| OCR Text |
Show Page HERALD, Provo, Utah, Sunday, September 40-- THE 5, 1982 User Groups Want Slice of Deslolafion Canyon cowboys for McPherson between robBy PETER GILLINS Land Management's Price District. Canyon as the sandstone strata river trips begin at Sand Wash beries In fact, MCPHERSON'S RANCH, Utah "There are areas of the canyon that changes in color. Together, the canCurry was watching Butch Cassidy and his Wild are desirable to stockmen, oilmen, and yons make up one of the last scenic southeast of Duchesene Utah. They the rancher's cattle when he was shot (UPI) Bunch once dodged posses by sneaking recreation users." segments of the Green River that end at the town of Green River or at down by a posse that accidentially a "And we are now at a time when the hasn't ben included in a park or Swasey's Rapid few miles upstream. stumbled onto him while chasing anup the Green River through Desolation A takes five days at high other group of outlaws. After the a flooded dam. typical trip and Gray Canyons and swapping their pressures are building for the competby major or six days at low water when incident, a bewater the like runners River canyon tired horses for fresh mounts at he said. nearby canyon was named ing uses," t - Ranch. Two members of the gang, Flat Nose Curry and Joe Walker, were shot to death in the canyons by lawmen who tracked them down. Now 6,000 people a year use the canyons in eastern Utah for another kind of escape. They float down the river in rafts to get away from desks and traffic jams and the other monotonies of modern life. A boater can float for miles or even days without seeing another living soul. A few rugged ranchers and Ute Indians still use the the steep, sandstone canyons and narrow bottomland along the river for cattle grazing, as they did a hundred years ago. Energy companies also have some uses for the river and the land near it. They have filed applications to set up drilling rigs to search for natural gas or build pipelines to pump water from the Green to benchlands above, where there are deposits of tar sands. There are only a handful of drivea-bl- e roads leading into the deep gorge, drive enthusiasts like to but to camp and fish. them negotiate "Desolation Canyon is a classic case of resource conflict," said Jim Kenna, recreation manager for the Bureau of four-whe- cause it has a series of rapids that the current slows down. The canyon is like a giant museum grow progressively more difficult as a with massive exhibits in geology, ar downstream. floats boater "It's an excellent place to learn how cheology, biology and history. A geolto row rapids and handle a raft," said ogy buff can easily examine strata Scott Mosiman, BLM river ranger. that tell the story of the formation of "Boaters can start out on the easy most of eastern Utah. At many canyon entrances, the stuff and by the time they get to the harder rapids, they have an idea what rocks are covered with Indian petro-glyph- s and maps. The drawings seem they are doing." The trip has become so popular that to tell the story of ancient Fremont the BLM has instituted a permit Indian hunting expeditions, although system and limited the number of no one knows for sure. The canyons are full of wildlife people allowed down the canyon to about 6,000 per year. To protect the bighorn sheep, deer, chukar partridge beaches and campsites, the floaters and ducks. And the Green has excelare required to haul out all refuse, lent fishing for catfish. One side canyon holds the ruins of an including ashes from campfires and old bootleggers' hideout dating from human waste. Mosiman spends a large part of the the days of prohbition. The location is summer cleaning up after those who so remote and so few people know don't observe the rules. The river about it, part of the still remains. The runners, he said, tend to be a cleaner bootlegger's rotting clothes hang on d lot than the people who venture into pegs on the wall years after the canyon down few the treacherous they were abandoned. McPherson's Ranch at Florence jeep roads. n on the "You would think it would be easy to Creek was once a