Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Travels With Brewer: JO Pass

Jennie Lakes 14 Just east of that camp we climbed a steep hill, and came suddenly to a precipice. Beyond was a great basin, or valley, the head of which is an immense rocky amphitheater, the rocky sides very steep, in places tremendous perpendicular precipices.
--William H. Brewer, June 26, 1864

Monday, June 9, 2014

Many a Deep and Dreadful Abyss Lies Hidden in that Andean Region

Middle Fork Judge Elisha Winchell, 1872, writing about the Middle Fork of the Kings River.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Travels With Brewer: Fresno City

Fresno City 02 I cannot conceive of a much worse place to live, unless it be the next place where we stopped; yet here a city was laid out in early speculative times, streets and public squares figure on paper and on the map, imaginary bridges cross the stinking sloughs, and pure water gushes from artesian wells that have never been sunk.
--William H. Brewer, June 2, 1864

(Fresno City was about thirty miles west and a little south of present-day Fresno. Nothing remains of the town.)