LETTER FROM WYOMING -- A.R. WILLIAMS

WILLIAMS

Posted By: David (email)
Date: 1/12/2005 at 10:44:49

The Chariton Leader, Chariton, Iowa
Thursday, August 22, 1907

ALONZO WILLIAMS, of this city, recently received a letter from his son, A.R.
WILLIAMS, who is an attorney at Cody, Wyoming, dated on the 12th inst., in
which he says in part:

"This is a nice and cool day, one of those superb days you read about. It
has been warm here for this country -- in day time, but cool at night. Some
bad showers came right in harvest and damaged hay very much -- can't get men
to harvest. We are paying $3 per day but that does not bring enough help.
Farm products are high and the farmers are getting rich. I have been up to
the mines and put three men at work. There was lots of snow, the most that
has been in the mountains this time of year for a long time, largely due to
a backward, cold summer. I found everything at the mines in good shape,
better than I expected. Found our cabin all right and stuff inside in good
condition. One of the men and I went up on the mountain and witnessed one
of the grandest sights in the country -- snow capped peaks as far as the eye
could see. I have never seen anything like it -- the nearest approach is
the ocean. While at this dizzy height we had an experience that I had heard
of but never felt before. A light shower was coming up the valley and we
became so charged with electricity -- or rather the surrounding atmosphere
did, that our finger tips snapped and our hair and various parts of our
bodies -- and once my shoulder literally burned -- supposedly from my
suspender buckle. We had a pick and that was snapping all the time. We
shed all metal from our bodies until it was over. It lasted about ten
minutes. We felt it but slightly but could hear the snapping distinctly. I
had heard of this but never experienced it before.

It takes us three days to get to camp. Sixty miles we go by wagon and
sixteen by horse, crossing mountain and torrents and through canyons and
heavy timber, camping out at night, turning our horses out to graze on the
grassy parks and cooking our fish and game by the camp fire and lying down
to sleep with the star spangled sky for a roof -- and sometimes a stormy one
"
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
December 30, 2004
iggy29@rnetinc.net