| Show TRAVELING THROUGH SOUTHERN UTAH INTO ARIZONA sl COND LETTER 1 leaving lea vine Parag oonah we came to cedar city the thence nee westward across the valley about ton ten miles and through a ably hil ay country about miles further to pin pinto to in washington we were w are now on the old california freight road that was wa trav ead so BO much twenty five yearn ago bufore store the advent of railroad it la Is for local travel used except naw little age 5 were now rapidly approaching the hof desert country about which we had heard SO eo many startling stories aind ana it was with a 8 feeling akin to dread that we entered it way up 1 devler valley we met a and daiv man with a covered wagon borses the yellow tug a span of jaded daw on hie big wagon cover and the huge water barrel at the bide aide told us he was from arizona arana when we told him we were bound for the same country hf be put pot on one of those knowing self belt bonfi dent debt looks that tall characterize men of 01 ability and judgment in the now hour of great tri irl 1 and after tiling up wr outfit he list fiat there in deep thought ff several leveral minutes minu tee he then proceeded to make us acquainted with the horrors of the country through which we would have to peep and warned us solemnly Bolen anly aft to drive ft and never to be caught buthe desert without water in the bar he ran big ht tongue out and with gesture indicated what the result would be A at t cove fort men just juat returned from alfans one at them told us he be crowed the desert with an empty wagon that big bl team gave out and he ht had to unhitch and leave the wagon boothe desert determining to ride the horem am far as aa he be could and when they failed entirely to try and reach water on OB toot loot luckily water was waa nearer than he had thought and he got through safely but bad to sell his hie team twice and buy fresh horses to go on OB with another told us of the dreaded of the rio bio virgin and how bow horses and wagon would be buried in their lasting embrace all of them told us of the awful heat beat aid swore that when they left the thermometer stock at degrees in the shade and the hot season had bad not fairly commenced toe keeper of the fort also alao warned us of the poisonous grasses that we would flod find oo on the desert and told up OB that they would look tempting to the hungry horses but we must not nolt let the them m sat eat or death sudden and awful would be the result at pinto we met a man in the street when we told him where we were going he put on one of those mysterious looks and said solemnly Gent gentlemen lemeD stay away from there you dont want none of it I 1 have been there take my advice you dont donn want none of it then he proceeded to tell us about the awful heat beat the flies and the bleak barren deserts to be crossed till my heart almost faike we me and I 1 was halt half minded to turn back ar 4 go home no wonder that we bad feelings of dread and strange misgivings as we approached the fatal region the night we stayed at pinto was cool and pleasant and when we arose at 6 5 am to resume our journey it was wae so cold that we found our ur costs coats and a robe over our laps hardly sufficed to keep up ue warm our course now was along the old california road throng b h the hilly billy cou country u try about ten miles mies west of pinto wie we passed a little valley skirted by hills bills of considerable elt elevation there to is a sprigg v g in the valley and a field ot of alfalfa on which a number of horses and cattle were grazing this is in the mountain meadows where the massall massa ere cre took place thirty six years ago and where john D lee was executed formerly there was a monument or stone mound erected to mark the spot where the me dreadful dead was enacted but we were told tuat it had fallen down until now there was hardly any thing left of it soon after leaving 1 mountain meadows w we e crossed a ridge of considerable elevation and commenced to descend towards the tributaries tributa ries of the colorado we had bad pawed passed the rim of the basin bagin the aspect of the country was now changed A new variety of trees lined the creek banks bank A number of 01 species of cactus different from soy auy thing we had before seen covered the barren hillsides bill hill sides quail of a variety different from those we had been familiar with in the states flit about among the bushes bushed toe atmos before had been pleasant commenced to got get warmer and as we w descended towards the santa clara it became hot our road after crossing the rim took a southwesterly direction our desant was wae quite rapid the hills bills grow grew to be mountains on our left wa pine valley and beyond it the moun alne of the same name on the ri h 9 was the deep gorge of th the a santa clara clara and beyond the beaver dam mountains pine valley creek has cut its if way through a deep box canyon for several mile milfus and falls into the clara clam on the left of the pine creek we no a cone cast several hundred feet high that appeared to us to be an extinct crater this we learned to be a fact proven by the great lava cliffs that line the east bank of the clara for a considerable dist ance after traveling along a lava mesa for several miles we descended a steep dugway and reached the ulars clara at its jut u action with pine creek pine creek is a large stream much larger than the clara at this season and its waters are good and cool while those of the clara are warm and strongly m egnatey with alkali about three miles below the junction unction ot of the clara and pine creek we came to a small village of about twenty houses called gunlock Gun Jock the inhabitants make a living by cultivating the then narrow arrew strip of land along the river bottom and by raising sheep and cattle which they pasture in the adjoining mountains Ex excellent Ilent fruits are grown here wheat was rips ripe and cut while at pinto 25 miles back it was but a few inches high I 1 know of no other place in utah where there is in so great a change of climate in so short a distance the weather was warm in the daytime but at night it was pleasant and agreeable we saw more house flies at gunlock than abany at any other place on the entire trip prom from Cl unlock our road ran along alone the bed of the clark clara for ten miles or so ao to jacksons jaakson s old copper smelter there we left the clara and crossed the beaver dam mountains to the valley of the virgin it was on the clara that we lint first encountered the good broadb that you bear so much of in this country they alternate with sand and gravel and rooks rocks however we gut over them and had some parts of the wagon left descending from the beaver dam mountains you witness another of those great changes that we mentioned on descending to the clara othere to la not dot a 8 single thing in sight that is in familiar to the eye