Sat 24 Jun 1922
Mary's Journal Entry
Sat Jun 24 -- Left camp 10 to 8 mts. on every side in run along side of Missoula river & 2 R.R. stopped in Drummond at P.O. no letter from F.O. so on toward Yellowstone. ate dinner beside Missoula R 2 cars there & 3 more after us. thru Hells Gate. mosq. bad along foothills roads choppy we shot the schutes fine. Deer Lodge got eats. 10 mi to Butte paved road about 5 o’clock turned our back on Butte, Mont, a large well marked city on mts with no shade trees over 12 ft high (Popular) alfalfa acres went up over mt on new road up up then down twice as far Lizzie just pranced along. helped a man (Dr.) fix fan belt Jefferson Island then on to Lahood camped with water all around mosq. very hungry. up & downs no car troub. today. 145 mi
Letter Sent Home
This letter has a stain making parts of it illegible.]
Drummond, Mont. Sat. June 24 - ‘22
Dear Ones.
Thurs. night we slept in ?? Bitterroot Mts. camped just on the line (tho’t the line might hurt us) next morn. we built our fire on line & set our table on line. Pa ate his break. in Idaho & I ate mine in Mont. any amount of snow 30 ft. behind “Lizzie” there we slept all alone with snow & mosquitoes timber (pine) right now I will tell you we have 6 yd. of net so they have trouble getting at us. next morn. 4 cars stopped & talked all the tourists know each other. they are glad to see any one going thru some of this mt. country in some of Valleys what fields of alfalfa some spring grain not much wheat. Fri. nt. we were in a small town Bonnito in Valley quite different. we rolled along yes. ?? a large City on Mts. without a tree. all mines just a few little cottonwoods about 12 ft. high people set along their lots it was sure a funny looking city. last nt. we were at a little stop place with gas sta. & store free camp gr. stagnent water all around bet. its a stinking place when its real hot. mosq. galore. this morn. we’er going toward Livingston & if all goes well (it does unless its unusual) we will be in Gardiner tonight.
then for the mail. we are little ahead of time, so you see we have been traveling unusually well. ?? prancing ?? (where roads are good) like a colt. she has 2 new shoes on & 2 ready to put on any day. Pa happened to notice the old “Mohawk” was about ready to shoot so is putting in a blow out patch & will make it go as long as we can. a native just come along stopped to help us & pa said “those oats look good or is it barley” no he said thats winter wheat. no wonder its not headed yet when there is snow on the mts west & on the south of us & maby if we could see over the hills we could see snow East & north of us. these valleys are like basons (only some are long) encircled with mts. & hills in the basons. great scenery. the roads go here & there in & out ?? which way we’re going. send your ans. to this to Col. Springs Col. we will pick it up as we go thru. hope you all feel as good as we do. ready to roll on.
Livingston, Mont, Mon. morn. 26
I don’t know what is the trouble with some these tourists yes. morn. folk that just come from Yellowstone day before said that they drove out in one day to where we camped said 135 mi. well we got to Livingston & found we had 55 mi. to go yet so camped here. the roads were bad yes. they had a hard rain three days ago & they plowed thru & such ruts as they made. good thing for us cousin Frank kicked up such a fuss when we were going to leave fri. morn. so we stayed there til mon. morn. we’d been right in it. we were in camp last nt. with about 100 other cars beside Yellowstone River & no mosq. pa is getting a supply of groc. to take in gas 31¢ here in Park 45 they have to truck everything in there we will truck as much of our own as we can. feeling fine this morn. & a hot day.
Love to all. Ma
Does any one (you know of) on Warren’s route get any more letters than you do? well we help to pay him for carrying them any way. well I expect the cheeries are ready to eat. if I see a tree of sour ones ripe. fine or no fine yum. yum. they are green & not many trees maby one in days trip.