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Show Our flying friends In the study of the history of the area one thought that keeps reoccuring is that in some regards things really weren't quite so different 100 years or so ago. People had more or less the same hopes, dreams and fears; and put up with small annoyances much like we do today. One aspect of life we still have is our flying friend and companion-the mosquito.- Every spring here in the Uintah Basin before the abatement folks get things reasonably under control, there is a veritable plague of mosquitoes. They buzz around in loose formation picking a spot, flitter about waiting for an opportune moment, and then land to bite and suck with irksome results. Well, travelers through the Basin over a century ago met the ancestors of our current generation. In late June and early July of 1869 the Powell expedition was floating through the canyons of Lodore, Whirlpool and Split Mountain and then out into the broad Uintah Valley. They didn't have much trouble with the beasties in the canyons, but once out into the flat open stretches where the Green River slows down to meander it was quite a different dif-ferent story. George Y. Bradley, member of the expedition and excellent diarist, first mentions the little critters on June 27. He describes them as the 'meanest pest that pesters man'. The next day the party reached their destination of the mouth of the Uinta River. Here they halted for several days while Major Powell and a few men hiked to the Indian Agency for supplies and to mail letters; letting the outside world know they were still alive and well. Bradley amused himself by exploring the area and searching for wild currants to supplement the meager and tiresome rations of bacon, flour and coffee. So after he armed himself with a mosquito cloth around his face, gloves and knee high boots to ward off rattlesnake rat-tlesnake bites he went after the berries. According to his journal the flying devils were absolutely frightening. He said they were thicker even than in the swamps of Florida, which must have been bad. Upon his return though, one of the men waiting in camp told of an en-, counter with the granddaddy of them all. Bradley records that one of the party was standing on the shore when a rather large mosquito asked him for his pipe, knife and tobacco. Then he told him to hunt through his clothes for a match while the mosquito loaded the pipe for a smoke. So considering that there were giants like that on the prowl, we should thankful today to only have t" " the smaller variety. |