Jensen, Utah, July 18, 1920

Dr. Wm. J. Holland

Carnegie Museum

Pittsburg, Pa.



My dear Dr. Holland:-

In a recent letter you asked me to write you fully about myself and my enterprises. For a long time I have been intending to do this, as our relations are such that you ought to know my plans and circumstances. I do not desire to burden you with complaints and hard luck stories, but desire to tell you the truth as nearly as I can so you can see the conditions as they exist. I do not need to expatiate on the high expense of living, the present financial conditions, the universal shortage of food and the epidemic of lunacy which has swept over the supposedly civilized world. It is the burden of newspapers, magazines, books and common talk. I only need mention them as they effect [sic] my work and my future.

During the last two or three years I have passed through the severest, long continued struggle of my existence though my whole life has been an unceasing struggle not only for mere existence but for some attainment worthy of a man. Old age is not far ahead if life continues, failure of health may come at any time. We have tried to lay our plans to meet these things, not as paupers but on the basis of independence.

I do not wish to make the plea that I have been a martyr to science. I have not slavishly followed abstract duty but have been guided by my own inner motives and impulses. By doing this I have undoubtedly accomplished a little for science. I have done some things which I desired to do and in some ways have had a rich experience. In the new, developing west I have seen opportunities to gain a competency if I could have devoted my best thoughts an[d] energies to making money but the thirst for deeper knowledge and the fascination of discovery have led me on and made me pass material opportunities by. You can realize from your own experience that what I have done is only a portion of what I have aspired to do, yet no one but myself realizes all that I wish to accomplish. I will tell you later of two or three plans which I have wished to carry out but have sometimes almost given them up on account of the hard struggle for existence. Some of the other designs, if I should try to tell them would probably only provoke a smile.

As a quiet refuge and a place to do mental work to really live, we have, for many years, made our plans for a home of our own in the midst of the grandeur of nature. With a sufficient amount of funds to carry the thing through I know of nothing more fascinating than making a new home in a new country and putting ones individuality into that home. I am passionately fond of pioneering and recall early days in Dakota when the beautiful prairies were "scattered o'er" with cabin homes, and people were neighbors, and, aside from some prejudices and misunderstandings about the unknown and a future existence, seemed like brothers and sisters, and had few false ideas about birth or station. It has been my fortune to be in a new country nearly all my life, and I must say that I would not care to live long in the old "sleepy hollows" of mental stagnation and I despise the overgrown cities with all their misery, shams and degeneracy. I rather be where man obtains his means of subsistence fresh from nature, adds his little to the wealth of the world and robs nobody. I do not like the bug or worm that destroys the crops I try to raise but I can poison or smash him and he can't put up a plea of murder or manslaughter as a human parasite would probably do. I know there are intellectual advantages in some large cities, and I miss a large library more than anything else. When I left Pittsburg last I was nearly bankrupt in health. When I came here some people thought I had about reached my mortal destination. The last doctor who treated me in the city said that I would probably have to have my stomach pumped and occasionally or frequently. I said, aside, "I'll die first". Although the work has been harder here and there has been more mental strain and worry yet my health on the whole has gradually grown better. I can hardly remember a time before when I could eat all I desired and drink much water without suffering more or less afterward. Now I can eat all I wish and it doesnt disturb my stomach half as much as it does my bank account. Yet I am thin in flesh, my hair is gray and I judge that I look ten or fifteen years older than I did three years ago, but I have recently had all of my teeth taken out and am not quite ready for new ones.

Our dry-farming was only a little experimenting while fencing, clearing land etc., but I learned a good deal from it. We now have water on all the land we need to farm, and though it has cost us a good deal of money and trouble our right is absolutely independent and under our own control. Some more work will have to be done to perfect it, but when it becomes fully efficient no one can dictate when or how we are to use the water and no one can water-log our land by the injudicious use of water on adjoining land. We have had our troubles and it has cost us a good deal of money, as we began at a time when prices went upward. We have had to incur some debt to keep the thing going and that is the source of the greatest worry. The land, however, is more than worth the expense if we put the project through to perfect success. Wild land in the region is worth only a few dollars per acre while improved land with water is worth $100 or more. We have secured over 600 acres of land and I know of no better proposition in its line in the country.

It is true we have all worked beyond our strength, have deprived ourselves of outside pleasures and have had few luxuries. We appreciate as keenly as any the real pleasures of life but while many have been madly spending their increased earnings in display and the search for amusements, we in the face of high prices and drouth conditions, have been trying to make a home. Sometimes we are almost disheartened and feel like giving up but that we cannot afford to do. We must go on. We are not alone however. We realize that all the world is in trouble. This part of the country seemed to escape shortage of food supplies etc until last year. The whole northwest suffered from what was probably the severest drouth that had been known. The country had become over stocked with cattle and sheep. Last year the streams were low. There was not enough water for the crops. Hay and grain were scarce. Feed on the range was short. The winter was severe. Millions of pounds of grain was shipped into the country, and then about 40 or 50 per cent of stock died or was shipped out. High prices for feed, big losses, and then in spring a short clip of wool, prices dropping, and no sale for cattle has, as people express it "put stock men on the bum" and they are "guessing where they are going to get off at". Crops, however, are good here this year and we probably will have enough to eat. We have a good-sized garden and some field crops planted and if we bring them through it will help some, though conditions are such that one can hardly make crops pay expenses until after the second or third year. It is a big thing however to get a good start.

