VERY RARE 1901 West Coast Trip Diary Denver Oregon Ranches & Mines Ghost Towns
Item History & Price
WELCOMETO SALLY’S DIARIES: Upfor auction today is a handwritten West Coast travel diary from thesummer of 1901. It contains 81 handwritten pages and our author isMyrtle Houser or at least I think that’s what the name says on thefront cover of the diary. And this is not your normal West Coasttravel diary. Myrtle takes some incredible adventures not just on thetrain but on horseback, stagecoach and steamers in very remote placesof Oregon and Washington. Asyou open the diary up, the... first entry reads, “Having decided totake a trip west I considered it my duty to keep an account of thethings done and saw.” Sheleaves June 17th, from Kansas City describing all thesites along the way including a fabulous time in Denver Colorado.Fourteen of the pages are devoted to Salt Lake City and thesurrounding area, including her amazing descriptions of the Temple, tabernacle, City Creek Canyon, the great eagle gate and more. Thenit’s on to Huntington Oregon which is on the boarder of Oregon andIdaho. There are only 440 people there now and it’s out in themiddle of nowhere so you can imagine what it was like in 1901. Infact when the train stops there her friends come to get her in awagon or on horseback to take her to their ranch. Stage goes by theranch and sometimes drops off letters. While at the ranch she visitsthe Golden Eagle Mine but stops at Malheur City first which is now aghost town. After her long time in this area she boards the train forOregon riding along the great Columbia River. Long descriptions ofthat too including logging camps, dinner in Meacham Oregon which isalso practically a ghost town now. If that wasn’t enough, when shegets to Portland she boards a ship and heads out on the ColumbiaRiver, out on the ocean, now sailing to Astoria Oregon then on toIlwaco Washington on Baker Bay. Finally it’s on to Nahcotta whichis on a beautiful peninsula in the great state of Washington. Shespends several days there renting boats, beach combing, hiking, etc.Then finally the train back to Ilwaco where they wait for the steamerthat takes them back to Portland Oregon. This is where the diarystops, page 81. Thereis really so much to this incredible diary. Following are a fewexample entries from Myrtle’s diary…….1901“June17th, Left Kansas City 9:45 P.M. Stopped in St. Joe 20 minutes, went thruUnion depot. Got a coffee.” “June18th, Rained this morning. Very cool. Traveled throughNebraska. Nothing much of interest but boundless prairies. Arrive inColorado about 1:30. Crossed the plains which extend almost toDenver. Came in site of foot hills about 4:00 P.M. Arrived in Denver6:15, nearly starved. Went to supper and had to wait so long thatthought they were sending to K.C. to get our order.” (Shevisits the court house in Denver the next day and then writes thisabout the State Capital building….)“June19th, …...We went to the observatory, up steep windingstairway and the iron steps looked as if many hundreds of feet hadpassed over them. The panoramic views from this place were sublimeand on the side were the pictures of the pioneers of Colorado. Fromhere we went to the basement where the exhibition rooms were. Therewere the relics of war in one wing, the mineral display in anotherand there were all sorts of fine specimens….” (From therethey go to the city park which is on a lake. She describes her timethere including floating on the lake. Then back to the hotel and onto Elitch Gardens and the theater…)“Whenit was over (the theater) there was about 30 street cars tocarry the people back to town. I was thoroughly tired and sleepywhen I arrived at the hotel at about 11:40.” (Next day theyvisit the Denver Mint and then back on the train to head to Salt LakeCity)“June20th, …...We arrived in Cheyenne where we had tochange cars. We had to wait 2 hours for our train so we thought wewould take in the town by electric light. It being night we could notsee very much but Cheyenne is a very historical place and is quite arough frontier town. We were exceedingly glad when our train came inthen we started on our way once more to Salt Lake City but we had tochange cars once more at Ogden Utah where we took the Oregon ShortLine for Salt Lake City.” (She describes the view from thetrain and coming up upon the great Salt Lake….)“Wasonce more glad when the train stopped and we were in the city ofSaints. It was about 2 P.M. Some engaged rooms at hotel and restedfor about on hour then went out to the great Salt Lake or to theSaltair Resort as it is called which is about 18 miles from the city.When you arrive in view you are greeted by a Moorish Pavilion, 4, 000feet from the shore of the lake. It is perfectly beautiful at nightwith its dashing electric lights in the form of a large crescent in asea miles above sea level. This is beautiful to see but to enjoy abath in this “fairy” lake (it might be called) is still better.One can float without an effort upon the waves of this inland sea asit is impossible for one to sink.” (She says they were in thelake when the sun went down which made it more beautiful. The nextday they visit Fort Douglas and then the Temple grounds. Amazingdescription which you can see in the scans above on pages 14-17. Sheeven has a little drawing of part of the grounds and goes on todescribe the temple….)“June22nd, …..The Temple which took nearly 50 years tocomplete and cost over $4, 000, 000. It occupies a place near thebusiness center and towers above all the surrounding objects. Itsform can be seen long before the city in sight. The exterior iscarved with symbols of the Mormon creed and the highest spire issurmounted 215 feet above the earth by a golden figure of Moroni theangel who is supposed to have revealed the religion of the Mormon’sto Joseph Smith. To these people the interior is sacred and no one isever admitted who is not of the Mormon faith. This Temple is enclosedby an iron fence so that no one is allowed to go very near to thewalls. In the grounds is the great turtle shaped tabernacle, theassembly of the Saints…..” (She attended an organ recitalthere.)