| Show follow nil w old trail TU 15 1 r a i I 1 IT th h quest of N allies cut in 49 tikes silt lake lalie 11 writer riter down to sinta alaia creek on old SP spanish arail fol by the gold rush lieh liek to california their touch escalante frail and I 1 ollow fremont in one of orllis his 11 arst predicaments GATHER GOOD MATERIAL AN ENJOY SOME THRILLS t saturday and sunday mr and mrs charles kelly and I 1 motored du do II 11 to the santa clara creek in wahington wa hington county air kelly made the trip with the hope ol 01 finding a number ot of names cut on the rocks by the 48 we were not fortunate in finding a d dite ditc itc as far back as that but we e did think we found some I 1 hames n ames cut without accompanying dates which will prove to be those of and mr kelly took full notes of all we found so that he can check chock up with the old journals and historical references and connect them with some of the various emi grant trains we took some pictures at the site of the mountain meadows massacre on the way down especially to re cord the present aspect of the place T anc and to show that a once existing to the north near the pres ent road is no longer up this we nye found to be the case from there on we went to central and thence took tool the west road to santa clara creek via eo and the tiny hamlet of gunlock lion gunlach got its name miny years ago an emigrant train of mormons coming across the plains had as a hunter whose duty it was to keep the train supplied with meat a man by the name of U william ham ilam alln in he ile was so good a shot they nick named him gunlock bill in the train and when that group got set tied they named their town gun lock in his honor you have to go agaj awa from home to learn things we ne fol followed somewhere near the pid spanish trail that is as near as the present roads run along the same course and when once in the santa clara canyon we were direct ly on the old route of the south passage fort hall north this way south the road had not then been built through black gorge and all trains went pretty closely along the very nery path we followed two of the old books were quite explicit as to the names of the 4 9 era and said they were cut on the walls where there were nere some peculiar and P interesting rocks immediately adja cent to and below the corns fields pf af the indians N W e found the fields immediately imme diatel below gunlock and in tact fact sorghum mills busy on them that very day pressing out the sap by hors power from the cane and holing boling it in big shallows vats with tire fire underneath the present day fields of cane were exactly on the old sites of the indian corn fields we were greatly pleased and be gan searching to our delight we found a number of names cut 3 F laub i J W P W J G M in d do a circle J W P J F P J 11 but no dates y find rind sinta S inta clari clar try shards nicely decorated Deco 0 hen in hunting around mr kell the first to find pottery and to his great delight a white ar exactly where one should ba nd right next to an ancient Aop kop where you could see the grooms groob which continued shaping or sharp sharpening of implements had cut in the soy solla rock it was truly a real work site where a smith following his craff of shaping implements or sharpening g them had worked at hia his trade liep grooves cut where he had up and down the thing he was working on or a series of i low hole holes fa fn another place where he was testing out a boring or drilling implement the pottery we both found scat seat around was in a beautifully decorated kind a slight pink with reddish pattern on it some indented on the outside in a very neat manner possibly done with an implement we did not think it was done by hav ing plastered the mud inside a bov en basket as the impression on the ware was not ot of that nature colpe I 1 was grey a little black and white and one piece that mr kelly found a finely made turned back on itself rim of some pot or bowl the first and only piece of that ecart kind he pr or r have ever found it was ex cellena and added zest to the trip it proved conclusively that the for mer inhabitants on the santa clara made pottery had corn fields and were a more or less semi agriculture al people ane were ere elated names of old tuners timers cut or P pointed tinted on the rocks down further mr kelly found a name V r c 1872 and a large inscription now weathering so as to greatly hinder legibility chic i seem pd to read louis rinard or pinard or some such name the three last letters only of the second name be ing lug legible the s of louis was turned backward it was old it if it proves on further study to have been cut there when this was the old spanish trail and that the name ot of one of their party then mr kelly has found something to even be a frenchman of the early trapping days is not bad but if it is an older spanish inscription then what a find it ia we found C NN laub aug 1878 IN mencill W F 0 1872 a lot of lettering of a name so badly ered as to be illegible I 1 thought I 1 could make out an 11 and an R mabe an I 1 but not for sure the name alice potter appeared with the date of 1858 and below it the name J franklin potter and with the two t face and some word ing with the date peb feb 17 1858 then kelly stopped with an ex cla mation of intense interest A name with a date of 1857 for he ead read on the rooks in black paint W W cluff may 27 1857 cluff was one of the at my we wedding adding way back in 1898 then president of the stake at coal ville and closely identified with my father in the business of beckwith lauder when cluff was bishop at coalville Co alville its it s strange how those things of such startling interest crop up W W cluff a missionary down to the south sea islands as they were then called back home in Co alville became bishop as closely tied fied with my father attended my wedding became president of the stake a director of the deseret na dional bank dank and I 1 see hia his name on the rock walla walls ot of santa clara creek written in the years of long long ago surely this bubble we call a world is a small one and we constantly bump into each other travel as far as we