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Show SCENIC SOUTHERN UTAH The following essay on "Southern Utah and ' Her Wonderlands," was written by Miss Jenor Seegmiller, 13 years old, daughter of W. W. Seegmiller Seeg-miller of Kanab, speaker of the Utah house of representatives. The essay was written in a school contest of which the prize was the publication of the essay in the local paper, the Kane County News, from which it is here reproduced: When our forefathers, the pioneers of the state of Utah, were led to the promised land of the twentieth century, cen-tury, little did they realize that hidden hid-den in the vaults of the unknown Rockies lay the most indescribable scenic. wonders of the world. In actual ac-tual awe they first beheld the crystal streams, the beautiful vales and majestic ma-jestic snowcapped peaks of northern Utah. As their journeys called them southward, new and interesting visions vis-ions were revealed on every hand. But not even in the prophetic and far-seeing mind of the pioneer did there exist even the vaguest idea that in southern Utah, hidden from the gaze of an ever curious world, lay scenic wonders whose transcendent beauty defies all description of tongue ton-gue or brush. So commonplace have become these wonderlands to the children of those sturdy fathers and mothers who so nobly undertook and so faithfully finished the task of making the desert into a garden of food and flowers, that it remained for strangers to discover and advertise adver-tise the wonderous beauty of Utah Dixieland. Come with me; then take a little hike up Silver Rio Virgin; now we enter National park. As we approach the Great White Throne our very heings are filled with the import of that word, Zion "the abode of God's people." As we journey up this ever winding stream the sheer and precipitous cliffs towering thousands thou-sands of feet above our heads bring us for the first time to realize the insignificance in-significance of man and the overwhelming over-whelming greatness of Him who created all things. The Grand Canyon Can-yon of the Colorado is said to be the greatest gorge in all the world, but even so, it cannot compare in coloring color-ing and majestic sheer walls of stone with Zion National park. Pursuing our journey now from Hurricane, let us hesitate one moment mo-ment at the top of the rugged ridge to the east and behold the most beautiful beau-tiful agricultural scene in all America, Amer-ica, Hurricane valley, the fruitland of the west. Eastward now, in the shadow of the vermilion cliffs, we wend our way over the painted desert, with all its alluring mirage and endless expanse of territory, to the most beautiful oasis in any desert, the little city of' Kanab, nestled in a semicircle of brilliant bril-liant vermilion beauty. It is said that when the spirit of Minnehaha was seeking the prettiest hunting ground of all Indian heaven, she was attracted by a sparkling brook wending wend-ing its way through a thicket of willows, wil-lows, and christened the spot Kanab. Ever since, her spirit sits enchanted on the throne of the goddess, Diana, half way from Kanab to Mt. Carmel, over the ever restless sands of the head waters of Kanab creek. Through the fertile fields of Long valley we journey in a spirit silent and worshipful as we view the majestic ma-jestic beauty of , the water-inscribed cliffs of White mountain. Reaching the head of the Rio Virgin, Vir-gin, we divert, for the moment, to the westward, through Sevier forest. Crystal streams on every side, streams that burst in one huge flood, only to dissappear again like an alluring al-luring spirit of the wilderness. Now we reach the Navajo lake, clear as a crystal, blue as the ocean and pure as the dews of heaven. Beautiful beyond be-yond description. But let us hasten on our journey to the top of the mountain and take our position on Point Supreme. Looking northward, we see unfolded the most beautiful coloring that nature na-ture in all her thousands of years of experiment has yet been able to produce pro-duce All the colors of the spectrum are so beautifully interwoven and so perfectly blended that I must leave the task of description to someone some-one whom God has blessed with greater powers than mine. Oh Cedar Ced-ar Breaks! Your coloring sublime, unequaled and indescribable. If possible, let us now be aroused from this enchanted dream of colorland just long enough to view the great Escalante desert, which binds Utah and Nevada in the sisterhood of statees. We retrace our steps now to the head of the Virgin and have only to turn a little northward to find ourselves our-selves on the head waters of the Sevier. Se-vier. Laughing brooklets, sparkling streams and rushing rivers. |