9 2 



RECREA TION. 



POINTERS FOR HOME SEEKERS. 



I am still having many inquiries from people 

 who are seeking homes in the west, as to the 

 conditions existing in the Pecos valley. For the 

 information of all such the following letter is 

 printed. It is from a man who lived there sev- 

 eral years. 



'■ Dear Sir. — Replying to your favor of 8th, 

 the Pecos valley has proved a failure, in the ex- 

 periences of a great many people, as a fruit 

 country, and even a,s a general farming country. 

 I left there a year ago, and can no longer recom- 

 mend it to anyone as a place to live, or to invest 

 money. My experiences there have been as dis- 

 astrous as those of many other people. My losses 

 in real estate investments foot up about $4,500. 

 I sold a section of as good land as there is in the 

 valley for $1,000. It cost me about $2,500. A 

 great many of the farmers who are there are offer- 

 ing to sell their land at what it cost, and some of 

 them for much less, in order to get away ; but 

 they find it difficult to sell at any price. 



" An Italian colony of 30 families abandoned 

 their land, forfeiting all they had paid on it, and 

 left the country, after trying to raise crops two 

 years. 



" A Swiss colony, of about 40 families, found 

 their attempt equally disastrous. All are gone 

 but four or five families, and these are trying to 

 sell their lands, so as to recoup a part of their 

 losses. Hundreds of Americans have left the 

 valley after living there one to three years, many 

 of them having lost all the money they invested. 



" Don't ever allow yourself to be duped into 

 settling in that graveyard of blasted hopes and 

 wasted fortunes. Yours truly, 



" A. G. Ingram." 



Meeker, Colo. 

 Editor Recreation. 



Marvine Lodge, the Club House of the 

 Marvine Rod and Gun Club, is now open, under 

 the management of Wells and Patterson, whose 

 address is Meeker, Colo. 



The lodge is located on Marvine creek, in 

 northwestern Colorado ; is in the heart of the 

 great White river timber- reserve, and is 

 within easy reach of the famous hunting and 

 fishing grounds of that part of the State. Deer 

 are plentiful close to the lodge, and hundreds of 

 elk range within 20 miles. Forty miles to the 

 north there is said to be the largest herd of 

 antelope left in the United States, numbering 

 5,000 or more, while the trout fishing is equal 

 to any in the west. A fish a minute with a single 

 fly is the average catch at the Marvine lakes, only 

 seven miles away, while from 20 to 40 pounds is 

 the day's catch for an angler in Marvine creek, 

 or the North Fork of White river, within six 

 miles of the lodge. 



The lodge is 80 miles from Rifle, Colo., 

 on the D. & R. G. Ry., and is reached via 

 Meeker, by the stages of the Colorado Stage 

 and Transportation Company. 



Wells and Patterson are prepared to take hunt- 

 ing parties to the Elkhead mountains, California 

 park, the head waters of the Little Snake, Lost 

 lake, Lost park, the Pagoda peak country and 

 Williams Fork of the Bear. Marvine Lodge is 

 a delightful place at which to make headquarters 

 for hunting or fishing, or both. W. W. H. 



Editor Recreation. Marysvale, Wyo. 



I see in your magazine several items from this 

 part of the country, and wish to impress on the 

 minds of eastern sportsmen, who wish to visit 

 this region for sport, that it would be wise for 

 them to engage their guides in Wyoming. The 

 guides from Montana and Idaho have been com- 

 ing in here, and have allowed their parties to 

 slaughter game by wholesale, females and young, 

 as well as males. The law will be enforced 

 in this state during the coming season, and some 

 of these butchers will be made to pay dearly for 

 their lawlessness. One German outfit killed, 

 last fall, on Buffalo Fork, 30 head of elk, and 

 left their carcasses to rot ; and furthermore, got 

 a permit to carry their plunder through the Yel- 

 lowstone National park. If this sort of butchery 

 is not stopped, our elk, deer, mountain sheep and 

 antelope will soon be extinct. 



There is plenty of game here for the true 

 sportsman, but if this waste is permitted a few 

 more years, as in the last four or five years, your 

 lifles will rust on the wall, for there will be no 

 further use for them. Any information in regard 

 to this country, and to guides, can be had by 

 addressing Frank Petersen. 



Editor Recreation. Peekskill, N. Y. 



Recreation is a great and good magazine. It 

 fills a niche in sportsmen's literature almost to 

 perfection. The illustrations are elegant, and 

 the letter press fine. Now, after all this, you 

 might think you have a perfect magazine ; but it is 

 not so. There are thousands of men in this coun- 

 try, and the number is growingdaily, whose only 

 recreation is a couple of hours, once a week, at 

 trap shooting. This class of men are drawn 

 from every trade and profession. Doctors who, 

 in their boyhood days, tramped many a day, with 

 dog and gun, and who now have no time or 

 place to do so, gladly break away for a few hours, 

 and relax at the traps. Lawyers and merchants 

 are equally interested, and the large number of 

 strictly amateurs is constantly increasing. The 

 growth of trap shooting clubs, all over the coun- 

 try, is evidence enough of the popularity of the 

 sport. Modern powder and modern guns, new 

 traps and good inanimate targets, together with 

 an increased willingness on the part of gentle- 

 men to give up a little time occasionally from 

 business, is responsible for the increased interest 

 in this branch of recreation. 



It strikes me that a little space in your 

 esteemed journal, devoted to things most inter- 

 esting to amateur trap shooters, i. e. : results of 

 best and latest experiments with nitro powders ; 

 most approved methods of loading different 

 shells ; various wadding ; digest of tournaments; 

 results for the month, and many other things en- 

 tertaining and instructive, would fit nicely in your 

 pages. Then, as a matter of record, your maga- 

 zine is one that many would like to keep and 

 refer to occasionally, while the weekly sporting 

 papers are glanced over and lain aside. 



Possibly all this might excite some correspond- 

 ence that would prove beneficial to all. 



P. H. Mason, M. D. 



[I should be delighted to print just such mat- 

 ter as Dr. Mason outlines, in every issue of 

 Recreation, if he or other trap shooters will 

 kindly furnish it. — Ed.] 



