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Show A VER1TABLC W1N0:Rlvn THAT FEW KNOW OF The M owing is a clip ' from an article a pearing in t' Deseret News of a recent (date and tells in a most interesting manner of a southeastern Utah wonderhtnd: In the southeastern part of Utfih along the Grand and the Green rivers there lies a won I Hand comparatively unknown t the great majority of the people of the sta'. Th's wonderland comprises hundreds of square miles of territory. Mother nature in eccentric mood has carved from vari-colorfd sandstone the met fantastic forms in many places while in other places, with an to the artistic, she has r ared up the minarets of great castles the battlements of massive fortresses and the towering spires of churches. Along the gr. en, near the bends of ! its tortuous flow, there are thousands ! of acr.-s of the most fe- de land, where j fruits and grains may be raisef in prodigious pro-digious qUi"titi"S. . With a view to investigating the I physical conditions of the two rivers i an the adjoining country that report might he made on tV transportation j and colonization possiVHties, H. G. Smith, assistant city engineer, Robert Woodruff, civil engins of Green River T. E. Wolverton in 1 N. E. .Wolverton also of Green River, m ide an extended trip by motor bo it. down the two streams. Report of the investigations of the party has been made by Mr. Smith. Practical navigation over a number of riffles in t'te river ii not to be con-! sidered at the present tinr declares Mr. Smith. For a comparatively small amount of money a series of low jetties or wing dams could be constructed directing the water into one main channel at each ri which would soon scour to a sufficient suf-ficient depth two to two and one-half feet at extreme low water permitting j boats of the necessar size to pass up; and down with comparative safety. Mr. Smith further r ports that in a number j of cases the only necessary work is the ! blowing of rocks out of the present channel. Approximately, there are probably i from 10,000, to 12,000 acres of irrigated and irrigable lands along the banks be- j tween Green River town and the San j Raphael bar, practically all of which has ! been taken up by various parties in lots ; varying from 100 to several thousand acres. j Justnorth of the junction of the Green and the San Raphael rivers is the last government section line, the river south of here running through entirely un-surveyed un-surveyed government lands. Numerous ' springs of highly carbonated water are to be seen hear this point, one being particularly noticeable for its size. It boils up from the bottom of the river I like i Croat cauldron of hot water, al- i thoufth it is in reality cooler than the 1 . 1 nver writer. j L.'ifiyrinth canyon is one of the great . scenic places alonp; the Green. Thin j name was jiven to it on account of the 1 tortuous course formed by the river aRes ago. The stream runs to almost every point of the compass, and at one point, known as the Bow Knot, makes an almost complete circle of 10 miles, looping back and passing itself within 700 feet. The heisrht of the divide at this point is 310 feet and the difference in water levels is 10 feet, making a ; power possibility'of considerable mag-j mag-j nitude. In Labyrinth canvon, the cliffs rise ' perpendicularly for hundreds of feet impressing the traveler with their h.'ighth and grandeur. The formation : is san lstone of various hues, interseam-! interseam-! ed with shales and rocks of sedimentary character forming colors of pleasing contrast. Soon after entering Labyrinth canyon bottom lands commence to appear and are seen on the inside of almost every bend for the entire length of the canyon. can-yon. The first of these is at Wolf Point so named from the fact that a black wolf was killed there on the Powell expedition. These bottoms have been : built up in past centuries in fact, the work is still going on today by the river deposits of alluvial and sedimentary sedimen-tary soils brought down by the high waters and deposited in the eddies and backwaters. Most of these bottoms says Mr. Smith were tilled by the cliff dwellers ages ago, and many their houses still remain, some in a state of perfect preservation pre-servation high upon the sides of the led?es. In these houses, which are difficult of access, are to be found various vari-ous f irms of pottery, together with flint arrow and spear heads, stone hammers ham-mers and other implements. Evidence also may be seen of large areas of land which undoubtedly have been leveled by human hands. Mr. Smith rays that the climate through Labyrinth canyon seems ideal for fruit raising. The rich