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Show oes' lillflNB" g SCENIC SOUTHERN UT. Speech of Hon Louis C. Crampton Vk of Michigan, printed in the Cougres- ,0 sional Record of Apr. 18, 1924, by re- quest of Hon. Don B. Colton of Utah. ESg "Scenic Southern Utah" seems too 5. ordinary a phrase, entirely inade-quate, inade-quate, to designate that great region of Nature's wonders through which I A traveled last summer for nearly three weeks by motor and on horseback in ! company with Congressman Dan Anise, An-ise, thony, with A. E. Demaray, of the . 1 National Park Service, as our chap-erone, chap-erone, guide, and comforted. Cedar Breaks, Zion Canyon, the Kaibab ! forest, the North Rim of the Grand that Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Pish Lake, tiers Capitol Gorge, the mighty Colorado, i the Natural Bridges these are the 1 headline attractions, but every mile of the route we traveled, 1,200 by auto and 150 on horseback, the latter IY being much the longer, has its appeal r' to the eye and to the imagination. Reaching Cedar City the last day a of june by the Union Pacific, the journey began with a view of Cedar J Breaks, a fit prologue for the trip. TV Ten minutes will not suffice to tell of 20 days, 1,400 miles, of travel in the midst of the world's masterpieces . Zion Canyon, where the Mukuntu-weap Mukuntu-weap River cits through the Vermillion Vermil-lion Cliffs, 3,000 feet in depth, narrowing nar-rowing to a gorge 50 feet wide, where flows the stream beneath overhanging overhang-ing walls of high rock; the Kaibab Forest, refuge of thousands of deer, hundreds of which you see coming in- to the open park spaces to graze at ' sunset; the North Rim, where you may look out over the Grand Canyon , of the Colorado; the Capitol Gorge through which runs the motor road, its richly colored rocky walls rising precipitately several thousand feet and leaving a roadway, at times no more than 15 feet wide; the Natural Bridges, greatest spans over space gggg produced by nature, three in number, the Carolyn, the Augusta, and the Edwin; Ed-win; the Augusta with its span of n261 feet and height to the bottom of the arch 157 feet, and to the top 222 feet, its arch 28 feet wide and 65 feet thick, symmetrical and imposing, the largest natural bridge in the world, a 15-story building would stand beneath be-neath it; the Edwin, said to be the oldest, the perfect bridge, over which the automobile road, when it comes, will cross, its arch having a span of 194 feet with an elevation of 108 ip- feet, the bridge being only about 10 ;e feet thick at its middle point and 25 feet wide, which geologists say a few )T more centuries may see worn away to destruction, but its grace and beauty bow preeminent. Fifty miles of hard going through desert, mountain, and forest brings you to Blanding, through the scenes of the last Indian "Prising in this country, that of 1923 when Old Posey met his death. Sixty Six-ty miles more by motor would take you to the Denver and Rio Grande railroad but our route was 176 miles to the Mesa Verde National Park and its wonderful ruins of the cliff dwel-lers. dwel-lers. Time will come when a good motor road will open all this to the tourist and his flivver, with great unexplored un-explored areas for rougher side trips. This rapid outline of the other ponders of this region must now suf-e suf-e whlIe 1 ge my time to Bryce "yon, so aptly termed by Prof. Frederick Pack of Utah University as nature's "most delicate jewel." An amphitheater 3 miles across y 500 feet deep, eroded result of gutless ages, a forest of vermilion , Pinnacles, its forms fantastic, bizarre, again as regular as the fashion-elf, fashion-elf, ,mrtal architect. it is not out-wed out-wed by any other spectacle that enT6aft0rtis- 11 luickly wn "U aL Sm' and in my shct stay I cl n CnStant tribute t0 its ever" h0ur8M s moods 0t beauty as hur snnl dayIiSnt and darkness, the under the stars alone' hiled each their own charms. the cl4"11 10 teU you my impression of fi.il . as rom its rim I saw the , I trait s TSin Us insPirine - -bv ik nChly beautil Panorama ' 8ig of t.Sl3re f day' with the Pas' t ther sun' in the dim starlight, s"d at tTng f the moon at midnight, J ordiT daWDins another day- binary schedule of my waking and sleeping was shattered, but that does not matter if you have but a day at Bryce. The maze of forms and outlines in the canyon gives fancy free rein and you are thrilled not only on-ly by what the eye perceives but by what it "half creates" as well, as Wordsworth has if. Sit with me here near the chasm's brink as the sun drops low. Before you fancy presents to you the city beautiful, the