" Yes. " " A mile.." 

California Coast Trails

Here we find Chase in Jolon, where he sadly

has to part with Chino. I recently visited what

is left at this now, still, remote location.

___________

" A mile beyond the river I saw a ranch house in the distance,

and knew by a flutter of linen it was inhabited. A young woman

answered my hail by opening a window 6 inches. To my inquiry

whether I was on the road to Jolon, she replied curtly. " Yes. "

" And the distance? " " A mile. " With that the window was

slammed down and she vanished. This was somewhat chilling

demeanor from the first human being I had seen in nearly a

fortnight; but the news of my whereabouts was welcome enough.

We were soon on the main road, and by evening entered the village

and put up at a rustic inn where Chino tasted once again the

comforts of a stable and I of feminine cookery and housekeeping.

Jolon is a primitive place, though not an old one. It lies twenty miles

from the railway, but on a road which has fair amount of travel. A

dozen times a day an automobile charges through, with passengers

goggling through clouds of dust to catch those flying glimpses which

seem to satisfy the people who like that way of seeing the country.

The village consists of two store-and-hotel combinations, a church

seldom used, a school, three saloons, and about as many small

residences. A little creek, a branch of the San Antonio, runs through

the village, and is vocal all day with plovers; while trios and

quartettes of coyotes, wise beyond the range of poison or rifle,

perform in the dusk of dawn and evening. For the rest, I noted that

the dialect of Jolon is rather above than below the Western 

standard in amount and quality of profanity; and that days when

the thermometer registers a hundred odd degrees are pronounced

by Jolonians to be agreable.

What remains of the Dutton Hotel complex,

June 2024.

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( Story to be continued in the next post )