Show THE GEE1T AMERICAN DESERT Reminiscences of the Long Ago Plus Ultra Visits Old Scenes and Recalls the PastA Past-A Query by Horace Greeley Special Correspondence FISH SPRINGS TOOELE Co Utah Jan 10th 1883 Editors Herald Being fully possessed by a demon of unrest and wishing to revisit the scenes of earlier years and prospect the mountain ranges over which I had passed many years ago as a Pony Express rider on the 27th of December I turned my back on the allurements of civilization the festivities of the New Year and wended my way toward the Great desert 1 reached Fairfield late in the evening of the same day and found shelter and creature comforts for man and beast with the presiding genius of the place genial Bishop Carson Camp Floyd after the defection de-fection of the then secretary of war rechristened Fort Crittenden exists only in name The present town occupies the site of what during the occupancy of the troops was known as Adobie rown The only thing which marks the spot where the barracks once stood is a few heaps of crumbling adobies and long lines of ashes and cinders where the army burned their fuel and superfluous II super-fluous equipments when they abandoned aban-doned the place The only member of the invading host now remaining in the place is one Snyder who follows fol-lows the peaceful vocations of merchant and farmer FAUSTS STATION Leaving Fairfield at an early hour next morning a few hours of sharp riding brought me to the vicinty of the old Rush Valley mail station at that time kept by H J Faust now a resident of your city AS I descended des-cended the l long benches approaching approach-ing the station my memory recalled re-called each hill ravine and gully unchanged and familiar as in tho days of 58 and 59 So vividly did past events and association arise in my f memory mem-ory that forgetting the present in reminiscences of the past I almost expected as I rode up to the house to hear the old cry of Express which used to greet the ears of the incoming rider and see the familiar famil-iar faces hear the cheery voices of Faust and his amiable wife bidding me welcome as in days of yore Alas I the landscape is the only thing unchanged the station house Is net the same the station keeper and his assistants are gone and the place will know them again no more Of the half a hundred jolly reckless fellows who under Major Howard Egan risked life and limb among the western deserts and their savage denizens for scanty fare and a miserable pittance they never received in the employ of George Chorpenning mail contractor con-tractor and I presume the parent of star routers the greater number have passed into the valley of the shadow of death and the remaining remain-ing few like myself are looking backward from among the first gray shadows of that same land of uncertainties POINT LOOKOUT PASS So named as from its summit the westward bound travelers get the first sight of the Great American Desert Mounting the pass I halted to place a stone on the grave of the emigrant who was killed by n stroke of lightning during a thunderstorm thunder-storm in the summer of 59 This recalled a laughable incident which occurred shortly afterwardA wagon arrived in Ruby Valley laden with a beverage at that time known as Moons Valley Tan One of the station men named Perkins got his neck full and in his inebriety persisted per-sisted in monkeying with a wild mule On some of his comrades cautioning him to beware or the animal ani-mal would kill him he exclaimed Tm the man that lightning struck Im too brave to die Uttering this bravado he staggered forward and the hybrid seeing a favorable opportunity fqr getting even with his tormentor handed him one with the easy graceful abandon of which only a mule is capeabl of extending such favors When Perkins recovered from the shock he gazed with a frightened repentant look into his comrades faces and inquired Say boys did lightning strike me THE DESERT When Horace Greeley crossed the continent I had the privilege of accompanying him over a portion of the routefrom Simpson Spring to Deep Creek When we reached summit of Dugaway Mountainwe halted for the purpose of eating a lunch The sun was bright the sky I cloudless and the eminent journalist journal-ist could look out over the vast expanse ex-panse of desert Looking northward north-ward the desert stretches away level and unbrokensave where au occasional mountain peak rises abruptly like an island from the midst of the sea of sand and white I alkaline fiats until it is lost in the blue haze of the horizon Southward South-ward the gaze rests on the innumerable innumer-able low black ridges of the desert mountains alternated with the des yjate looking strips of desert coveted cov-eted with greasewood and wilds wild-s ge Westward the range of vis urn is oubtructed by the majestic now aplled peaks of the Ivanpah Me until us Gazing long and silently si-lently on the seemingly limitless iie ert befoie LIDO he at length said more in soliloquy than to the stage driver and me It has been said there is nothing created cre-ated in vain but here is a vast scope of country in an unfinished state at least the Creator has not revealed its utility Will it ever be of any use to man Had the sage of Chataqaa lived to the present day he could have been answered and in the affirmative SHEEP WALKS The greatest and most inexhaustible inexhausti-ble in the world Durinc the summer sum-mer season the mountain ranges lying east of Salt Lake City as tar as Hams Fork of Green RIver are the feeding grounds of innumerable flocks of sheep Each flock varies in number from one to five thousand thou-sand head This is the summer range socalled but on the first approach of winter when the snow on the low desert mountains will afford water enough to sustain the shepherds the flocks are started toward to-ward the desert At this time go where you may on the desert lying between Grantsville on the east and Deep Creek on the west for a hundred miles north and south of this point the desert is dotted with sheep wagons The wagon an ordinary or-dinary twohorse vehicle with projections pro-jections covering the wheels to afford af-ford convenience for sleeping a small stove in the front end for 1 heating and cooking purposes is usually occupied by two men or a man and a boy The sheep browse and keep tat on the greasewood white sage bitter bush and shad scales one of the varieties of the I greasewood The flock will feed out from the wagon during the day to a distanceof half or threefourths of a mile the shepherds keeping a watch over their movements from the wagon As nightfall approaches the shepherd mounts one of the wheels of the wagon waves his arms frantically in the direction of S the flock and shouts to his dog Round em Shep Hoy Hoy Round era Shep II Away go the doers and in a few minutes the trained canines have