“Afterdinner we visited B. Y.’s grave. It is in a small lot and coveredwith great flat granite stone or rather the grave is a stone vault.He has no tombstone and he desired none. The grave is surrounded byan iron fence. There his wives are buried also. We passed under thegreat eagle gate arching the entrance to City Creek Canyon. Upon thisarch is a high bronze eagle looking down the longest street in Utahwhich is perfectly straight and 22 miles long. We passed the Lion andBeehive house, homes of B.Y. Across the street from these are near byEagle gate stands a beautiful palace called the Amelia Palace. Homeof his favorite wife. Opposite to the Temple stands the tithing yardwhere all the followers of this religion are supposed to pay 1/10 oftheir earnings to the church.” (She goes on for a bit more andthen it’s back on the train heading to Huntington Oregon crossingthe Snake River several times)“June23rd, …...About 4 P.M. the next day when we arrivedsafe and sound at Huntington Oregon our present destination. InHuntington we were met by our friends and after a good supper at theGate City Hotel, we took up our journey again but not on a train thistime. Mr. Mc _____ ranch is much higher than Huntington and by thetime we reached there I thought we were going to the North Pole. Iwas nearly frozen and was glad of the nice supper waiting for us atthe ranch…...” (I can’t quite make out the name of theranchers. She gets a terrible cold and so the next few days shedoesn’t write because she’s so sick)“June30th, I have not kept very good account of the passed time as I have beenquite sick but I am much better now of course. I am home sick butthen I guess I will get over that if I stay here long enough.” “July3rd, This has been a beautiful day. Amleaving to ride. Rode 6 miles to the summit, a high ridge from whichwe could see the surrounding country. There was a pretty little greenvalley with a silvery stream flowing through it and it looked veryinviting when compared with the hills covered with dry sage brush.Not a tree in sight except where some ranchers had cultivated andirrigated them...” (Goes on to describe the view and says thisarea is 5-6 years behind the styles of Kansas City. Her daily entriesturn into weekly at this point)“July29th…..I am getting tanned as brown as any Indian. I can’tstay in the house. I have met a great many people but I do not fancythe people of this country very much.” “August13th, Well the time just passed. Has been monotonous visiting here, goingfor horseback rides, cantering over the hills after the cows but nowI am anticipating a visit to the Golden Eagle Mine about 22 milesfrom the ranch and I am eager to see how this precious metal is takenout of the earth. And the preparation will take all day tomorrow.” “August15th, We left the ranch at about 1 P.M. today and rode horseback toMalheur City 14 miles through the sage brush country till at last wecame in sight of the place which bears the diamond name, MalheurCity. A mining town of about 50 or 60 inhabitants, contains a store, a post office in one of the stores and 2 hotels. Here we took thestage for the Golden Eagle about 8 miles from here. The roads arequite rough and I was tired out when I reached there. The scenery wasnothing out of the ordinary, a few ranches here and there with sagebrush in the intervening hills. We got here in time for supper. Wewere to stay at the mining boarding house for a week. There are about10 miners employed here. The mine was not running it’s fullcapacity then.” “August16th, The land lady has a daughter about 18 and a grown son. So afterbreakfast we went to visit the mine about 900 (?) ft. from thehouse on the side of the hill. First we went up a long pair of steepsteps to the entrance of the mine then we asked the man at the hoistto let us go down into the mine. With his consent we entered thetunnel which goes straight back into the hill…...” (She goeson to describe the tunnel, seeing the men drilling getting ready toblast; see pages 36-37 in the scans above. Then that afternoon shesays they went on top of Wild Cat Butte where they took photos andsaw another “pleasure seeking party”. Now it’s back to theranch.)“Soour farewell visit here was rather short as we left the next Mondayfor the great western metropolis, Portland. Sunday was spent a greatdeal of packing for my trip and on a nice long walk to where we hadlocated a mine on one of the sage brush hills….The drive toHuntington was over the dusty hot hills and through the sage brush.We occasionally passed the home of some ranchers and it was verypleasant to have something to break the monotony. The stage wascrowded and altogether it was not a very pleasant trip. We arrived inHuntington about noon and after a good dinner we were prepared tokill the time until our train came in...” (They traveled allnight and arrived in Portland the next day at noon. But on the waythe train stops in Meacham and that is where she has dinner. Greatdescription of her time being served by an old woman who ran theplace by the name of Corbett. See scans of page 44-45) “Arrivedin P. about 12 M. and the pleasuer which was to take us the rest ofthe way was to land at 1 P.M. so we did not have much time foranything. After dinner went tot he steamer and what a magnificentboat it was, 230 ft. long and 35 ft. wide. Everything modern. Steamheated and electric lights….What a pleasant sensation to be goingdown the beautiful harbor past the maze of masts, flying flags ofmany nations and between the docks, warehouses and elevatorfactories…..” Thereis way too much for me to go on quoting. She heads on to IlwacoWashington where they board a train and head to Nahcotta and stay atthe Nahcotta Hotel. She goes to the beach quite a bit while hereroasting clams, hunting for shells, etc. One day she secures a boatand heads to a little island to get oysters. In fact this is the daythey take their little boat all along the coast line and end uphaving to moor the boat on a little private beach and hike throughthe mud to get back to the Hotel. After a few more days of beachadventures they head back to Ilwaco then board the steamer forPortland and the diary stops here. Thediary is in good shape as far as the pages and binding but the coveris worn and stained. Perhaps a bit of water damage (not surprisingconsidering where it’s been). It measures about 4” x 6 1/2”.
