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Show WILL MAKE A LONG TRIP SUPERVISOR OF POWELL FOREST RETURNS TO ESCALANTE. i Many Interesting Features of Practically Prac-tically Inaccessible Region Related. George H. Barney, supervisor of the Powell forest," started yesterday yester-day to his headquarters at Escalante. Esca-lante. Utah, after a month in the offices of the Forest Service In this city- H will require four days or moro for Mr. Barney to reach Escalante, Es-calante, vhlch is 110 mllea from Marysvalc, the nearest railroad point, by summer routes, and 110 miles by way of ranRultch. tho route which must be taken at this time of tho year. Mr nnmr h.lc hrtrn cimnri'lonr nf the Powell forest since Us creation as the Aquarius, in 1905, and he speaks of many interesting features of this forest and of the region. The Powell at present 19 one of the practically inaccessible forests, not alone because of its distance from railroads, but because be-cause a mountain must be crossed, anj because theie are no streams of driva-blc driva-blc size in which the Limber can be floated out. Tor this latter reason tho stand of a billion and a half feet of timber, mostly yellow pine, Is practically practic-ally untouched In tho past, fires have done great damage, but fire damage has been light since the establishment of tho forest. At present It carries 11,000 cattle and 75.000 sheep. In the interior of the forest Is the Aquarius plateau, 20 miles square, 12,-feet 12,-feet above sea level, singularly level and surrounded by cliffs, so "that It holds the water. This characteristic for holding water gave it its name. On the top the water Is stagnant, but it is filtered and fed out around the base of tho plateau in hundreds of springs of the finest water. There nre indications of oil in the, vicinity of Escalante, and an expert, who made an examination last summer, sum-mer, believes that there is a subtor-ranean subtor-ranean reservoir, from which the stratum stra-tum of chalky rock, which Inclines downward, brings the oil by capillary attraction. Oil drips In places from the outer ed?e of this formation and It is detected in some of the streams. An IS inch vein of coal furnishes fuel In abundance, which sells for S1.D0 a ton. Wagons can be backed into the opening of the mine and filled, and tho owner is entitled to put on all the coal he can haul for a ton. This forest lies on the outer edge of the Salt Lake basin, and the southern south-ern part, which Is a part of the Colorado Colo-rado watershed, partakes of the Grand Canyon formation in its beautiful, brilliant bril-liant coloring. Ruins of the cliff dwellers are found there, and form an interesting curiosity curi-osity to explorers of ethnological turn of mind. Forest Inspector J. M. Feth-erolf Feth-erolf spent a month last summer In a study of forest conditions on the Powell Pow-ell forest, and Mrs. Fetherolf, who accompanied ac-companied him to Escalante, explored the deserted habitations of the Cliff dwellers. Digging Into tho dry sand, she found a peculiar variety of speckled speck-led beans, and kernels of another cereal cere-al that resembled wheat. The latter was planted and sprouted readily. The feeling of isolation of the supervisor super-visor and hi3 men has been alleviated by the construction of a telephone lino across the forest from Sallna to Escalante. Esca-lante. This connects the headquarters of the forest, both with the outside world and with several of the rangers' ctutlons. It .is thus of great service in expediting the transaction of business busi-ness of the forest, and as a means of summoning help in the emergency of a fire. |