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The end of the trail

Chapter 20: VIII THE MODERN ARGONAUTS
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About This Book

A travel narrative tracing a motor journey across the western frontier from New Mexico toward British Columbia, blending vivid landscape description, encounters with frontier communities and Native pueblos, and practical observations on routes, road conditions, agriculture, mining, and local industries. The author intersperses personal adventure anecdotes with guidebook-style information about climates, land values, and resources, and portrays the continuing presence of pioneer livelihoods—pack trains, ranching, prospecting—alongside emerging coastal development and orchards. Chapters alternate regional sketches, cultural notes, and travel advice, offering both evocative scenes and factual material for prospective settlers and adventurous motorists.

VIII
THE MODERN ARGONAUTS

“For once you’ve panned the speckled sand and seen the bonny dust,
Its peerless brightness blinds you like a spell;
It’s little else you care about; you go because you must,
And you feel that you could follow it to hell.
You’d follow it in hunger, and you’d follow it in cold;
You’d follow it in solitude and pain;
And when you’re stiff and battened down let some one whisper ‘Gold,’
You’re lief to rise and follow it again.”