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46 First draft of letter, in noto-book Martinez, Jan, 28, '05. Mr. 0. 0. Way land, Dear Sir: I thank you very much
for your long painstaking account of the changes being made about my first American home My father first settled on the farm
you describe when he came from Scotland in 1849. It was then altogether unbroken in prairie wildness,and the picture of its
lily-rimmed lake and its flowery ferny meadows and hills has always been hold in loving memory. Change after change followed
the settlement of the country in general, but the change you have described is far the greatest of all, and one I could never
have imagined. More than ever I look fondly back to the time of its perfect beauty before it felt the touch of eager restless
human action. I have wandered far and wide over this beautiful world, but nothing more beautiful have l seen than that little
green lake and meadow and its surrounding sandy hills in the Oak Openings of Wisconsin. What I thought of it will in part
appear in an address l made a few years ago before the S.C. Sierra Club /ln S. F., a copy of which I send you with this. The
pictures you offer to send me 1 shall be very glad to get. Thanking you again, I am. Faithfully yours, John Muir 03098