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We got off the trail three or four times but got into town all ok. On the way in we go through "Huston's Park." There is an old log cabin there in a lovely place by a spring. 25 years ago Huston who is a rich rancher living in the valley near Saratoga used to bring rich sportsmen from the East up here to this cabin to hunt Elk and Bear which used to be thick right in there. Old traditions tell of great stories of hunting feats.

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On the mountains west of the Verde and north of Mr. Hinton's house all the timber is burned off and the great charred trunks of trees lie all around. I asked Mr. Hinton about it when I came back from the top and he said that fire that burned all those enormous trees (many 100-125 ft high) was set by the Ute Indians in 1879 as they returned from the Meeker massacre about 90 miles south. He said that they set dozens of forest fires.

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Saturday Aug. 24th 1901
Looked over Arthur's Saw Mill. Wrote letters and read Dooley in the morning. In the afternoon Miss Glen Crow of St. Paul, Nebr (Arthur's cousin) piloted me over one of her favorite mountain trips.
She has been here since school closed in June and goes back home tomorrow. We started out West to the top of the Divide. The water at Battle runs into Platte then into Gulf [of] Mexico-but a short distance West it turns into the Snake then Colorado then Pacific Ocean so we were on the Great Rocky Mountain Divide. She showed me a rocky nook shape of a ½ circle where crowds of young people often came in evenings and sat around a camp fire and toasted "Bacon and Marshmallows" for lunch. What a combination. We went over in the High Mountain over Battle Lake

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in south of town of Rambler. Then S.E. to the Herculese mine. She had often been there with Robt. Young the Supt and knew all about it. It was not running and all shut down but she showed me where a door into boiler room was loose and we got in and went all over the whole business. Saw shaft house pumps dumps, Whim gasoline hoists etc etc. The buildings and machinery cost over $40,000 but they had not yet struck any ore of value except in very narrow veins.

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Saturday evening after supper quite a little company came in-Mrs. Ed Haggarty, Miss Lydia Crow, Glenn Crow, Miss Ida Haggarty (only from England 2 months) Mr. Ames, Phil & Rollo Crow, Arthur & myself. We told stories around. Mrs. Edith Haggarty told of her return trip from England on "Oceanic" in a storm. (It was their wedding trip.) Ames is a brother-in-law of Ledbetter, Supt. of Portland mine. He sang a very touching piece entitled "The Old Prospector" and several other miners' songs that were new to me. The others also sang

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A number of songs accompanied by Banjo or guitar. I recited Mandalay and told "Argon" & "Benzine" jokes. Arthur recited Will Carleton's Bicycle piece first call and Miss Glenn gave us a good one.
Sunday Aug. 25th
Breakfast 8.30 a.m.
Studied Sunday School lesson. Arthur read several Dooley selections. Went to a Sunday School in the Church and school house next to Arthurs. Mrs. Crow is Supt. About 10 children & 5 older folks were there.

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woods and over the Mts. East of town. Through part of the forest a fire had burned down the trees and those enormous trunks lay in a tangled mass. Through this springs ran every little ways over the rocks making it exceedingly hard to walk at all. Yet these mules would never slip and go down places terribly steep and in stony side hills where I could not have walked without leaning over and touching my hands and they never once slipped.

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The greatest sport of all was having them jump logs. They go over as slick as a rabbit. The little one I was on would jump any pile of logs that she could get her chin over. But that wasn't very high for horse. Chin was barely as high as my waist.
During a sudden shower we crawled under some little Pine trees and kept as dry as could be. Didn't get back until 1 p.m. Saw a number of Deer tracks within 3 miles of town.

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In afternoon helped (?) Arthur haul lumber to Copper King mine where they are sinking a shaft. In the evening played crockinole with Arthur then checkers and beat him 3 out of 4. Then Ida Haggarty said she would play with me and she is a dandy player. Played a great deal with her father & brothers in England and knew lot of good moves. We played 4 hard games getting two apiece and it was 10.30 and we stopped.

Tuesday Aug. 27th
Went over to school house and talked with Miss McCoy the teacher. She is larger than Emma West and is a Chart Teacher in Topeka Kas. And told me about the Word system of reading which is something very fine.