the flock under full run for the wagon which haying hay-ing reached they huddle up and lie down quietly so remaining until morning when they are again permitted per-mitted to wander forth This is the daily routine for at least four months of the year solitary and alone when the feed is exhausted in one place moving to another Without companionship of any kind the shepherds live except when visited by some of the owners for the purpose of bringing a fresh supply of provisions the occasional visit of a neighboring shepard or the advent of a wandering prospector prospec-tor like myself As the summer solstice approaches and the snow disappears from the desert the shep herd starts his flock on their yearly pilgrimage to the eastward and the desert is again left silent and uninhabited unin-habited save by a few wandering coyotes descendents prObably of the one which a hundred years ago furnished the midnight serenade for Judge JlcBride as he was engaged in putting that historical venison steak where it would do the most good Coyotes are proverbially hungry and I dont blame that one for howling when he saw the grub disappearing without an offer on the part of his comrade to divvy THE DUGAWAY MINES This mountain range is a barren rugged upheaval of limestone and quartzite running north and south and jutting far out into the desert To avoid the long detour to the northward Major Egan had a dugway constructed up the entire slope of the mountain Hence the name During the autumn of 1869 a party of prospectors prospec-tors consisting of Dave Mitchell Reddy Blackburn and George and Charles Clark discovered large bodies of low grade galena and carbonate car-bonate ores in a canyon at the north end of the range Considerable Consider-able development was done and finally the properties fell into the hands of the Smith Brothers who erected a single stack furnace at a warm spring in the vicinity A few runs were made but the bullion produced was low grade transportation transpor-tation to a market at Salt Lake City was very expensive and the enterprise went bankrupt Since that time the mines have lain idle and will probably remain so unless a railaoad should be constructed near by In such case the mines here would furnish a large amount of ore suitable for smelting purposes pur-poses In fact the same may he said of a number of mining camps which lie along the proposed line of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad If the road is ever completed it will open up a vast country lying to the west and southwest of this point rich in all kinds of mineral and Salt Lake City with its smelting works and facilities for cheap reduction re-duction of ores will be one of the greatest mining centres on the continent con-tinent Between the Dugaway and Fish Springs lies an actual veritable desert utterly barren and almost entirely devoid of vegetation The road passes over a series of alkali flats glistening white with an incrustation in-crustation of soda and salt In the summer these fiats become dry and hard as an asphalt pavement but at this season they are covered with shallow pools of water and become verv softthe horses sinking at every step fetlock fet-lock deep in the white waxy mud i The bleak northern wind sweeping down through the open desert is keen and incisive as a surgeons knife It was on a cold stormy night in midwinter of the year 58 that a party of mail riders was crossing this desolate barren Bolivar Boli-var Roberts I think being one of the number One of the party an inveterate storyteller entertained his companions during the ride wit long account of a light in which he had been engaged with the Elk Mountain Utes in which he claimed he had received a severe wound in the leg Some of the party expressed their doubts as to the truth of the i latter part of the yarn Al to substantiate his narrative offered to show the scar if some of the party would build a fire In the centre of the barren are some low sand mounds on the tops of which is a rank growth of greasewood When the party reached these mounds they dismounted built a fire and then dared Al to show his scar Nothing daunted he untied his leg gins and rolled up first one then the other leg of his pantaloons but after a very close inspection failed to find a scar or even the faintest semblance of one Al hesitated for some moments eviJently nonplussed non-plussed at his failure to produce the desired evidence when a bright idea entered his brain and he exclaimed ex-claimed Boys I was woundedbut the scar is on my brother Lots leg I FISH SPRINGS Faugh horrible The water quite warm enough to bathe in even in this inclement weather brackish enough to make a good emetic Now just throw in a handful of matches the usual quantum of coffeeboilsweeten and then turn up your editorial nose at what I am drinking this morning and call coffee Smith lives hereone of the inevitable irrepressible Smith family and he claims to be a lineal descendent the firstSmith the one that Pocahontas saved from decapitation If the original Smith had foreseen the fate in store for his descendent he would have Just put Poca to one side and said to her angry parents Chop away old snoozer in mercy to the future generation gen-eration of Smith chop er off Jones or Brown couldnt live here a fortnight none but Smith could do it By the way he spells his name with a OIv and in not familiar with thePocalsontasIstory I and I doubt his being that kind of I a Smith There is a peculiarity about these springs they ebb and flow have high tides and low tides the same as the ocean The fish which give the springs their name are a small black variety of chub and are unfit for food KA PAHSHTJP meaning no thirsty literally not dry the name of an Indian nowhere now-here by whose hand I send this letter let-ter He says he will go direct to some of the Mormon towns but is uncertain as to which one He expresses his indecision as he wraps his rabbitskin robe around him by the word nohoc gany At first I told him I was a big chief but changed my tactics when he replied that the big chiefs in Nevada rode in a wagon and had lots of whisky to drink He informs me that he is a wild Indian that he is so small that Washington cant see him when he hands around the blanketsshirts beads and flour that he has heard that the Mormons have made farms for some of his red kin and that they have lots of potatoes and wheat that he is going in to listen to their talk and if he likes their grub that he will stay with them I have filled his sack with eatables and his stomach with the residue of my coffee if he survives that dose he is proof against tanglefoot whisky I start southward for the Pahgatze Mountains Moun-tains distant about fifty miles thence by the way of Crater Mountain Moun-tain to Silver City East Tinticfrom which place you may expect to hear from me again PLUS ULTRA |