We resumed work for a time on our stone bungalow, got the stone walls nearly completed, and bought the material for completing it except lumber for roof which we could not get, but on account of financial conditions we again discontinued work for a time at least. It will be a fine and comfortable residence when it is completed. We are all disappointed in not getting into it before the hot season. It would be cooler and the surroundings are so much pleasanter. To get it so we can live it is one of the supreme efforts of my life. Mrs. Douglass and my sister are neither of them well and conditions where we live now are not ideal. I estimate that it will cost between $600 and $1000 to complete house and irrigation plans, so we could have a good home and raise a good crop next year. I may be able to procure this next fall. We do not publish our private business affairs but you understand why I am so frank with you.

I would much like to continue my work as collector and geologist. There are times when I wish to go back to Montana, reexamine the ground with mature's[?] experience and write a report at least outlining the later Tertiary history -- Oligocene, Miocene and later -- of Montana. My experience there was unique and never will be duplicated. I went into a large new field almost untouched and collected fossil mammals, previously unknown from a dozen or more different horizons. The conditions of deposition, continued in frequent disturbances and erosion have been such that, in places, there is such an apparent mixture of formations, that, without the determining fossils, one cannot tell where he is geologically. In many of these places I have undoubtedly stripped the beds of fossils so that, if I do not leave the proper maps and records, it will be difficult if not impossible for the future geologist to determine the horizons or read the history aright. I am confident, too, that some more valuable fossil mammals can be obtained at certain localities. This later-Tertiary history, if properly written would be a geological revelation.

In this great Uintah Basin we have stupendous exhibition of Lower Tertiary (Eocene) strata, just the portions which are principally wanting (aside from the lowest Eocene) in Montana. Most of the western (Mountain) divisions of the lower Tertiary are apparently represented here on a large scale. In the Fort Union(?) Wasatch, Wind River(?) Green River, and Lower, Middle and Upper Uintah formations fossils have been found and there are hopes of more valuable discoveries. I would like to write, so far as I am able, the geology of the Uintah Basin. It would not only have purely scientific value but from an economic point of view there is no place, I believe, where barest geological work would save more money or where there is a better prospect of its leading to the opening up of valuable products. Though the basin is "slopping over" in nearly every direction with the supposed residue of oils, no one, so far as I am aware is at all thoroughly acquainted with the geological conditions which, of course form the Gordian Knot of the whole problem. Peterson and I seem to be the only persons who know much about the Tertiary here. I certainly would like to make arrangements to live here and continue my work here the greater portion of my time. You have then two of the projects in which I am interested. the latter, at least, I may yet be able to carry out.

In some aspects I have taken my stature, perhaps, as well as a man can measure himself. It is plain that I will never be a palaeontologist, at least the kind I would wish to be. It requires a vast amount of preparatory work and knowledge. I started too late and haven't had the opportunities. With regard to laboratory work many younger men can do as well. Some have read more geological literature and learned more things that are not true but for a quarter of a century I have been in pretty close contact with the thing itself. As you know, salaries for scientific work are not sufficient now to keep a man and his family comfortably. I was talking, a few days ago with a former member of the U. S. Geological Survey. Nearly all of the boys who were working on the survey have quit and accepted better paying geological positions. They paid beginners $100 per month and paid their expenses in the field. Now they offer $150.00 but cant get the men. Geological work is beginning to be better appreciated and has commercial value.

I have, for a long time, thought seriously about my future relations to the institutions which I have tried to serve for the last eighteen years, and have believed that arrangements perfectly satisfactory to all can be made. The institution is young, has had a phenomenal growth, and it is an honor, as I have found, to have even a small part to play in its progress. I do not wish to be fired. I do not want to resign at present. I feel that the museum needs me to get out the things now partly uncovered and clear up the work here. The records and charts should be compiled, revised and verified, and made so that even the wayfaring man can understand them, though it might be expedient or necessary for me to personally visit the museum once or twice. I think I could gradually work into more paying work here, at least until my home is established on a paying basis, and still do the work for which the museum needs me. Expert geological work brings good pay and need not take all of ones time. I would be almost certain to find material that would be of value to the museum and could procure it for them at a minimum cost. I hope that I can, at least, be nominally connected with the museum, anyway during the present administration if I live.

I will try to keep you informed concerning developments here, as you might desire to come at some particular stage of the game. Be sure to write and let me know. I do not leave more than once or twice a year and then only for a few days. I have not taken any formal vacation for years, and do not have even Sundays for rest but I am getting so worn out with constant work and care that I may have to get out for a few days. Mrs. Douglass is now taking a little rest and treatment in Vernal. Is having a little surgical work done to day.

Am sorry to hear of Miss Striblings condition. It is so sad. But we have feared it for a long time. How are the other members of the staff?

Gawin is getting good schooling, but it is not decided what he will do the next school year. Utah probably has as good schools as any state in the union.

Would you have at least the Annual Reports sent to me. I am still interested in its progress but for some reason there seems an indisposition to send me anything of the kind, and none but yourself and Peterson would write me a line if Brontosaurus should die and all the rest of the Dinosaurs come to life.



Yours as ever,

Earl Douglass