Show UTAHS HIGHEST PEAK I Uintah Surveyors Found One 14449 Feet High A COUNTRY OF SURPRISES Remarkably Rich Farming Land in I the Valliys Indians Giving No Trouble Mountains Moun-tains Rich in Minerals Hunt for the Rhodes Mine I Did we meet with any hardships Well rather The speaker was J E Raymond n member of the Dick and Palson surveying survey-ing party which has just returned from the Uintah reservation where it has been engaged on Government work for nearly four months past The work of surveying the reservation In preparation prepara-tion for the opening which occurs October ton Lobe 2nd next ho been practically I completed except for the examination examina-tion for approval which will be made In the spring Asked lo particularize In regard re-gard to the hardships encountered on t such an excursion Mr Raymond said FOUND SOME HIGH PEAKS Well It goes without saying that we didnt ride over the country In a parlor car neither were we served with many porterhouse steaks or mince pies There were seventeen In our party and our work was mostly on the north side of the reservation where the t land Is straight up We found a monument on Emmons peak which said 11419 feet altitude al-titude and we also crossed Bold mountain and Gilbert peak which are respectively 12215 feet and 13222 feet high Much of the traveling In this region was over slide rock and boulders mountain high and through snow several sev-eral feet dcej In many places our pack outfits had to go around twentyfive or I thirty miles while we were making a mile or two over a mountain One time I took a slide of 200 feel down the side of < perpendicular cliff but was only bruised a little and managed to up ltle 1wnngt save the compass r was carrying FISH FOR STEADY DIET The entire party was driven out of camp one night by a big black bear I which was ao ravenous that it ate up the best part of our supplies While we were at the head of Lake Creek we sent men to Ducheone liter supplies and they took the wrong trail with the result that we lived a week on fish and rice Yes there are great numbers offish of-fish in the streams but they are not the blat thing In the world for n steady diet NO THOU LE WITH INDIANS We didnt have any real trouble with the Indians bill we did get pretty badly scared at first on account of their actions After we had been out four or five days we began to see Indians In the huphoB watchlnf us ant they looked as though their hearts were bad or their livers were out of order I made us nervous to feel them looking at us that way nnd we sent word down to CmiU Mercer at White Rocks and he sent out a detachment of soldiers The Indians suddenly disappeared and we did imt see I thor any more except occasionally when t stray one would come Into camp for something to cat ITS A GREAT LAND But its S great country theres ro mistake about thai There are minerals of ali kinds in the mountain and In the southern and central parts of the reservation reser-vation there are ns line farming and grazing lands as I ever aw I would Judge there are at least twentytwo townships of good farming land besides any amount of grazing country and much of It is well watered At the head of Hock Creek about the center of the reservation we encountered twenty three lakes l and we had to meander every one of them The country Is heavily wooded and there Is an abund heavIy nc inC of grass while even among the pines the wild oats grows as high as a mans shoulders IN STRAWBERRY VALLEY The Strawberry valley in the southwest south-west part Is a line farming country and In the northwest corner Is a plateau where the iron prospects are The coalfields coal-fields on Dry Fork are already being I worked to some extent to supply the fort and the lowns of While Tlockr Aahleys Fork and Vernal I think the richest gold and silver deposits will be found at the head of Uintah creek The Dead Mans mine about which there was so much excitement eleven or twelve years ago when the human bones were found a llhe entrance to the deserted tunnel is about twelve miles from this locality I also believe that the famous mine of pure gold nuggets which Col Rhodes of Vernal claims to have discovered thirty years ago only to lose again will be found here if It ever existed outside the Colonels fertile Imagination COL TTMMS ON A HUNT Col Tlmnis of Washington with 1 pull which I do not pretend to understand under-stand was prospecting on the rcbcrva tlon forthe Rhodes mine while we were there hut I didnt learn that he met with any SUCCCPS Rhodes was with him a part of the trine and my private opinion is that Rhodes was engaged in stringing him But whether Oils I wonderful mine exists or not ilrcre Is unquestionably great mineral wealth in the reservation and there will be a great scramble for the lands both mineral min-eral and agricultural when It is opened up |