The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Road of a Thousand Wonders, by Passenger Dept. Southern Pacific Co This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. 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: Passenger Dept. Southern Pacific Co Release Date: March 5, 2015 [EBook #48407] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ROAD OF A THOUSAND WONDERS *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Stephen Hutcheson, Carol Spears, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Road of a Thousand Wonders 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 4 5 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. 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 6 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. THE BUSTLING CITY OF LOS ANGELES CROWDS CLOSELY THE OLD MISSION CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS 7 IN THE HEART OF LOS ANGELES WEST LAKE PARK IS AN ATTRACTIVE RESTING PLACE FAN PALMS AND SEMI-TROPIC TREES FRINGE THE WALKS BEFORE LOS ANGELES HOMES 8 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. 9 THE SPHINX ROCKS IN CHATSWORTH PARK CAÑON WHICH HOLDS MANY CURIOUS ROCK FORMATIONS A CORNER OF MISSION SAN FERNANDO REY 10 BELLS OF THE GARDEN AT CAMULOS CAMULOS, THE HOME OF “RAMONA” HEROINE OF HELEN HUNT JACKSON’S FAMOUS NOVEL 11 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. 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. ANCIENT DATE PALMS AT VENTURA, AND THE PROTECTING LODGE BUILT BY DAUGHTERS OF THE GOLDEN WEST 12 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. 13 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. WHERE OIL AND WATER ALMOST MIX—DERRICKS AT SUMMERLAND WHERE OIL IS PUMPED FROM BENEATH THE OCEAN 14 AT MIRAMAR THE TRAIN SPEEDS BETWEEN BANKS OF BRILLIANT AND SWEET SCENTED BLOOM 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. 15 AT SANTA BARBARA THE ARLINGTON IS A FAVORITE RESTING PLACE BOTH WINTER AND SUMMER DOWN BY THE SEA AT SANTA BARBARA THE POTTER GREETS AN ARMY OF GUESTS ALL THE YEAR AN OCEAN BOULEVARD, DRIVEWAY AND PROMENADE COMBINED, EXTENDS FOR MILES ALONG SANTA BARBARA’S ATTRACTIVE BEACH