Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Reminiscences of a trip to Pike’s Peak and down the Rio Grande in the year 1859, at the time of the Pikes Peak gold craze (Peter Westerlund)
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eluded to stay and wait for this train, to see if we
could get a change to go with them to San Antonio,
a distance of 675 miles from El Paso. This place
had no lumber to build with, i was told that it was
150 miles to any timber that could be cut into any
kind of lumber and there were no means of
transportation. The only method was to pack it on burros.
Therefore the houses were built with adobe,
popularly called “doby, ” and resembled the sodhouses
out west, the walls being not quite so thick. In fact
the material used was the same as sun dried brick
and the houses were plastered both inside and out
with clay mixed with chopped wheat straw. The
walls of these houses were perfectly smooth and
straight. Small holes in the walls served as windows
and the doorway was closed with a blanket. 1 saw
but one door in Franklin made of lumber. The
storekeeper who owned it said it cost him $100 to get it
and it had been transported over 1,000 miles from
Easter, Texas. The stores did not furnish wrapping
paper for the goods sold to customers. These were
obliged to provide bags and other receptacles for
the things they bought. Although timber was so
scarce, nature had provided this place with cheap
firewood. There was a small bush that grew ten to
twelve feel; high. To me it looked like a locust, but
they called it mesquite. Its roots grew along the
surface of the ground and the steam was four to
five inches thick. The wood was hard and brittle
and made very good firewood. A man with a
crowbar could easily break up these roots into cord wood.
That was really the only thing that was cheap here.
The Mexican women would wade across the river
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