OCR Text |
Show ESCALANTE MAN'S AWRJLEXPERIENCE Suspended Over 3,000-Foot Chasm by a Pair of Bridle Reims Saved by Trusty Steed. The following interesting account of the harrowing experience of John King, a cattleman of Escalanto and Boulder, in Garfield county, is told by tho Escalanto correspondent to tho Panguitch Progress: John King, tho big cattleman of Escalanto Es-calanto and Boulder, has naturally met with many thrilling experiences, but none other to compare with one that happened on tho Deadman trail. King has a cozy homo in Escalanto nd n largo ranch, well stocked, at Boulder. This settlement occupies a fertile valley ten miles long and six miles wide, on a creek that drains southward into Escalanto creek, and thence into tho Colorado near the Arizona Ar-izona line. This settlement is 100 miles southwest of Green River, and equally distant from Marysvalc, the terminus of the Rio Grande's San Pete branch. Boulder is also thirty-Ive thirty-Ive miles northeast of Escalanto, also in inland point but rather thocommer-"ial thocommer-"ial center of eastern Garfield county. Tho road is not only indirect, but it is also so poor that tho enterprising citizens cit-izens in "taking in" such articles necessary nec-essary to culture as pianos, have to walk beside the wagon nnd hold it on L.he rock ledges, while a threshing ma-hine ma-hine has to be steadied with guy opes. Escalanto and Boulder would havo ')een only a little over half as far dis-.ant dis-.ant by a more direct route, but Dead-nan Dead-nan canyon, about mid-way, was con-jidercd con-jidercd impassable. By frequent 'swingbacks" tho west canyon wall ould be descended or scaled but the "ast wall seemed an absolute barrier o man or beast. Mr. Ogden, with a pack burro, was camped one night in the canyon and the next morning was surprised to JSfJilS cpmpanloft afnditmvttw,.wt am wall. By following theahimnriie also gained tho mesa, and thus a burro, bur-ro, hobbled, solved a problem that had baffled men for years. Even after such improvement work as tho few who would use tho trail regularly felt that they could expend, tho trail could not be considered a 3afo one. At tho bottom of tho canyon can-yon one can look up and see 3,000 feet above, a yellow pine whoso boughs extend ex-tend over the abyss, and it is anything any-thing but reassuring to learn that in ascending ono must swing back on the "anyon wall between his present position po-sition and that pine. Although no human has been lost on this trail, tho bones of many horses hors-es aro seen at tho bottom of the gorge, mute memories of the faithful animals ani-mals which tried to follow their masters mast-ers on tho sloping ledge on which, in places, steep ascent or descent must be made. One man on hastening to tho bottom to learn tho fate of a saddle sad-dle horse found that it was divested of both saddle and bridle by the impact im-pact and was completely disemboweled. disembow-eled. On one of King's trips over tho Boulder trail tho ledgo was icy, and although his saddle horse had been sharp shod beforo starting, he himself him-self wore a pair of arctics on which the corrugated soles had been worn smooth. Dismounting as usual for the fearsome ledge, he cautiously pro-"eeded, pro-"eeded, leading tho horse by tho bridle. brid-le. Suddenly, without warning, King's feet slipped from unuder him, and over ov-er tho precipice ho went, dangling S',000 feet above tho bottom, his only hope being his hold on tho bridle rein. "Beforo feeling tho check of tho rein," relates King, "I experienced all tho feeling of death at the bottom of the canyon." Fortunately tho horso had thrown up his head, which holped to offset the shock, else he might also have gone over the brink of tho precipice. Let one imagine, if he can, tho feelings of a man suspended in such a position, posi-tion, his back to tho icy wall. Carefully Care-fully King tuned to face the ledge, and slowly pulled himself up until ho was able to grasp the horse's front feet. Ho then pulled himself up until he gained the stirrup. His confidence in his steadfast Bteed had risen to the point that he risked his own footing no farther, but mounted tho horaa at once. Tho Deadman trail, while tho most dangerous part of the route, is unfortunately un-fortunately not the only point of danger. dan-ger. Tho crossing of Sand creek and Sand hollow aro also treacherous, and on tho Pino Creek hill it is necessary for an animal to brace itself and slide down on its haunches. Mules, especially, espec-ially, become adept at sliding down tho rocks in that fashion. At numerous numer-ous places the floods have scooped out large holes in tho sandrock, and these are lraod "tanko" by tho local Book- men, who turn them to good uso for watoring purposes. King, who keeps a large flock of hens at tho ranch, packed two 2-bu. sacks full of eggs in oats and loaded them on a pack mulo for transportation transporta-tion to Escalante. Again it was winter, win-ter, and the mulo not so well shod, lost his feet. Down the mountain sldo it went, a hundred and fifty or two hundred hun-dred yards, struggling to regain its footing, but without avail; finally it struck on ono of tho "tanks" some 20 feet down the inclino and broko tho ice. Presuming that tho mule was dead, King started to remove tho sad-dlo sad-dlo when tho animal showed signs cf life, and in a short time was able to rcsumo tho journey, and it did not prove to be seriously injured. But the point of tho story is that only two eggs wero broken. During the past autumn tho rangers rang-ers of tho Powell forest used 250 pounds of powder and with picks widened wid-ened tho trail at tho most dangorous points, providing a level pathway of two feet or more. No ono will apprcciato this improvement im-provement more than the mail carrier who uses this route and pack animals in carrying the Boulder mail, parcel post and all. Prior to July, Bouludor enjoyed two mails a week, but on account ac-count of the parcel post business bids wore so high that the department reduced re-duced its frequency to weekly service. |