On October 4, 1899, Karl wrote a letter to his younger sister Mattie from Moyelle (now Moyie), British Columbia. He used telegram paper from the Canadian Pacific Railway, which had the following printed instructions:

Operators are required to write all messages in ink.

This form is to be used for Railroad Service messages only.

The exact sending and receiving time, initials of the sending and receiving operator, and the signal of the office with which business is done, must be plainly noted on the face of the message.

After transmitting telegrams, operators must attach a copy to T.D. Form 157 and forward it to the Division Chief Operator if, in their judgement, the telegram would have served the company’s interest better if sent by train mail.

Needless to say, Karl's pencil-written letter to Mattie didn't quite adhere to the CPR's strict guidelines printed on the telegram paper, but this particular letter is a gem.

Dear Mattie;

I made 21 miles today just imagine and yesterday I made 51, what do you think of that? Yesterday I hadn’t to walk more than 8 miles and only got lost once such an enjoyable trip I never had before it was a great pleasure indeed after what I had to go through the few days before I had to walk over the ties for 85 miles from crows nest station to Elko over a road that was not filled in at all just like the CPR over by the gravel pit. I could make about 20 miles a day. I get used all right through this wild country as well or even better than anywhere else I think.

I have seen some pretty “tall” scenery out in the mountains here. I passed through (yesterday) 50 miles of pine timber trees as high as you could see depending of course how you looked at it, and as big as a barrel and often larger and as straight as H, it made my mouth water.

This must interest you immensely, it will Pa anyhow. Right around here every tree is Tamarac, something like spruce and cross between pine & spruce, I guess.

Excuse me one jiffy -

A man just came in and now he has gone again. I took a telegraph from him and had to cut it down to 10 words. I’m running this office tonight. The opr. is in town 1 mile away having a ‘circus” I guess, half of the men on this road are full most of the time.

There is a train due in about 25 min. I will just hold it till the operator shows up again supposing it is not till morning.

I came from Cranbrook today as far as Moyie pronounced Moya then out here 1 mile further. When near here my tire punctured and as the people of this town asked me to be their guest until morning I decided to stay. I was made wanted in the whole town. Just imagine there are not a great many people here, only the opr. section foreman and half a dozen men in the boarding car. There is only one building beside this station house but that is the way with the majority of these towns.

I have never seen a painted building except CPR section houses and water tanks since I left to Mcleod. At Moyie this afternoon, the newspaper editor took me through the lead and silver mines which have been just recently discovered. There were 2 men killed here last night and I was in the tunnel right in the same spot this afternoon. One was a Nova Scotian.

No one ever went through this country on a “bike” before. Remember 10 months ago there was nothing in this country except a few prospectors camps, no railroad and now everything is booming, good wages, drinking you never heard of anything like it, every man in the country gets good and full at every chance.

In Moyie a town 400 there are 7 hotels run for just what can be made. You can call a man anything in this country they will only laugh at you. Everyone is good natured. All get “full” but they are all after the “coin”. 50c for a meal at the section house is nothing but I never had to pay it. I will be in Nelson tomorrow night. I will have to cross Kootenay lake 52 miles, cost $2.00 but my face is going to take me across.

I will give a gent a song and dance and will get over ok. Will be in Rossland in a few days, I may have to go down into Idaho for a little ways then up to Greenwood, BC. But do not know exactly. I may leave my wheel at Robson, jump a passenger train (heal end) and go to Rossland for 2 days then come back and work my way up to Arrowhead then wheel 28 miles to Revelstoke. I know almost every inch of country between here and the coast.

So many tell me how to go and I could have gone via Fort Steel and Golden but then I would just be back to into the rockies again. Pretty cold and there’s snow and warm enough in the daytime though.

Minerva comes next for a letter if I am not mistaken I am all off. I don’t know to whom I do owe letters. This is a hard country for wheeling. One of these days I will depart hence from this country and will wipe the dust from my “bike” as I leave it to enter another country.

A man asked me today if I was not often tired. I said no. Strange isn’t it when my “bike” is tired all the time, he tumbled after a few minutes. Don’t you think I will die quite young being so smart.

There are any amount of bears in this country, queer I never saw any yet. I have seen everything else in the way of wild animals. I know every blooming country or bit of country around here even if I have not been over it yet. Do you know why this is called Crows Nest Point? Well at beginning of the mountains it is like this you see the hills and a pass leading into a valley, well some Crow Indians were chased by a tribe of some other brand of Indian when they walk into this valley through the pass then a few of them got up on the hills and any person coming through this pass was shot quite easily hence Crows Nest.

I had my picture taken by a chap in the mountains. I was surrounded by high mountains on every side perhaps he will send one to you if he does you will notice Crow Nest Mt. in the background. How far do you think that mountain is away? On the top is any amount of snow and ice as are all the other peaks I saw and all around the foot of it is any amount of timber which could not be seen at all from where I stood then. That peak looked to be about 2 miles away. Well from where I am in the picture that Crows Nest Mtn. is over 25 miles away. So you see how deceptive it is to a “tenderfoot” to size up distances of mountains. I was 20 miles east of Lethbridge when I saw “rockies” first, I could have sworn they were no more than 20 miles at most. They were 85 or more only when I was 30 miles away they looked as though one could easily throw a stone and hit them.

Well that train has arrived and after stamping this I will close. This is the stamp I get in my book when I strike a place that cannot boast of a Post Office, it is very seldom. I see a post office. You must excuse bad writing but what can you expect of a fellow that writes such long letters anyone would know he was not all there, Karl C.

My travels seeing the mountains coincided with layers of fog which I think provided an air of mystery, enveloping the secrets of the mountains.