Box 13, Folder 7: California 187- Notes and Reports

Lapham Letters April 14 to May 17, 1870

Trip to California

Metropolitan Hotel Omaha, Nebraska April 14th 1870

My Dear Daughter, Here I am, just out of bed and waiting for Breakfast & for Mr. Rose who was detained one day in Chicago. We were so early in Chicago that I went to the Briggs house first - Uncle Samuels afterwords - found all well & glad to see me - As they had received my long delayed letter the evening before, they were up at 7 o'clock!!! ready to receive me - I found the grass upon the lawns & parks was already green & fresh, 85 miles south having made a considerable climatic difference. At 10:45 left our N.W. railway for Omaha, leaving Mr. Rose to come the next day; so I suppose he left Chicago at the time I reached here, and will...

2

...be ready to go on with me today. Crossing the Prairies we found numerous fires creeping over the surface, consuming the old bleached grass now quite dry - no rain having fallen for 10 days or more. High south west winds prevailed. These fires presented a fine appearance in the night. The glass is so white that when reflecting the dim light of the moon, it makes the ground look as if covered with snow. We found the Mississippi very high; within 8 feet of the track on the bridge where we crossed it from Fulton, Illinois to Clinton, Iowa. Charles will remember how high the Rock Island bridge was above the low water, and can imagine what the river must be if almost up to the floor of that bridge. The northern flexture of the Isothermal lines upon the plains...

[note on card] (N.W. Railway approaching Omaha & yet this train did stop half an our!!! Apl. 13 1870)

Notice to Passengers This Train Does Not Stop for Meals Meals are Served on Pullman's Palace Dining Car Attached to This Train

Tower, Millard & Decker, Railroad Printers, 64 Lake St., Chicago

3

...is shown by the fact that while I am travelling directly west, I find spring more and more advanced; three miles west is equal to one mile south! Here young leaves are on the trees; Red Maples are in flower & the crocus is in full bloom in the front yards of Omaha. The Missouri is also very high though it has fallen a little yeterday & today. It is excessively muddy, the mud a yellowish clay, the same that here constitutes a large share of the "Bluffs". The clay rests upon "Drift" with boulders much like what we see at home; this again upon limestone the surface of which is smoothed & grooved, much like what Julia saw at Waupun. The glaciers therefore one extended as far south as Omaha!

[illustration of soil stratum]