Category: Historical

“I was on the trail at 6 in about an hour the strong cold wind started blowing again, as I had my sleeves cut off my arms y wrists got very cold so I pulled my “extra’ pair of socks on my arms. I passed the little town of Jefferson, then I crossed the a divide over into the head of the N. fork of the S. Platte River. after hiking down along this for a couple miles I got a ride with a fellow who was going all the way to Denver, but after a few miles we got down into a nice y interesting canon that i like to examine little closer y perhaps take some pictures, so I got off on the excuse that it was too cold to ride then I hiked the rest of the way past a couple more little town y several summer camps y [unintelligible] down to the town of Bailey where I got me a can of P y Bs [pork and beans] y some R.O. Than I intended only to hike a couple of mils, y then find a nice camping place where it would not be so cold. But again I was offered a ride so I rode about 4 miles y that was all uphill to, after that I tried to find a good campsite but was not very successful. It was impossible to get any good view today as it was been snowing in the mountains the whole day y tonight it is snowing here too days. I took a room in a hotel as the public camps are a long ways from the City.”

“Thursday 5/8 I had a good sleep last night, but this morning soon after I got on the way I had to face this strong Cold northwind y it has been blowing the whole day y is roaring overhead now. I had a rather uninteresting hike as far as “Fairplay,” an old mining y cattle town, which I found out is above 10000 ft. alt. I had noticed patches of snow here y there down in the valley this a.m. so I thought it must be pretty high. There has been considerable gold dredging operations goin on in the river bed at Fairplay. Sometime after lunch I kept on going, the road staying very high up near the lower edge fo the timber (there seems to be only a 1000 to 1500 ft (alt) strip of timber from timberline down to the open plains y valleys) to the town of Como where I bought a few groceries then after about 2 miles more I spyed [sic.] a thick willow patch a short distance from the road, which looked like it might give some shelter so I went over there y found a fairly good place although the ground is wet y there is several patches of snow nearby.

It has been snowing off y to up in the mountains the whole day y getting worse tonight y every once in a while I get some of it here too. I managed to get some spruce boughs for my bed y I have lots of dead willows for fuel so I guess I will make it pretty good.”

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A note on the narrative. For the most part, what you see here is a direct transcription of what Parsons wrote in his journal. Any editorial additions or clarifications are in [brackets]. His spelling errors and grammar are at odds, as we’ll see in the coming months, with his wide-ranging interests and intellect. His use of the letter “y” in place of “and” or “&” shows a familiarity with Spanish, not surprising given his travels in the Southwestern United States.

“May 1st Well I am camping in Colorado tonight among snowbanks 6 ft thick y at abt 1000 ft elev. I was on the way at 5.30 and got to Chama abt 8.00. There I left some film y got some more Y inquired abt my intended route, but everybody said I could not get through because of the snow. Well, I got enough grub to last me for 8-9 days, then I struck out, there

was both a road y a r.r. [railroad] going in my direction for a while. The road was impassable, nothing but soft nub so I followed the R.R. (a narrow gauge line belonging to the D y R.G.W.) up to where there was lots of snow here y tried the road for a ways as it was straighter, but the snow was so soft that I sank down to my knees every step y where the ground was bare it was mud y I had to go back down to the RR which I followed to abt 11 miles from Chama. here I cut up the hillside to the north along a bare strip of ground hoping to find a sheltered spot to camp so I

could cut across the snow tomorrow morning before it got soft. Finally I got u near the top of the ridge y here I found the snow pretty solid so I keept [sic.] going about a mile more to what looks like the last ridge, here camp, but the snow is dep nearly everywhere and the bare spots are soaking wet, but I cut a lot of spruce bough y I found a lot of dry limbs for fire wood. But by the time I got pretty well fixed up it started snowing y blowing, but it quit after a while y is clearing up but it will freeze pretty hard I expect. but that will make good going tomorrow morning. My [feet] was wet y got pretty cold

before I got camp fixed but socks y shoes are drying nicely now y I got a big supper under the belt so am feeling pretty good now. This is like camping in Alaska about this time of the year. Here is quite a few wolf or coyote tracks up here.”

“This morning I came across a large plain that forms an of the old spanish grant. Then I crossed the Rio Chama, a quite large stream than I headed up Arrayo Seco. Here I got a ride on a wagon up to Canjilon near the summit. Where I camped. I noticed some interesting rock in the valley I crossed today, [it] appears to be some kind of Obsidian or I believe it is commonly called flint it is of several different collars [sic.], black, blue, gray, yellow y white. and where the old surface are exposed they are covered with a white coating which could indicate that this flint rock has been inbedded [sic.] in the white lime-stone. I have not been close enough to the lime-stone cliffs to verify this.”

This post is part of an ongoing story, told in real-time, of Pete Parsons journey in 1924. Over the next several months, we’ll follow him using his photographs and journals to retrace his travels. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, and the Mazama blog as we track his progress and learn about him and his journey of a lifetime.

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Day 11 “4/22 I was on the trail about 6 y I had hard to keep warm, after hiking 7-8 miles a [unintelligible] overtook me y it was the same fellow I rote with yesterday, he gave me a ride all the way to Magdalena (about 40 m.). Then after having dinner there I struck out over a shorth-cut towards Polvadera in the Rio Grande Valley y hiked about 12 miles. I was told I that I would find wather [sic.] before this , but I did’t find any so this is nearly a dry camp as I drank most of what I carried before I camped. I found a lot of nice flowers around here that I put under my bed to keep everything from getting full of sand. … I did’t intend to come as far east yet, but the [unintelligible] was going east to beat the band so I was in Magdalena before I could lay a different course.”