miles down the dirt road past the stand of firs.
Mike stared at them for a moment and took in the splendor of the huge trees, which was always a humbling experience. A single tree provided enough lumber to nearly complete a three bedroom house.
“Through those trees is our new, and possibly permanent, home.” He continued to no one in particular, “We all thought today might come, but none of us could say when that day would arrive, if ever. It’s come to pass, though, and we’ll be safe here. We’ll raise families and do more than just survive… we’ll thrive.”
The conviction could be heard in his tone.
“It may be hard to believe but down there, where we just came from, there will be millions that will not. They will die, and many of them will die in the most brutal and painful ways. Whatever man can dream up will be done in terms of man’s inhumanity to other men. We will survive because we had the foresight to prepare for this day, to make ready for an event that was foretold by many, even though no one knew exactly when it would occur.”
He paused and took a breath.
“We will live, we will prosper, and we will have the opportunity to teach those who are not yet born what it is to be a truly patriotic and God-fearing people. We will instill in them the values that once made our country the greatest country man was ever able to conceive in all of recorded history. Hoooraah. Hoooraah!”
The small group understood his words and the important message they conveyed. Each had their own motivation for why they were here and most of them, possibly all of them, felt the same sentiment Mike had just expressed. That was why they had made the original commitment to the group and to themselves.
They were here.
They were alive.
And they would begin a new life in this place.
Chapter 6 Crowning Glory
Avalon was originally founded as a cattle ranch in 1878. Its mainstay was the beef market, and it reached key profitability when the railroad was installed to access three big moneymakers of that period… cattle, coal, and lumber. Prior to then, it was a long and dangerous drive to get the cattle to the nearest railroad junction, and the coal and lumber were simply inaccessible. The Elyria and Sacramento Railroad came at just the right time, and profits boomed as beef trade blossomed.
Eli Cameron, the man who founded Avalon, ended up shipping all the cattle east to the slaughter houses in Chicago, and the lumber industry began in earnest right around the same time the railroad’s need drastically increased. Large timber was required for both laying track and building railroad bridges through the jagged canyons that joined one mountain to the next with the long wooden trestles.
Coal was discovered in the mountains during that time and that one commodity, alone, was all the railroad barons needed to make it worth the expenses incurred from carving out a path through the mountains surrounding Avalon. Profits surged as everyone needed coal, including the railroads.
In short order, one rail car after another piled high and loaded with all three moneymakers began leaving the mountains. Eli built Avalon at a time when men who had vision and the guts to stick it out made massive fortunes. A few of those immense fortunes still stood a century later. Weyerhaeuser was one of them and there were many others, but Avalon was no longer among them.
Eli was born in 1838 in Kentucky where he grew into manhood. In 1861, at the age of twenty-three, he saw the “Great Trial” of the nation come. It came to a head when, after years of economic hardship imposed on the southern states by northern politicians, laws were passed that made the price of southern cotton nearly worthless.
The South seceded from the Union at that time and some would argue that was really the beginning of the war. But the reality is there was talk of formal separation from the American alliance for fifteen years before it actually happened. That was one of
Mike stared at them for a moment and took in the splendor of the huge trees, which was always a humbling experience. A single tree provided enough lumber to nearly complete a three bedroom house.
“Through those trees is our new, and possibly permanent, home.” He continued to no one in particular, “We all thought today might come, but none of us could say when that day would arrive, if ever. It’s come to pass, though, and we’ll be safe here. We’ll raise families and do more than just survive… we’ll thrive.”
The conviction could be heard in his tone.
“It may be hard to believe but down there, where we just came from, there will be millions that will not. They will die, and many of them will die in the most brutal and painful ways. Whatever man can dream up will be done in terms of man’s inhumanity to other men. We will survive because we had the foresight to prepare for this day, to make ready for an event that was foretold by many, even though no one knew exactly when it would occur.”
He paused and took a breath.
“We will live, we will prosper, and we will have the opportunity to teach those who are not yet born what it is to be a truly patriotic and God-fearing people. We will instill in them the values that once made our country the greatest country man was ever able to conceive in all of recorded history. Hoooraah. Hoooraah!”
The small group understood his words and the important message they conveyed. Each had their own motivation for why they were here and most of them, possibly all of them, felt the same sentiment Mike had just expressed. That was why they had made the original commitment to the group and to themselves.
They were here.
They were alive.
And they would begin a new life in this place.
Chapter 6 Crowning Glory
Avalon was originally founded as a cattle ranch in 1878. Its mainstay was the beef market, and it reached key profitability when the railroad was installed to access three big moneymakers of that period… cattle, coal, and lumber. Prior to then, it was a long and dangerous drive to get the cattle to the nearest railroad junction, and the coal and lumber were simply inaccessible. The Elyria and Sacramento Railroad came at just the right time, and profits boomed as beef trade blossomed.
Eli Cameron, the man who founded Avalon, ended up shipping all the cattle east to the slaughter houses in Chicago, and the lumber industry began in earnest right around the same time the railroad’s need drastically increased. Large timber was required for both laying track and building railroad bridges through the jagged canyons that joined one mountain to the next with the long wooden trestles.
Coal was discovered in the mountains during that time and that one commodity, alone, was all the railroad barons needed to make it worth the expenses incurred from carving out a path through the mountains surrounding Avalon. Profits surged as everyone needed coal, including the railroads.
In short order, one rail car after another piled high and loaded with all three moneymakers began leaving the mountains. Eli built Avalon at a time when men who had vision and the guts to stick it out made massive fortunes. A few of those immense fortunes still stood a century later. Weyerhaeuser was one of them and there were many others, but Avalon was no longer among them.
Eli was born in 1838 in Kentucky where he grew into manhood. In 1861, at the age of twenty-three, he saw the “Great Trial” of the nation come. It came to a head when, after years of economic hardship imposed on the southern states by northern politicians, laws were passed that made the price of southern cotton nearly worthless.
The South seceded from the Union at that time and some would argue that was really the beginning of the war. But the reality is there was talk of formal separation from the American alliance for fifteen years before it actually happened. That was one of
Similar Books
