Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1916 — Oakland, Cal., Adopts the Mountain of Laughter [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Oakland, Cal., Adopts the Mountain of Laughter

OAKLAND, CAL.—Oakland has adopted the Mountain of Laughter, that storied western peak whose ragged shoulders rise 4,000 feet straight into the blue from the flat plain beside this city of 150,000 souls. The drives and

scenic boulevards which will connect the parks on old Diablo are to wind through the Garden of Jungle Gods. The giant frog, the whaler the elephant, the pigeon, the mastodon and bearded man are but a few of the curious, rocky shapes that speckle the rugged sides of Kop-Wah-Koom. By air line, Mount Diablo is distant from this city about fifteen miles. Sinoa July, 1851, Diablo has been a base meridian —the point from which all California surveys have been made.

"We need Diablo as a scenic asset,” said the citizens of Oakland. Wherefore the Merchants’ exchange—a business men’s organization—climbed td the summit of the mountain in a bodyland adopted it. « We of Oakland herebv adopt you, sentinel peak, guardian of half our state ” said the president, and broke a bottle of wine, brewed from grapes grown on Diablo’s sides, over the monument that marks the base merld.aa auto highway, an average oTF Den cent, has been completed to the summit Other boulevards are contemplated and an observa, torv and hotel will crown the giant pile. ' Diablo known to the Indians as Kop-Wah-Koom, the mountain of i-mrhter ”’has become the mecca for the motor tourists. From its summit one can look down upon half the state of California. Forty thousand squars jnliea, comprising 27 counties, are spread out in a vast panorama. _ ’ V . ... ■--- ■ ■ ' r-7 W