing region; oranges go east from this section before Thanksgiving,
and practically the whole crop is shipped by Christmas. The counties of
this valley yield annually over one half of the entire output of the
deciduous fruits of California. At Chico is the home of the late General
Bidwell, Rancho Chico, another one of California’s principalities. Here
at Chico is the plant introduction garden and station of the United
States Department of Agriculture, chosen for its wonderful advantages of
soil and climate.

[Illustration: HOTEL AT BYRON HOT SPRINGS—ANOTHER ONE OF NATURE’S
SANITARIUMS]

[Illustration: WITHIN THE PALISADE OF SUTTER’S FORT, BUILT BY GENERAL
JOHN A. SUTTER ABOUT 1830]

[Illustration: THE CAPITOL AT SACRAMENTO—VARIETIES OF HUNDREDS OF RARE
AND SEMI-TROPIC TREES AND FLOWERS ORNAMENT THE SPACIOUS GROUNDS]

[Illustration: NEW PLANTS DISCOVERED WHILE YOU WAIT—GOVERNMENT PLANT
INTRODUCTION STATION AT CHICO]

[Illustration: IN THE CAÑON OF THE UPPER SACRAMENTO—WHERE EVERY CURVE
DISCLOSES SCENES OF ENTRANCING BEAUTY]

[Illustration: A NOT UNUSUAL SCENE—VICTORS OVER A WORTHY FOE]

[Illustration: CASTLE CRAGS—VOLCANIC PALISADES ON THE SHASTA ROUTE]

And then on, up the Sacramento valley, northerly, the road goes through
Tehama, Red Bluff, and Redding—prosperous young cities, centers for rich
mines, vast grain fields, orchards and sugar-pine forests; carrying the
traveler through a region of marvelous scenic value—Castle Crags, Shasta
Springs, with its crystal water bubbling up near the track, and peerless
views of snow-capped Shasta. Here are opportunities for fishing and
hunting and genuine alpine mountain climbing, for scaling the summit of
Shasta is to western sportsmen more or less of a duty, much as that
which lures the Alpine traveler to climb the Jungfrau. For this task of
muscular devotion, travelers should stop off at Sisson, where there is a
snug inn, open winter and summer, where mountain climbing parties can be
supplied readily with a full equipment of things needful for the not
difficult ascent.

[Illustration: MOSSBRAE FALLS, OPPOSITE THE TRACK NEAR SHASTA SPRINGS ON
THE WAY BETWEEN SAN FRANCISCO AND PORTLAND]

[Illustration: AT SHASTA SPRINGS WHERE ONE OF NATURE’S FOUNTAINS BOILS
UP CLOSE BY THE RAILWAY—AN ALL-YEAR-AROUND RESORT]

[Illustration: SNOW-CAPPED MOUNT SHASTA 14,444 FEET. ONE OF THE WORLD’S
WONDERS]

[Illustration: FOR MILES THE TRAVELER KEEPS IN VIEW THE SNOWY SUMMIT OF
SHASTA. EACH CHANGING PICTURE ATTRACTIVE, IMPRESSIVE AND ENDURING]

[Illustration: MUIR’S PEAK, NEAR SISSONS, ONE OF THE VOLCANIC CONES THAT
MAKE THIS REGION FAMOUS FOR ITS SCENIC BEAUTY]

And then on and up, over into Oregon, across the Klamath river, that
temptingly points out the way to the Klamath lakes and other hunting
grounds, so vast and so filled with game worth pursuing, as to make the
Adirondacks seem like a children’s play-ground in comparison. Away from
the road, near here, too, is Crater lake, that wonder of wonders; a lake
of crystal pure water resting upon the crest of an extinct volcano,
without inlet or outlet.

[Illustration: WHAT SPORTSMEN MAY FIND IN A THOUSAND CAÑONS OF SOUTHERN
AND WESTERN OREGON]

On the train goes, winding and twisting on and upward and downward, into
Oregon through the cañons of the Siskiyou range, with the
never-to-be-forgotten sight of the fertile valley of the Rogue river,
with farmhouses that look like New England, with their white paint and
green blinds; with fruitful orchards, long stretches of green fields,
glimpses of mining operations, and always mountains and forest, and
forest and mountains, near and far. Here, in southern and eastern
Oregon, is a comparatively new paradise for the sportsman, and a
wondrous scenic region. Here are chances for stop-over trips, long to be
remembered, with prospects of big game trophies that will afford
countless texts for hair-raising stories at home.

