Show RAMBLING THOUGHTS OF A reprint rights reserved by frank silvey A BITOF HISTORY san juan county lies in the extreme southeastern portion of utah bounded on the cast by colorado and on the south by arizona on the west vest by the colorado river and on the north by grand county at the extreme southeastern portion of san juan county we have ia hat is c called the four corners arizona lies to the southwest new mexico to the southeast colorado to the northeast and utah to the northwest and is the only point in the united states common to four state corners thus one can place their left hand in utah their right ban hanl in ih colorado their right foot in new mexico and their left foot in arizoca ari Ar izora iora in this pusi position tion one can be in four states at the same time tourist curious ity seekers may i each this point by auto over a pass tible lible country road via BI bluff it ff city 1 utah and aneth a distance oi of a bout about thirty five miles or cortez colorado via alcelmo and aneth a dis tance of about fifty five miles san juan county is is the largest county in the state of utah from north to south including the indian reservation it has a total length of a hundred and fifteen miles the great colorado river flows in a winding loop the loop snake like direction in a southeasterly direction and forms the western boundary line of this counte and from various sources and from p personal onal opinion I 1 would judge san juan county has an average width of about seventy five miles A large part of western san juan county has not yet been surveyed by the govern government nent and some has not even been explored by white men so we must give the area of the county approximately at af square miles or nearly five million acres san juan countes coun tys population is is estimated at four tenths person to the square mile the average altitude of san juan county is a bout feet above sea level the greater part of the northern portion of cf the county is mountainous the siera la sal mountains here arise to an elevation of thirteen thousand and eighty nine feet above sea level alt peal 11 har is this elevation mt has an elevation of twelve thousand three hundred and seventy leventy nine feet and mt hit an indian name lias bas an elevation of twelve thousand and four feet surrounding the moun bains are arc many parks mesas and small valleys and on t the ile south side of the mountains the formation ton nation gradually slopes lopes off to dry valley lisbon valey valcy and hatch point poin t a large avri aily level countr country y numerous small streams hosid bead among the peaks on nn he be east side of the la and i how in an easterly direction into tie he dlores D river and near paradox valley colorado these streams or v creeks beeks are named as follows I 1 li sal creek two mile creek hop HOD creek cheek roc creek and creek all these streams are arc good fishing for mountain traut tr hil and some of these streams can call be reached by auto taut but the majority of them can at prea ent be reached only on horse back on the north side of cf the la we hay have beaver creek and little castle creek while on the west we have mill creek and pack creek that flow westerly through moab valley into the colorado riler rier on the south slope from the la sal mountains we only have two small streams coyote creek and east cast coyote creek the eastern central part of our county is is a mesa gently rolling ground and in its native state is covered with sage brush blue stem and other gras es and has some pinion and cedar timbers A A number of homesteaders have taken up a part of the lands liere here but the past few years of semi anuth and poor farmin farmina has done little to develop these fertile lands the western central portion of san juan county is mountainous in part around the blue and elk mountains while abile the western portion lying along the rims of the colorado river and cataract canyon is cut up in large and small valleys mesas canyons and rims here on the last terrace or rim of the colorado river which here has wall of alternate layers of red ard and white sandstone known as the dolores and M la plata formations is located the th small sunken valleys so called by bv the old timer cowboys because they have no kvet k vet to be contin continued |