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Show j Southern Utah a j Beautiful Mystic '; ! Land .... , : I'y l.l.VI K.lHiAH YOl'N I Toivorais Jovvu middle ol" Utah Ut-ah us fur south us Mc.-.nt Nebo are. I'.-.o Wasii'.ili n.i'uiunins, beautiful In their varied ;!in;. i .-'.. vliaLio for t..c.;- ..- cuuua. From Nebo, the mountains lose themselves In the Great Plateaus, where wild and delightful de-lightful beauty lies hidden In the solitudes of mighty cliffs and tow ers, i Stretching eastward from the Wasatch Wa-satch are the Uintahs, equally ma-' jestie, and in the southeast are the La-Salle and Blue mountains gleaming gleam-ing far away in a region that still Is almost uninhabited. Through the great plateau east of the Wasttch and south of the Uintahs, two large rivers flow and come together In the Colorado. This country is traversed by deep canyons cut by streams that head off in the wildest parts of the West. Th , Price and San Rafael rivers flow in-1 to the Grand, the Escalante, Fremont, Fre-mont, Kanab, and Virgin are tribu-' tary to the Colorado further south. A strange tribulent stream flows Into In-to the Colorado from the east. This is the San Juan, the Immediate country coun-try of which has been seen by few white men. These streams flow through the "Canyon Land of Utali." where Brj't. Little Zion. Hammond and the Clear Breaks Ho deep and : mysterious In thotr beauty. Many ofj the "box canyons" of Utah have ; been explored by man. and It in onlyi recently that the wonders of Itryoe and Little Zion have been described y pen and brush. Kroslon ha ripped and carved the sandstone bods of southern Utah in-! to scenery c! tuBgniheei.t di.turiU -. On the edges of cany..-')!! and in .h" deserts rise Ereat monoliths, impressive impres-sive and fantastic In tholr wildness. The forces that shaped these have also made enormous Btone bridges in the rim rock regions of San Juan, beside whose colossel proportions all other natural bridges are trivial. 'The monoliths, the bridges, the deep box canyons remain in their solitary 'splendor, beautiful to those who un- demand their subtile charms and have learned the significance of the things they behold. ' Many of the canyons are dry during dur-ing the summer season, yet a spring here and there gives water to the thirsty explorer or the wondering animal whoee liar lies far up In the cliffs. The walls of these chasms are hundreds of feet high in parts, , and the lights and shadows thrown I by the sun Into the different nooks and gullies create a country mystl-' mystl-' fled and Btrange. It Is a land of contrasts. con-trasts. The warm sun makes a veritable ver-itable riot of color on the monoliths and ravines; while far away Is the deep purple of the forest eland maun tains and peaks. Leaving the canyons, mAas and! mountain ranges urn large areas of unhluht land, open to tile blasts of! winter or the glare ol' the hot sum-1 mer suns. It. is the luiinn of (lie uilr-! age and whirling sandstorm, when, li.e land in places is sterile and lor-.-.i.ding. Thesis are desert plains, yet at uncertain periods, l!iO land liiiiom-i iiuuuon'o with an opule.u'. oi' Iluwer lite, and they seem to 1j.-.c Ueir tie sen cuan.cler una i,u.' wu . fur : ..'aching be.'.s ol' ;)...... cm, anuowers and the yellow rabbit brush, thrusting through the grays of grease wood and the white sago. Great caves are found in the box canyons of this southern region of Utah, and In them are the remains of the ancient Clitf Dwellers. The houses were built on the very brink ni the canyons, and each group of ruins show that some time in the far past, the inhabitants knew how to face the stone they used, and understood under-stood the methods of muking good plnster. Families lived in those homes protected from their enemies and the storms. The children dressed dres-sed in blankets, made of skin and feathers, and wore sandals made of the yucca plant. Corn husks were used to make clothes for the Cliff Dweller was a farmer. He raised corn, beans, melons, tobacco. The children and women went forth and gathered berries, acorns and roots. It is possible that the Cliff Dweller raised potatoes. Large Jugs held drinking water, carried from the spring far down In the canyon. . In the middle of the main room, the women prepared the meals over a fire. It was the fire place that became the chief factor in bringing the peo-'. peo-'. people together into social unit The family sat around the fire something as the Indians of the pueblos In New Mexico and Arizona do today. Par-! Par-! ched corns, seeds and acorns with ; meat were served, and the corn : bread was sweetened with honey, jlnto a circular room, called the Kl-; Kl-; va, the family went for worship, and here the elder men of the clan met for the secret council. !j They were real children of natu- re, and it is hard for us today, to understand their lives, for who can 4 1 rid himself from the influences of Tthe present and throw himself into a life in imagination which is so t near to the heart of nature. On the walls the men wrote their ! history in pictures. But many of these pictographs are hard to under-' under-' stand. A reptile of some kind is !i found painted or carved in almost every canyon, and curious pictures tell us that these people of the far past tried to express their lives in i i strange drawings. No one knows , who these people were, where they' :came from and whether they went. It is all a mystery. And yet, they . were children of the same Father j who rules the Universe forever, and the knowledge of them must be left ': to the "will of Him, who will tell the story of his children as we are prepared to listen." 'I he Indians of today tell many legu.i.t a to the origin of the beau-,'ties beau-,'ties of this country. Thse who have i seen Little Zion will appreciate this ore: i "Many years ago a light was seen in the region by the Paru-sha-pats, I who live In the southwest. They supposed sup-posed it to be a signal fire to warn ! them of the approach of the Nava-i Nava-i ho, who lived beyond Colorado river riv-er to the east. Then other signals were kindled to warn the neighbor-. neighbor-. ing Indians, both north and south. But the Paru-sha-pats discovered that the light was a fire on one of ! the great temples. They knew it j was not kindled by man, for who 'could scale the rocks of such hight? !,Then they concluded it was the Tu-, Tu-, mu-ur-ru-gwaits-si-gaips, or rock ; spirits, who made the fire and after ! them, it was called "Rock Rovers' j Land." ! Great mystic land is southern Utah. i j New West Magazine. i 1 |