trail. Its outlaw a if Jim McPher-so- n haul out founder, you driving it." garbage often swapped horses with Cassidy Desolation Canyon was named by truck," he said. "But for some reason, John Wesley Powell during his historic the drive-i- n visitors try to bury it or and hired other members of the Wild to tend his cattle. exploration of the Colorado River sys- leave it in a pile. Burrying it doesn't Bunch Both Curry and Walker worked as tem in 1869. Desolation leads into Gray do any good because the animals dig it The scenery in the two connecting canyons is spectacular as the river flows through a gorge as deer, as the Grand Canyon in some places. But unlike the Grand, which is a protected national park, Desolation and Gray areas. Canyons are multiple-us- e Much of the gorge could end up as a wilderness area, however. The BLM is studying the canyons for possible inclusion in a national wilderness system. BLM officials recently completed a wilderness review of most of the 22 million acres the agency manages in Utah. But the two canyons along the Green are so rugged and have so many unique features and conflicting claims, the study will take longer. "A lot of the area along the river is wilderness," said Kenna. "But a lot is already in use and has been in use for more than a century." "I don't think we are on the verge of locking it up, or on the verge of a he said. development "But we are going to have to manage Twin LIST DOORS OPEN 1 Ms asp FREF J 3 PC. DURABLE HERCUION BOOKCASE LIVING ROOM HEADBOARD PIT MATTRESS SET SOFA SLEEPERS WATERBED Starling at Tioimiini i 10PC.VELVET DINETTE Dog Pans ESTIMATES Horse Corrals 0 ACME FENCE CG FREt WHOLCSALC .i n 'hi niinmuMOfi - 224-539- 1 RETAIL " ESTIMATES CON'ACTOH 1440 WEST CENTER OKM Id mn. i 0 A.M. DOORS CLOSE 6 ML! Mismatched BEAUTIFUL 1 EN $kmm $1098.95 CE Chain Link Fence WIllUiflStiK imi.m.m.mi u'HMiiwiiHiiHftiUMH vij(iii)rVHf7Timiinfuiit?nfmrnn Size. wuMUUb s. .fcRAFFrrr way-statio- YiS! MONDAY, LABOR DAY! 5-PIE- Walker was killed in one of the more gun battles in western history. A posse sneaked up and shot him while he was asleep in his bei:oll. McPherson's Ranch now belongs to the Ute Indian Tribe which built and attempted to operate a hunting lodge at the site in the 1960s. But the venture failed and the modern cinder block buildings are now boarded up. They look strangely out of place next to the ignominious free-for-all- ," mm i in Curry's memory. log and sandstone ranch buildings and corrals. An extension of the Ute Reservation runs along the east side of the River for about 50 miles and the Tribe has closed much of the land to hiking and To the west are fishing by the rugged Bookcliff Mountains home of trophy mule deer and bears. In 1911, developers tried to build one of the first dams on the Colorado system at Coal Creek. But they went broke and the project was never finished. A popular river campsite is now located near the stone ruins of the old construction buildings just below roaring Coal Creek Rapid. But the idea of a dam in the narrow canyons is still alive. 11 uU Vvvs . SOFA, 10VE SEAT & CHAIR i i w ft i 11 ChU 1 ix ii 1 7 PC. ii DEN i i i WASHER & DRYER BOARDS STARTING AT uvvll u 1 1 FRICIDAIRE HEAD SOLID PINE GROUP UvaJH U rcrcrfliiHuiiHronniinii ii 1 1 1 1 $ ii r "M uvmi ii ii u ii cji . i LOT BEAUTIFUL TABLES s 15 3 DRAWER BEDROOM CHESTS s33 1444444444444444 Mil CIBSON 21 CU. FT. FREEZER IMPORTANT PUBLIC NOTICE: YES, LADIES & GENTLEMEN...PLEASE DO NOT TO COMPLETELY 10r.il & CAR STEREO BE MISLED...WE ARE CLOSING OUR PROVO STORE ONLY...BUT WE ARE ALSO LIQUIDATING THE ENTIRE INVENTORY .OF OUR WM r88 TRI-AXI- 100-WA7- T 100-WAT- T OREM STORE IN ORDER CONSOLIDATE SPEAKERS . AL EQUALIZER BOOSTER AMFM Cassette with Auto triaxial speakers, Reverse, 140-wa- tt ln-da- SO SHOP BOTH STORES FOR PRIME FURNITURE sh 140-wo- 10-Ba- tt Equalizer. nd AND APPLIANCES STOCKS AT SALVAGE PRICES! u VAvvKX7UUUU" . ... J38 COMPLETE CAR STEREO SYSTEM AND REORGANIZE THIS LOCATION AT 560 N. STATE! I .'38 pr. IIAAw iv j H f K amimz t ; " s v W fill d I ii m vjlu V . q1 . i i 1 1 WD ijjaih ran $ fl (5) (y) JJ Compare at $429. |