river soil is particularly adapted to the production of early.late and semi-tropical fruits. Early fruit could be placed on the market from three to six weeks ahead of Green river and as soon, if not before Moab and Moapa. Deer, wild cats, mountain sheep, mountain lions and coyotes make this and other canyons their habitat, while there are many wa'ter fowl on the river On almost every bar is to lie seen a blue or white heron or crane. At what is known as Turk's Head, a large crested butte, the canvon breaks down a little but soon closes up again and from here to the j iiiction with the Grand and the Colorado is known as Stillwater cinyon. For a distance of nearly 20 miles there is no chance for man or animal to leave the canyon, the walls being very high and perpendicular, perpendic-ular, often with overhanging tops. The strata commences to tip up, giving the appearance that the river is falling rapidly rap-idly and on first observing this illuion sne is indlined to be startled. Returning: Return-ing: the reverse conditions appear, and the motor boat seems to be chugging up long hills of glassy water. At certain points grea! monoliths of rock rise many thousand feet overhead, one of these in particular being known as the Capitol, from its fancied ressm-blance ressm-blance to the capitol building at Denver, Den-ver, Colo. One hundred and thirty miles south of Green River, following the course of the river, the Green enters the Colorado, Colo-rado, or rather at this point joins the Grand to form the Colorado. The color of the water in the uniting rivers, contrasts con-trasts strongly, that of the Grand being a reddish brown, while that of the Green is a light greenish drab. It is several miles below their mouths before the waters entirely diffuse to form a solid color. Mr. Smith reports that about six or seven m ilea below the point of conflu-! ence of the Grand and the Green, there ! is a 160-acre tract of land, into which runs a small side canyon or wash offering offer-ing an excellent reservoir site. This is near Cataract canyon, and it is suggested suggest-ed that this would be a good point for the creation of a tourist hotel. Along the cliffs here are the remains of cliff ! dwellers houses. At this point also the old Spanish trail across the Colorado comes down into the canyon and in : places is worn over a foot deep in the solid rock. About 40 miles south are the great natural bridges of Utah, und while it is not feasible to construct an automobile road, a good trail could be built for pack animals at comparatively small cost. Mr. Smith says that this would give tourists the opportunity of viewing view-ing the cataracts, while on their way to the bridges. ! Two miles up the Grand from its confluence con-fluence with the Green is the only permanent per-manent obstructon to navigation. This is known as The Slide a great mass of rock which broke away from the sides of the canyon high upon the north wall. It forms a barrier across at least two-thirds two-thirds of the width of the river, forcing the water through a passage only a few j hundred feet wide, which increases 1 the Velocity of the stream to about 600 miles an hour. Mr. Smith reports that ( $500 expended judiciously in blowing ' out some of the outlying rocks would : improve tins location and make it reason-ably reason-ably safe for large boats to pass up j and down. I In the first 20 miles along the Grand j there are several bow-knots, the can- j yon twisting and turning in every di-'. di-'. rection. About 25 miles from the mouth ! bottomlands begin to appear. In form- : ation, they are considerably like those j along tho the Green although carrying 1 much more red, sandy loam ir the soil. ' Great sections of rock take the form I of towers, castles, minarets, figures of men, animals, faces, etc., the variety being dependent only on the imagina- tion of the onlooker. i Mr. Smith reports that better transportation trans-portation facilities by water would prove a great boon to the town of Moab about 80 miles from the mouth of the Grand and one and a half miles from the south bank of the river. Fruit j raising in this town of 600 inhabitants has been neglected of late, because of the fact that, it is so difficult to get the j the fruit to market. The freight haul, j from Thompson's a station on the Den- ver & Rio Grande, is $10 a ton, requires two days to make, and because it. is excessive ex-cessive has caused many of the owners own-ers of orchards to allow them to run to waste. Only about 30 carloads of fruit are being shipped out each year, while with better water transportation facilities, it is declared that this could be increased many, many times.' |