Chapter 18 Columbia River THE MOST powerful of American rivers, the Columbia, starts as a small bubbling spring in British Columbia, at the foot of the Canadian Rockies, above the western tip of Montana. We began our journey along this great river by wading; I was able to cross the Columbia in one short step. […]

Chapter 17 Route 66 ROUTE. 66 was one of our favorite roadways when it was lkstill only a nameless orphan. We were there when it was christened and named. It helped open up a big slice of America for us. For half a century it carried us where we wanted to go and in some […]

Chapter 16 Apache Adventure THE TOWN of Snowflake in east central Arizona had a population of about 500. Bell Siding, several miles to the south, was not even a wide place in the road; it could better be described as a wide place on the railroad tracks. During the war years of the early 1940s […]

Chapter 15 The Wonder of Weeds Written at our home in Ontario, California, December, 1937 WE SHALL never lack for animation in life so long as there are weeds. Because of weeds, in the past month we have met a dozen new friends, adventured in strange places of mountains and deserts, and added several chapters […]

Chapter 14 Death Valley TripA Letter to My Parents in Michigan March 28, 1931 Dear Folks, At last I have time to write and I will start at the beginning. Helen and I set out (from Ontario, California) at noon last Sunday for the desert and Death Valley. We went via San Bernardino, then cut […]

Part III This Is Western America Chapter 13 Driving West STRANGE HOW the first experience of any kind sticks in the memory more vividly than a dozen similar later events. The first date. The first kiss. Succeeding for the first time in riding a bicycle. In our 62 years of marriage Helen and I have […]

Chapter 12Good Samaritan in North Carolina OUR OLD Plymouth car would not bring more than $50 if V.isold, but there were still a lot of good miles in the old girl yet. Why not start out with her one more time? Removing the rear seat so we could pack in an almost wicked load of […]

Chapter 11 Abraham Lincoln A Study in Greatness OF THE educational documentary motion pictures which Helen and I shot, edited, and produced, the three on the life of Lincoln have been the most highly acclaimed. Allan Nevins is recognized as probably the greatest authority on Lincoln’s life. He was not only good enough to review […]

Chapter 10 Capital Episodes Even Nosey Photographers Sometimes Get Cold Feet WASHINGTON, D.C. was freezing. And so was I as I lugged my heavy movie camera and tripod up the ice-crusted steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Luckily it would not take long to get the movie footage I needed of the great Lincoln statue dominating […]

Chapter 9 One Day in Boston Written in 1943 THANKSGIVING IS the time to visit Boston. A bleak, rainy Thanksgiving which will have enough of New England’s chill in it to recall that first year of 1620-21, when so many of the Pilgrims died from the sting of winter. A drizzly, misty Thanksgiving, when vision […]