of a northerner all is oban changed ged the mountains are entirely barren not a tree or brush or shrub or a spear of grasa grams seems eeme to grow upon them and they look as thoung the rains of heaven had never gladdened their summits since the days of the flood away to the west the mountain slopes fell off in succeeding terraces towards a single shrub arub or brush is known to us descending sc from the mountain the road crosses an extensive plain with a variety of tree cactus called locally the joshua they attain a height sometimes of from twenty to thirty feet and a diameter of from one foot to one toot foot and a half they usually have several branches branc nes large and clumsy that terminate with a turf of leaves about a foot and a half long that re dombles very much the leaves of the century plant only that they the are pot not so long and large then there was the or cactus so called from the fact that it resembles a keg it is ib oval in form and about two and a halt ball foot feet long by about one foot footit in diameter in the center and tapers a little towards ea h end it has a wavy surface and is covered with long sharp abor f it is said to contain water and many stories are told of lives that have been saved on the desert through its agency tite the heat beat here was intense I 1 think it no exaggeration to toay tay that it must bave ranged irum from tu to degrees in afie shade a d it is said that it has been known to reach degrees I 1 am ready to believe it after crossing the plain mentioned a distance of about twelve miles we reached the virgin at the mouth of the beaver dam creek the virgin at this point is quite a stream spread out over a wide sandy and gravelly bottum bottom its waters are so pregnant with alkali that all the rocks and banks are coated with it yet fur for all this its waters are used for irrigation purposes at beaver dam and bunker villo gilleand vil leand and it is claimed that the land is mo BO worse for its use we were now in alizna Ar ariz izna na if this is ie a sample of what is to come ail or of the he stories that we have heard beard will be I 1 ully fully realized prom from beaver dam to the ferry on the colorado the road follows the river running along the saudy bank or in the bed of the stream which Is filled with shifting q quick alck on n i is from a quarter to halt a mile across the road winds along the stream crossing and reo every little distance I 1 we cross crossed the stream upwards of lorty umes times the first day after reaching it the wagon sinks minks half way to the hub in the sand the scorching rys yo of a torrid sun beat down upon you the horses tug and toil on hour after hour until completely exhausted you grow thirsty but the saline waters ot of the river afford you no relief you must toil on for upwards of eighty miles until you have passed tue bolo bauo and even then your condition is not mot improved what we experienced must be met by all who go this way to at ar zuna liona aud from what we can learn this tile to Is not the worst road either notwithstanding the saline water of the virgin the people who live there eny good health generally duerally eue rally newcomers are som nom times subjected to a sort of ir before they become acclimatized but aside from this the country is fairly Bun bunkerville kerville is in nevada rind and Is quite a thriving town of about 60 50 families we reached thereon there n the evening of the third of july on the morning of the fourth we were roused early by the firing bring of guns and an anvil that but had been brought from the neighboring blacksmith shop to do cannon service for the occasion we had bad just juat crawled crawle dout out of bed when a wagon loaded with men mus mua kete swooped down upon us ua we hurriedly explained that we were innocent and that the guilty parties were somewhere else they responded with a coarse laught laugh and proceeded to serenade u the band consisted of one fife two snare drums and one bass drum then they waived 1 tire the flag fired a salute whipped up the horses which by the way were decorated all ever with spots or of red and blue paint and were off bunkerville Bun kerville is the hub of southeastern nevada people come for sixty miles or more to celebrate the fourth the climate is semi tropic and almost all kinds of fruit can be grown there we saw large orchards of almonds figs and we understand they are commencing to grow oranges their vineyards are large and there is no ao reason why they could not grow grapes enough hereto supply all utah if there were some way of getting them to the market there is no do region in the country that thai furnishes so do rich a field for goo logical lotical research as an does the virgin valley almost every phase of the earths changes are to be seen here the entire valley at ai one time was the bed of an immense lake that was gradually dried up by evaporation hundreds of feet of lake deposit can be seen lu in different places consisting of successive layers of gypsum suit and slit who the colorado river broke through its rocky barrier it cut a channel through this lake and it the washings of succeed ina axes ages have exposed hundreds af leet feet ot of the lake deposits the colorado at the mouth of 01 the me virgin is a very large river more than a quarter of a mile wide and said to be fifty feet deep in midstream with a current velocity of five or six dix miles mile so an hour dour this is the head ot of navigation and steamboats often come up here for or cargol of bay grain anu anti salt sait the ferry here is a fairly good one kept by a swiss german jamea Bunne iii he has a large farm along the virgin where he grows grow quantities of al alfa hay buy which he be sells at the adjuring aej liazuk mining camps for 20 anti aad 25 per too ton after crossing oro esing the colorado there are two roads one follows the river or several miles tand then turn i eastward and posses passes through white hills reaching the railroad at hackberry Hack borry Theother the other runs rutis acro across sethe the country to the gold basin and then up the valley to hackberry the for ferryman ryman will recommend the gold basin road claiming it is shorter and the distances between water are not so far we look this route and can therefore safely recommend all future travelers to take I 1 the other we left the ferry at 4 p ma m taking with us a keg of water and hay bay enough to feed the horses during the night rho ferryman hud had told us that by going two wo miles oft off the read we would find water twelve miles out and by going one mile off we would find water again twenty miles out also an abundance of braae for the horses the road he said would be a little gravelly and rocky in spots for the first twenty miles but after that it would be just like a turnpike how we found it we will have to tell you in another letter this one is long enough already JUEL RICKS |
