Transcription:
Rough draft of letter To Helen Hunt Jackson Martinez, June 16th, 1885 My dear Mrs. Jackson: Your letter of June 8th
has shown me how sick you are, but also that your good angel is guiding you to the mountains, and therefore I feel sure that
you will soon be well again. When I came to California from the swamps of Florida, full of malarial poison, I crawled up
the mountains over the snow into the blessed woods about Yosemite Valley, and the exquisite pleasure of convalescence that
came to me at once and exuberant rebound to perfect health seem still as fresh and vivid after all these years as if enjoyed
but yesterday. The conditions you lay down for your itinerary seem to me desperately forbidding. No path accessible to your
compound congregation can be traced across the range, maintaining anything like an elevation of 4000 feet, to say nothing
of coolness and moisture, while along the range the topography is still less compliant to your plans. When I was tracing the
Sequoia belt from the Calaveras to illegible Kern River I was compelled to make a descent of 9000 ft. in one continuous swoop
in crossing the Kings River Valley, while the ups and downs from ridge to ridge throughout the whole course averaged nearly
5000 feet. No considerable portion of the middle and southern Sierra is cool and moist at 4000 ft during late summer, for
there you are only on the open margin of the main forest zone, which is sifted during the day by the dry warm winds that blow
across the San Joaquin plains and foothills, though the night winds from the summit of the range make the nights delightfully
cool and refreshing. The northern Sierra is considerably cooler and moister at the same heights. From the end of the Oregon
R.R. beyond Redding you might work up by a gentle grade of fifty miles or so to Strawberry Valley where the elevation is 4000
feet. There is abundance of everything, civil illegible as well as wild, and from thence circle away all summer around Mt.
Shasta where the circumference is about 100 miles, and only a small portion of your way would lie much above or below the
required elevation, and only the North side, in Shasta Valley, would you find rather dry and warm, perhaps, while you would
reach an express station at every round or a good messenger could find you in a day from the station at any point in your
orbit. And think how glorious a centre you would have -so glorious and inspiring that I would gladly revolve there, weary,
afoot, and alone for all eternity. The Kings River yosemite would be a delightful summer den for you, abounding in the best
the mountains have to give. Its elevation is about 5000 ft. length 9 miles, and it is reached by way of Visalia and Hyde's
Mills among the Sequoias of the Kaweah, but not quite accessible to your wheels and pans, I fear. Have you considered the
redwood region of the Coast Range about Mendocino? There you would find coolness, moist air, and spicy woods at a moderate
elevation. If an elevation of 6000 ft. were considered admissible, I would advise your going on direct to Truckee by rail,
rather than to Dutch Flat, where the climate may be found too dry and hot. From Truckee by easy stages to Tahoe City and thence
around the Lake and over the lake all summer. This, as you must know, is a delightful region -- cool and moist and leafy,
with abundance of food and express stations, etc. What an outfit you are to have - terrible as an army with banners I scarce
dare think of it. What will my poor Douglas squirrels say at the sight? They used to frisk across my feet, but I had only
two feet, which seemed too many for the topography in some places, while you have a 100, besides wooden spokes and spooks.
Under ordinary circumstances they would probably frighten the maid and stare the doctor out of countenance, but every tail
will be turned haste and hidden at the bottom of the deepest knotholes. And what shuffling and haste there will be in the
chaparral when the bears are getting away Even the winds might hold their breath, I fancy, 'pause and die'and the great pines
groan aghast at the oncoming of so many shining cans and carriages and strange colors. But go to the mountains where and
how you will, you will soon be free from the effects of this confusion, and God's sky will bend down about you as if made
for you alone, and the pines will spread their healing arms above you and bless you and make you well again, and so delight
the heart of J.M. Folder marked My letter to H.H. on her proposed trip into the Sierra for health