Miriam McFate Travel Journal - 1926

Wed, Nov 24, 1926

Nice and warm again this morning. Do not need any fires here. The sun is just coming over the mts 7:55. We had carbon to clean out of the car this morning so will not get a good start for this day. The mountains thru here are a part of the Sierra Nevadas. Did not start till 8:30. Drove out of this little railroad town onto the desert. The grades on the railway are so steep they have an engine that stays at this little burg, they use it for an extra. It pulls up one grade and pushes the next freight back. This is what helps to make our mountain freight rate so high.

Drove on over more desert till we reach Dome 39 miles. Here we had to pass thro some hills. We won’t call them mountains now since we passed thro the real ones Sunday. Have found out since the elevation of the mts. are 48,000 feet. This is the highest point we had to pass. From Done to Yuma it is 26 miles. This is all desert except 3 or 4 miles thro these hills.

The Yuma desert is more like we think it should be. Nothing only a very little desert grass and sand. Stopped along here to help a man get his car started, then we drove on to Yuma. This is quite a large city for a desert city. We cross the Colorado River here. This is not such a very large river. Little larger than the Iowa. It is not as deep but is wider. The water is very red too. Crossed the bridge at 2:30. Here we were held for inspection again. This time it was for plant inspection.

Everyone has to be inspected before crossing the line. They do this to keep out plant disease and all destructive germ and bugs to plant life. Had to open all our suitcases, bags, boxes, and cupboard. They inspect everything. We had nothing so they turned us loose. We were glad too because we have had no dinner.

We stopped a short distance from the inspection station and ate our dinner. This was our first dinner in Calif. We droive 6 miles thro the Colorado River valley. This is mostly farmed by Mexicans and Indians. They raise quite a lot of cotton.

Drove on into the foot hills and desert again. Next town is 15 miles distant. Roads are very sandy. Lots of loose gravel. We finally came to a place where they were oiling the roads. This is all desert just about the same as we have come thro.

Drove on and on came into a stretch of country where they have the sand storms we have heard so much about. The sand is piled in drifts. Some places 50 or 100 feet in height. I doubt whether a person could drive when the sand was blowing hard. It looks to me like it would be like driving in a blizzard. The wind is blowing a little this afternoon. It blows little drifts across the road, with just a little wind. This sandy area covers 10 or 15 miles.

The old road is lying right along this one. It is called a cordduroy road. It is made of ties or slabs wound or tied together to form a road. Just room for one car. Every so often there would be a lap in this road, making it wide enough for two cars. On these laps were where one car had to wait for the others to pass. These laps were about 40 or 50 rds apart.

Some of this road now is comletely covered with sand. We are satisfied now that California is the only state through which we have come that has a desert like we expected to find the desert. We drove on till dark. We pulled into a filling station camp. 9 miles east of Holtville Calif. This is the gateway to the Imperial Valley. We can hear the water fall over the dam in the irragaion ditch from our camp. A Negro man and wife keep this station. Are real sociable people.