Letter to the Editor

l e t t e r t o t h e E d it o r Joaquin Miller probably is saluting you with a kiss from the past for your choice of a cairn for your logo. In his world famous Life amongst the Modocs: Unwritten History, first published in 1873, he used a personal cairn experience from 1853/4- In subsequent years he placed many rocks on this cairn just as he placed much of his west­ ern writing upon what he had done before and as many western writ­ ers have placed their writing upon his since his time. Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon, Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from the heart of the great black forests of Northern California. . . . Mount Shasta has all the sublimity, all the strength, majesty, and magnificence of Hood; yet [it] is so alone, unsupported, and solitary. . . . I dismounted and stood in the declining sun, hat in hand, and looked long and earnestly across the sea of clouds. . . . Should ever your fortune ever lead you to cross the Chinese wall that divides the people of Oregon from the people of California, stop at the Mountain House and ask for the old mountain trail. Take the direction and stop at the top of what is called the first summit of the Siskiyou mountains, for there you will see to the left hand by the trail a pile of rocks high as your head, put there to mark where a party fell a few days after. Dismount and contribute a stone to the monument from the loose rocks that lie up and down the trail. It is a pretty Indian custom that the whites sometimes adopt and cherish. I never fail to observe it here, for this spot means a great deal to me. I uncover my head, take up a stone and lay it on the pile, then turn my face to Mount Shasta and kiss my hand, for the want of some better expression. Best wishes for you and your new format. Margaret Guilford-Kardell Publisher of the Joaquin Miller Newsletter ...