| Show rambling thoughts of A Rim Ritu rocker reprint rights reserved by frank silvey prior to the establishment of the la sal national forest 1906 ratio much h of our limited timber supply was ruthlessly destroyed by cutting the ti for a proposed flume to be used in placer mining on the san migguel river in montrose rosc county colorado by a promotion company of capitalists in 1893 97 this company of cap capitalists contracted for one million 3 hundred thousand feet of lumber and a part of the same was cut into logs to furnish the saw mill the balance was vas left to rot in the ti timber As this was all at that time state owned lands and situated chiefly in ane san juan county utah no permit was essary ebsary so they just slashed into the timber at will without cost to the company today these logs may be seen lying as mute evidence of mans 1 I 1 ruthless destruction of fine growing I 1 A timber I 1 about 1893 private interests oci nought light from the state of utah eight sections of the forest timber and grazing land in san juan county in 1906 1 the la sal national forest was established and at last this vandalism i and the gobbling up of privately owned land was stopped during the past twenty nine years the forest service has built many trails and roads but with limited appropriations for this purpose they have been somewhat what handicapped leaving moab via warner wamer forest station one may go by auko aalto by a fair country road to castleton thence to bax bar A a distance of about 60 miles another route to bar A leaves IV moab 0 at the colorado river bridge thence up the colorado river canyon a great scenic drive of red sandstone towering cliffs thence up little castle valley so named by the pioneers tte ia cause a castle like sandstone formation rock about feet in heireth hei rhth stands near the center of the valley at the castleton post of office f ice one starts to climb rapidly until bar A is reached here an altitude of about vina feet is reached the distance from moab by this route is about 70 miles near bar A there are two small streams taylor creek and a branch of roe creek which are good for fish mg ing for f or mountain trout in season about two treles south of bar A as the one time old indian would say wagon road come back that is to say the road ends here due south near the la sal ranger station a distance of about IS 18 miles is s a fair road between these points they there is only a trail the greater part of the distance A small appropriation of say sixty thousand dollars by our federal government would build a fair auto road between these points thus making a circle drive amount the la sal mountains giving sightseers sightseer a great variety of scenery starting from moab during the heat beat of the summer one may gradually climb to the pines maspn and spruce to cool mountain breezes cold spar sparkling cling streams and springy mountain bunch grass grasis and mountain flowers in wagon season the warner ranger station may be reached reached over highway f fromi ro moab or Mont kello at a point 9 miles southeasterly of moab one leaves the main highway and travels eab directly towards the la sal mountain the forest service coun ty and the boys have made of his chis a fair wad road the di dispane stane from the main highway to warner ranzer station is 18 miles and one gradually climbs from an elevation ela oz of about abbat feet to an elevation of ab abut about ut feet here one is among the nines dines and spruce trees fine clear cold water and here one may scare a cabin or camp out under the spruce trees and forget the world near to natures heart all visitors are welcome and there is no restriction except that you build your tires fires at certain der dee spots and totally extinguish them before breaking up ca camp MP thus helping us to prevent forest fires NOTE the information here given was in in part obtained from S S stewart wart forest supervisor of la sal national forest also adso from person nal mal knowledge of the writer |