may we found lots of the usual men the common deer scrolls even A man on a horse showing relative we photographed the better ones As we were daiv ing out nearly to ithe the widening of the canyon kelly was lust just remark ing strange we dont see any more hiero and the sentence died at that point tor for right by the side of the road was the best group we bad had seen in that part of southern utah a black lava rock crowded with fig ures men a much curled spiral with more turns to it by tar far than usual a t number of vert verticals leals with a cross irm arm on them some with balls on the ends of the cross arms and on made hat that way seemingly a man form in that group a very ornate sun disc or sun emblem many lines ra biating from the center boss A sin bous snake a man with round head a good body arms and legs in all a trifle better than ordinarily the sun had just gone down I 1 tried a time exposure on it in the hope of getting something but I 1 am afraid it may prove disappointing kelly made a tree free hand sketch tor for hta his notes 1 l t 2 that one rock design was worth the whole trip AV al e visit jim johnson s pine fine collection at st george we went past the Shiv wita indian school drew off the road and cooked our meager little meal and motored into nto st george f there we visited jim johnson a justly famous indian collection it is very very good we thoroughly enjoyed it arrowheads spear point heads some of the most exquisite workmanship A necklace centuries old found in a grave a net several hundred years of age used no doubt in snaring game by the old timers one moccasin found 1 in I i grave of the true moccasin type not a sandal and jugs and pots until I 1 was green with envy jim sure has cm em by golly and under lock and key too he k knows the need game mounted deer heads an delope elk a mountain sheep two mountain goats how we did revel looting looking at his display and as tor for guns old timers of cap and ball of all makes and kinds and sizes gee geer and one relic that I 1 would have traded my soul a sal for A small deringer pat tern single action pistol cartridge taking I 1 think side swing out action of a kind I 1 have never before seen no trigger guard possibly 38 caliber wooden handles long since weather ed d off which was found on the mountain meadows massacre site I 1 he very kindly unlocked the case and let us examine it I 1 don t know when I 1 have more thoroughly enjoyed a collection than I 1 did his and we took away a men tat al picture that will remain for some time aate e follow rollow Fr fremonte s trail in hi high ili it mountains of bear 1 alley valley we drove up just outside of the ity city limits of parowan carowan and bunked for or the night from paragonah Para gonah we bent ment up t the e bear valley road through the hit hills 9 to orton on the sevier just below panguitch Pan gultch col cot john C fremont iad had been on that road when carvallo Cor vallo got ot out in february bitterly cold and nd he AN ARTIST with his bare hands in that weather felt under the deep snow until he found the ruts of captain john W gunnison Gunn lson a wagons made three weeks before and assured the party that they were on the right road and needing only dogged perseverance and a renewed determination to push on with that assurance fremont gat got in to para wan with the loss of only one man had they given up all might have been lost carvallo Cor vallo got in parowan carowan so nearly done tor for that he was sick tor for five months then when bently recovered to travel he came south to fillmore as the guest of Prig harn young painted kanosh el 3 portrait and returned to salt lake city as he was unable to continue on to california as he intended when leaving salt lake we were on the road that fre mont made memorable an exper lence we both greatly enjoyed 1 I haven t read fremont s mem lira tor for twelve years so am rusty but if I 1 remember correctly he made two trips one tn in 1844 and one a year or more later one in winter and the other in summer our route on the santa clara was in the gener al at direction taken by escalante as he reached the santa clara before turning from his design to go on to california and sought a passage ov er the colorado to reach santa fe kelly gets a thrill on a book he ile Is writing kelly Is writing a book one inci inel dent is a shooting he ate dinner sunday noon with a man who re marked in a casual way during the conversation I 1 was standing across the street in front of the old tribune building when so and so shot such and such in abe he hip and by golly it was the very incident kelly was working conf on thus do writers get material it is the most fascinating pursuit in the world you thump your jaded pegasus or maybe he a just aim sim ply a plodding g donk at that moment and try your best to woo vainly then of a sudden bang it comes out of a clear sky as sudden as a rifle report and chock full of the human interest element but that s kelly a incident not mine and I 1 austri t steal his thun der Is the most most fascinating drudgery the hard est work the only satisfying pursuit in the world and once addicted to I 1 litis there s no cure the victim must sit with pencil in hand and jab down incident after incident muttering be whiles and when not so 80 busied busted his mania shows itself in gal lyv over many miles in pursuit of local atmus tere I 1 that Is and yet there not riot a pencil pusher would shangu his lot ot be i cured of his malady up thru clear creek canyon in which the roads are being worked on to such an extent that it will a boulevard with mith all the scarp turns taken out a uniform grade and wonderful road we stopped in ka hosh and visited with pat and mrs penny whose hospitality is ing and after a very pleasant visit with them drove on to delta mr and mrs kelly went on up to salt lake they coved nearly eight hun dred miles in the two days and an afternoon at their disposal at cedar city we called to visit president W R palmer but he was jin ln salt lake city on business although mr kelly did not find dates of the he found much mich tine fine material in the trip making it well worth while frank beckwith sr |