myriad forms left in the disorder of chance after centuries centur-ies of erosion resolve themselves into something planned; you seem to see before you in the late afternoon sun, striking directly upon the face of pillars pil-lars and walls before you, stretching 3 miles across the canyon, the quiet of a great city at rest. Above is Table Cliff Plateau. Far to the left in dignified inaccessibility the old fortress, impregnable with its sheer walls. In the center, far before you, the hill crowned by an ancient Acropolis. Acrop-olis. To the extreme right the great cathedral, with its two impressive bell towers equal in height. Pilling in the picture are the buildings and streets, parks, and passageways of a metropolis. The buildings, all of the pastel shades of Mediterranean towns of Spain or Italy light red, pink, cloudy white. Streets and parks lined with the green of many actual living trees, fir and pine. The architecture is all in harmony. Great buildings rising hundreds of feet, passageways, sometimes but a few feet wide, separating one. structure from another, but the walls erect and accurate, story upon story. From Acropolis Hill see how the grade drops rapidly to the waterless" river bed which is parked so plentifully with trees on either side of the watercourse. water-course. Rising then abruptly to the right from the river are Vermillion cliffs, where the palace of the king appears, surrounded by great turret-ed turret-ed walls, a steep approach leading to the castle itself, nestling against the barren cliff. There is no sound; no smoke arises; aris-es; nothing in motion but the circling circl-ing cliff swallow. It is simply the ideal of fancy. The sun has gone. Darkness falls closer and deeper and the fine tracery of the architecture dims from sight, only the lighter shades of some of the buildings holding prominence. Still you can see the great commanding outline of the fortress and in the center cen-ter the white of the crowning Acropolis. Acrop-olis. The swallows no longer are flying about. The fancied forms and figures that intrigue the imagination by day are no more. The carving and architecture that would give form to the eternal city of revelations revela-tions have disappeared. There are no tones, no lights from below; only the splashes of white upon the dark background, set off with darker markings of the tree areas. The city of fancy is asleep. At midnight we cautiously approach ap-proach again the rim and watch, while far in the east over Acropolis Hill a glow enriches the horizan. Soon a silver point comes to view, like a star of hope for the darkened city. Rapidly rises the majestic moon that whitens the night and brings out formless shapes of the city but does not lighten. It mounts to the heavens and the city to the west of us reflects it dimly. It is a spectral spec-tral city, and the watcher under the rays of the moon, the million wonders won-ders of the Milky Way, and all the stars overhead, comes to imagine an occasional moving light in the tenant-less tenant-less homes. But there is nothing in the city but night. Up again ana to the watcher's post; the day is dawning. A rosy hue in the east; an orange glow over Table Cliff Plateau; to the right a group of clouds which simulate a snowclad range of peaks for a time and then revert to cloud banks, reflecting re-flecting rosy tints, as mounts the orb of day. His majesty enters as he has for eons of time. His rays strike the cliffs at our feet, and the reflected light illumines the nearer yellow shapes. The shapes of imagery fall away to the outlines of actuality. The swallows soar and circle, basking in the sunlight. Far toward the sun great white pillars, enriched with reflected re-flected light, seem translucent. See Cushing Point far to the right. And note how the castle wall is buttressed but-tressed at regular intervals. To the left a great forest of spires. Commanding Com-manding all the fortress in the distance, dist-ance, its perpendicular stockade of pillars, the steep incline, the wall itself it-self rising direct to the level plateau. Before you now in glare of day is a prehistoric city of Babylonish splendor splen-dor It seems to have been covered with the sands of ages and appears now as if largely revealed by recent excavations still to be completed, banks of earth still in part enshrouding enshroud-ing edifices and walls, the impression mounting that further beauties are yet to be revealed. Far in the east you see the modern Utah town of Tropic, surrounded by its fertile green fields, a touch of reality real-ity to bring fancy back to earth. But the spell of Bryce Canyon hangs long in your memory- |