[Illustration: OVER THE SISKIYOUS INTO OREGON THROUGH MOUNTAIN SCENERY
OF STUPENDOUS GRANDEUR]

This Rogue river valley country, of which thriving Ashland and
fast-growing Medford—cities of stone and brick—are the centers, sends
broadcast, annually, thousands of boxes of the finest apples, pears and
peaches. These rolling valleys and forest clearings make an unexcelled
fruit and farming country. Jacksonville, off to the west, is on the old
California trail; the first gold discovery of Oregon was near here, on
Jackson creek. Over this trail, which the railroad closely follows,
traveled adventurous trappers and hunters, and after that, the gold
seekers, before the days of wagon-roads or railways. The road skirts the
red waters of the Rogue—originally called Rouge by French-Canadian
trappers of the Hudson’s Bay Company—as far as Grant’s Pass, a bustling
city that is the center of a rich lumber, gold and copper mining and
farming country. The Rogue and its tributaries, like other Oregon
rivers, are fast flowing and never failing streams, with rapids and
waterfalls at frequent intervals, fringed by forest trees that help make
pictures at every turn. Here, at Gold Ray, an enterprising electric
power company has developed tremendous power, which will be used for the
many mining industries, as well as in the progressive ranches and homes,
through all this region.

[Illustration: HOUSE BOATING ON THE WILLAMETTE, WITH ITS CLEAR WATERS,
ITS WELL TIMBERED AND PICTURESQUE SHORES, IS A JOY OFTEN INDULGED IN BY
MANY OREGONIANS]

[Illustration: ALONG ASHLAND CREEK ARE MANY SCENES RIPE FOR AN ARTIST’S
CANVAS]

[Illustration: TABLE ROCK ON ROGUE RIVER HAS BEEN A STRIKING LANDMARK
SINCE MAN FIRST TRAILED THIS COUNTRY]

[Illustration: SHEEP RAISING IS AN IMPORTANT AND GROWING INDUSTRY OF
OREGON]

Around Roseburg, about two hundred miles southerly from Portland, are
vast forest resources, with outlying valleys and cañons and mines and
farms that help to make this a thriving place. Long before reaching here
the road crosses and recrosses the Umpqua river, which flows through its
fertile valley northwesterly into the sea. At Cottage Grove, as at other
points along here, there are more signs of Oregon’s rich mines, signs of
the placer camps of early days, as well as of the more recent
developments in quartz mining. The records show that gold to the amount
of $120,000,000 was washed from the streams of Oregon during the early
’60s. During recent years there have been many gold strikes, and to-day
all through these ranges prospectors and expert agents for mining
capitalists are searching and locating the precious metal. The famous
North Pole mine, for example, ranks among the largest and is valued at
over fifteen million dollars. At Cottage Grove, the road first touches
the picturesque Willamette river, following its course to Eugene—seat of
the University of Oregon—crossing it at Junction City, touching it again
at Albany—a big shipping point for luscious Oregon prunes; again at
Salem, the state capital, a city of 15,000 people, and at Oregon City.

[Illustration: THE GRANT’S PASS MINE—IN THE CENTER OF A RICH GOLD AND
COPPER DISTRICT]

[Illustration: COW CREEK CAÑON NEAR WEST FORK—ALL DOWN THE RAVINE THE
TORRENT RACES IN RAPID RIVALRY WITH THE TRAIN]

[Illustration: WHAT SPORTSMEN MAY FIND IN A THOUSAND CAÑONS OF SOUTHERN
AND WESTERN OREGON]

At Oregon City are the falls of the Willamette, where the power of the
river is harnessed for the use of many factories. A ship canal has been
built around the falls. The Willamette valley is one of the most fertile
and most beautiful river regions of any land, stretching southward from
Portland across eight counties and occupying four million acres of rich
land. It is a natural center for dairying and diversified farming. A
total failure of crops has never been known.

[Illustration: SHOTS, PHOTOGRAPHIC AND OTHERWISE, AT THE OREGON
PHEASANT: THE PRETTIEST, PROUDEST AND GAMEST OF ITS TRIBE]

[Illustration: HERE THE CONDOR POWER COMPANY HAS HARNESSED THE SWIFT
FLOWING ROGUE]

[Illustration: THE WATERS OF THE WILLAMETTE MIRROR MANY PEACEFUL
SUNSETS]

The Willamette itself is broad and swift flowing, with banks lined with
forest trees of perpetual verdure. From north to south the river
meanders, now lazily, now with a rush of leaping waters. It passes
through a delightful pastoral country where the farmhouses are framed in
fruit orchards and sleek cattle feed by the river pastures. Now and then
the banks rise sheer in tree-crowned cliffs fifty feet in height. There
are plenty of fish and wild life abounds. There are many canoe clubs at
Portland and during the summer the Willamette is crowded with the fleet
of light craft while trips up and down the river are in great favor,
sometimes extending for days and covering a voyage of one hundred miles,
the distance by river between Portland and Albany. From Portland to
Salem the capital city, a steamer plies the fifty miles of waterway.
House boats, often of luxurious design, are in high favor on the quieter
reaches.

