----Source: Greenwood Gleaner, 9/6/1901

A LETTER FROM MILLIE ANDERSON

Everette, Wash., Aug. 25, 1901

Editor Greenwood Gleaner: Thinking some of my eastern friends would like to hear how I am enjoying myself in the far west, I will endeavor to describe a few places I have seen outside of Everett.

Two weeks ago I took in an excursion to Port Orchard to see the three battleships, Wisconsin, Oregon and Iowa. I was through them all and I tell you it was a sight to see. The large guns and the machinery was something wonderful. The ships were anchored out in the middle of the bay and there were steam launches to take us out to them. Coming home we stopped over an hour in Seattle and came home from there by moonlight on the steamer, Skagit Chief. It was a lovely trip.

My next excursion was to Monte Cristo, a small place situated among the Cascades. It is such a delightful place that I wish everyone might visit it. Frequent excursions make it possible for everyone to become familiar with the deep and wonderful canyons, the innumerable mountain cascades and swift sparkling streams, the glimpses of everlasting snow, the solitaire forests and all of the many and ever changing sights which make the trip one of the most scenic railway journeys in the country. But many seem to that the concentrator and the Sunday Creek cascades are all there is to be seen at the end of the journey. To be sure it is very interesting to be at the concentrator and watch the buckets bring the ore down from the mines, a mile and one-half away and then to follow the ore through the different washing processes until it is ready to be shipped to the smelter. The Cascades are very beautiful and it well worth a day's journey to see them.

A person ought, if possible, to stay a week at Monte Cristo. During that time one can see cascades which would make those near the railroad seem inferior. From a resting-place in one of the gulches we counted without turning, eleven distinct cascades, one of which greatly resembles the Bridal Veil Falls, Colorado. To reach the head of the gulch, we passed several small glaciers and walked across two larger ones. We also gathered flowers on our way home. These were scattered everywhere. We picked only rare ones and found we had forty-four varieties. Going up to the mine, I picked a buttercup in a cave of snow and a shooting star two feet from snow. Of all the flowers the most abundant and the most charming was the heather. Here a patch of graceful purple bells and there a patch of pure dainty white bells. A mountaineer's love for heather is not to be wondered at. The charm of the little bells must be felt, it cannot be described. In Scotland the white heather is most fittingly a symbol, sincere affections, unselfish love and wishes as pure as prayers. One trail took us over and around the top of a mountain. There we found a huge basin of snow with an ice-covered lake in the center. The mountain side adjacent that part of the lake was cushioned with heather and colored with blue wild pea flowers. Later in the year the entire lake is free from ice. They say it is then even more beautiful. There are other mountain lakes near Monte Cristo, so if anyone wishes to see unsurpassable grand scenery, breathe the purest air and drink pure, cold and refreshing water, Monte Cristo is the place. There is also excellent fishing up there.

Millie Anderson.