Page:The Pacific Monthly vol. 13.djvu/182

 A TRIP TO HISTORIC OLD GALICE

By Dennis H. Stovall

On that summer day we arose early. The four of us jumped into a carriage and were soon bowling along the winding road that climbs into the mountains surrounding Grants Pass.

Grants Pass, by the way, was named in honor of General Grant, who made the place a visit during his western tour at the close of the war. That was long be- fore the railroad came, and the General and his men made their way northward from the pioneer trading-post through the most convenient pass; hence the town came by the way of "Grants Pass."

We were bound for Galice Creek, down Rogue River, in the heart of the South- ern Oregon mountains, where Nature is most lavish in her endowments of open air enchantment.

From the Southern Pacific railroad to Galice Creek the winding road follows the Rogue nearly the whole distance of fifteen miles. When we reached the sum- mit of the range, where the road follows

the turbulent river, the first peep of the sun touched the mountain tops, and re- vealed the park-like beauty of the country below us. From this point the view is magnificent--one of the very best, in- deed, that Oregon's mountains afford.

We followed the road that hangs to the canyon wall directly over the river. At times our carriage wheels splashed into the water's edge, and at others we were sus- pended in midair, it seemed, with the river frothing many hundred feet below.

At last we reached a point whence the Rogue makes a long, sweeping detour; and away in the distance, nestling at the foot of the mountain, and walled in ap- parently by impassable barriers, Galice Hotel appeared in view.

Of old Galiceburg absolutely nothing remains. Galice Creek, which flows into the river here, babbles over the pebbles so tranquilly and peacefully that one would never guess this to have been the scene of bloodshed, of strife, of excite- ment and turmoil that existed there fifty

The fevvy acioss the Ro3:ue on the vay to GaUce.