[Illustration: COW CREEK CAÑON, DESPITE ITS UNROMANTIC TITLE. HAS FEW
RIVALS IN ITS PICTURESQUE BEAUTY]

[Illustration: PLACER MINING IN SOUTHERN OREGON, WASHING DOWN THE GOLD
GRAVELED BANKS]

[Illustration: A TYPICAL SCENE IN PASTORAL OREGON THAT RECALLS THE
BERKSHIRE HILLS]

[Illustration: THE FALLS OF THE WILLAMETTE]

[Illustration: OREGON’S CAPITOL IS AT SALEM, A CITY OF FIFTEEN THOUSAND]

[Illustration: ON THE WILLAMETTE NEAR OREGON CITY, MANY MILLS AND
FACTORIES ARE RUN BY POWER FROM THE FALLS]

At Portland, near which the Willamette joins the Columbia, it becomes
the city’s harbor from which the average outgoing cargo runs up to seven
thousand five hundred tons. Portland, the “rose city,” where roses bloom
in profusion on Christmas day, came prominently before the public eye of
late with the centennial celebration of the great overland journey of
the explorers Lewis and Clark. It is a beautiful city, superbly
situated, with surroundings that suggest wealth and culture, and
promises everywhere for a glorious future. The streets, outside the
business quarter, are shaded by overarching trees and lined with
beautiful villas set in green lawns and flower beds of riotous, fragrant
bloom. From Portland Heights, reached by the car lines, the panorama is
superb, the view including Mount Rainier, a hundred miles away to the
north, with the blue barrier of the Cascades stretching to Mount
Jefferson, a hundred miles to the south, snow-clad Mount Saint Helens
and Mount Hood, the Columbia river and its giant gorge, the tributary
Willamette and the green of the nearer low-lands, gleaming here and
there with the lakes of the Columbia valley; a prospect declared by
Caspar Whitney, to be the grandest and most interesting in natural
beauty he had ever seen. Higher yet is Council Crest, once a favored
place for Indian conferences, fifteen hundred feet above the city;
reached by the street cars; the projected site of a great hotel.

[Illustration: IN PORTLAND ROSES ADORN THE HOMES OF ALL WHO DESIRE THEM]

[Illustration: THE CITY OF PORTLAND SHOWS THE STIR OF PROGRESS AND
COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT]

[Illustration: SACAJAWEA. THE BIRD WOMAN. THE FAITHFUL GUIDE OF LEWIS
AND CLARK]

[Illustration: SIXTH STREET PORTLAND IS TYPICAL OF THIS PROGRESSIVE
CITY. THE HOTEL PORTLAND AND “THE OREGONIAN” BUILDING ON THE LEFT]

In Portland is the constant stir of progress and commercial
development—it is in the air. With the completion of a forty-foot ship
channel from the city to the sea, to which end surveys are being
conducted by the government, the largest vessels will have no difficulty
in making Portland. Business enterprises of all sorts thrive; the
building up of attractive suburbs, and of seaside resorts such as Long
Beach and Yaquina bay—all these mean that here is a city of 160,000
people that will bear watching. There is no use hurrying through
Portland; there is too much to be seen and done; you cannot overlook the
fast-flowing Columbia, with its close-bordered forests and its matchless
cascades and varied scenery. Powerful and comfortable steamers stem the
torrent of the mighty river and at the rapids of the Dalles, close to
the mystical, mythical Bridge of the Gods, a system of locks has
challenged and overcome Nature’s mastery of her aquatic highway.
Portland is famous for its hotels and hospitality, its fine streets and
buildings, its clubs, its schools and churches. Civic pride is evident
everywhere; art galleries, a notable library, beautiful avenues, parks
and homes, with an excellent car system reaching far out into its
pleasant suburbs, all speak of culture, wealth and progress. Here the
traveler may rest and think over his trip and consider his return
journey, providing this western land so seemingly new, so ever green, so
bustling with activity, so wide-awake, so climatically glorious, does
not hold him, as it has held many others, in bonds that they would not
break:

  We have seen a world! We have chased the sun
  From sea to sea; but the task is done.
  We are hushed with wonder, we stand apart,
  We stand in silence; the heaving heart
  Fills full of heaven, and then the knees
  Go down in worship on the golden sands
  With faces seaward, and with folded hands
  We gaze on the boundless white Balboa seas.

[Illustration: DAWN ON MOUNT HOOD]

[Illustration: SUNSET, THE MAGAZINE OF THE WEST. PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS YEARLY—FOR SALE BY
NEWSDEALERS EVERYWHERE]


                        ENGRAVED AND PRINTED BY
                             H. C. TIBBITTS
                       SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA



                          Transcriber’s Notes


--Retained publication information from the printed exemplar (this eBook
  is in the public domain in the country of publication.)

--Silently corrected several typos.

--Provided all images resized and oriented for use on a portable eBook
  reader.





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