MARVELS OF THE GREAT DESERT.
[Illustration: TWIN LAKES, COTTONWOOD CAÑON, UTAH.]
Grand River valley is followed by the railroad from a point about forty
miles north of Leadville for a distance of nearly two hundred miles, and
until State Line is reached, when the road cuts across the plains of
Utah, which are relieved by little diversity of landscape until Mount
Nebo, of the Wasatch range, breaks into view. The scenery along Grand
River is, however, extremely beautiful, being very rugged and at times
mountainous. The road leads through several cañons that have very high
vertical walls, around ledges, over bridges, and takes an occasional
plunge into the midnight of tunnels bored through solid granite. The
landscape which meets the traveler’s vision when he reaches Utah is very
different from that which characterizes Colorado, the difference being
apparent almost when the border is reached. After passing the plateau
the route is by Provo Lake, where the region becomes broken, and near-by
are lofty ledges, over one of which rushes a pellucid stream that is
formed by melting snows from the adjacent mountains. Provo Falls is a
beautiful sheet of water, dashing down a height of forty feet and then
spreading away until lost in Provo Lake.
The Wasatch range is now plainly visible, coasting the eastern shore of
Great Salt Lake, and winding around to the southwest until they enclose
a valley that by Mormon industry has been converted into a veritable
paradise, ramified as it is by canals that render it prolific with
nearly everything that fertile soil can produce.
The Wasatch range forms one of the most important topographical features
of the Cordilleran system; in fact, it marks the central line of
elevation of this great mountain region, and is the dividing ridge
between the arid interior basins of Nevada and the high and relatively
well-watered plateau country that drains into the Gulf of California.
All the mountain formations here are on a scale of universal magnitude,
while in their structure are to be seen the effects of dynamic forces,
which have folded and twisted thousands of feet of solid rock as if they
were as pliable as so many sheets of paper. To the westward the range
presents a bold, abrupt escarpment, rising suddenly out of the plains of
the Utah basin, and attains its greatest elevation within a couple of
miles of its western base. To the eastward it slopes off very gradually,
forming a succession of broad ridges and mountain valleys whose waters
drain into the Great Salt Lake through cañons and gorges cut through its
main western ridge. The altitude is from 10,000 to 12,000 feet above sea
level, so that snow is continuous on the summits, while a condensation
of the eastward moving atmospheric currents, produced by the chill on
the mountain peaks, furnishes a constant supply of water to the mountain
streams, and from which the valleys derive their exceptional fertility.
A view of the range, as observed from one of the islands in Salt Lake,
presents a mountain wall more than 100 miles in length, of delicately
varied outline, the upper portion wrapped in a mantle of snow, but
dotted with patches of pine revealing all the intricacies of its rocky
structure, and cut through at short intervals by deep cañon gashes of
rare grandeur and beauty. A striking feature is presented in the old
lake terraces which mark the former beach-line of ancient Lake
Bonneville, of which the uppermost is 940 feet above the level of the
present lake, and can be traced with few interruptions from one end of
the range to the other. Lake Bonneville was formerly the great inland
sea of which Great Salt Lake is now a part. It covered nearly one-sixth
of what is now Utah territory, and there is evidence that it was
connected with the sea by an arm extending to the Gulf of California.
The upheaval of mountains through volcanic action reduced its bed and
gradually confined its waters to the lower basin of what afterwards came
to be known, because of its saline waters, as the Great Salt Lake.
[Illustration: BLACK ROCK, GREAT SALT LAKE.]
As early as 1689 mention was made of this remarkable lake, which was
somewhat indefinitely located and described by Baron La Houtan, “lord-
lieutenant of the French colony at Placentia, in New Foundland,” in a
work which was first published in the English language in 1735. But
though known at such an early day, it was not until 1849 that a survey
of the lake was made by Howard Stansbury, captain of topographical
engineers, U. S. A., though General John C. Fremont circumnavigated it
in 1844, giving names to its several islands and prominent points. The
settlement of Mormons in the Salt Lake Valley, near the shores of the
lake, served to bring the Dead Sea of America into prominence, and to
this fact was largely due the action of the Government in ordering a
survey of the great basin to be made. The lake was found to be nearly
eighty miles long by fifty broad, and to contain such a quantity of
salt, sulphates of silver, chlorides of magnesium, potash and alum, that
its solid contents were about four times greater than that of ocean
water, while its specific gravity almost equalled that of the Dead Sea.
Having no outlet the lake has a fluctuating level, dependent upon the
amount of inflowing water and solar evaporation, which varies each
season, but though theoretically the lake ought to be diminishing, the
fact remains that it is rather increasing, showing marked encroachment
on the eastern shores, while on the west there is an apparent recession
of its waters, a peculiarity not easily explained.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
UTALINE, OR LINE OF DIVISION BETWEEN UTAH AND COLORADO.—It was a
poetic as well as an artistic idea that led to the marking of the
division line between Utah and Colorado upon the everlasting hills.
It is a place of interest to all tourists, who never fail to comment
upon it and admire the execution of the idea as the trains pass by.
A path has been worn on the rocky side of the hills by the numerous
tourists who have personally visited the place, and in the
photograph we see an enthusiastic traveler returning to the waiting
train after satisfying his curiosity.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: THE TEMPLE, SALT LAKE CITY.]
There are a number of islands in Salt Lake, the two largest being
Antelope and Stansbury, which rise abruptly to a height of 3,000 feet,
terminating in rocky ridges that range north and south, and from which a
marvelously beautiful view is had of the surrounding scenery, varied by
towering peaks, boundless plains, fields of grain, irrigating ditches,
prosperous farm houses, and away to the southeast a delightful vision of
Salt Lake City. Other islands in the lake are those known as Gunnison,
Fremont, Carrington, Dolphin, Black Rock, Mud, Egg, Hat, and several
others that are so insignificant as to appear to be unworthy of any
name. The total area covered by the lake is about 2,500 square miles, or
nearly 400 square miles more than the State of Delaware, and its
elevation above the sea is 4,000 feet.
But if Great Salt Lake is one of the prime curiosities of America, its
municipal namesake may well claim the distinction of being one of the
artificial wonders of our land. Salt Lake City is the sublime result of
Mormon persecution, having been founded by that alien sect in 1847. The
history of their expulsion from Nauvoo, Illinois, and Gallatin,
Missouri, is familiar to every school-boy, yet there will ever linger
about the story of their flight, across the winter-swept plains of Iowa
and the icy prairies of Nebraska, to the desert lands of Utah, a glamour
of romance, second in interest to that of the exile of the Acadians, as
told by Longfellow in _Evangeline_.
In this valley of desolation, as it then appeared, Brigham Young, the
Moses of his people, founded a city and re-established a hierarchy which
has persisted and prospered to a degree that invites the world’s
amazement. By industry as remarkable as it was well directed, the desert
was converted into an oasis, and the bare earth, with its poverty of
sand and sage-brush, was made to cover its nakedness with the green
vestures of almost unexampled fecundity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
PROVO FALLS, NEAR PROVO CITY, UTAH.—There is perhaps not in the whole
world a more beautiful sheet of water than Provo Falls. It plunges
over a precipice forty feet high, striking boulders on the way that
break it into jets and misty lace-work which reflect and re-reflect
the sun’s rays in a thousand brilliant and ever-varying colors and
tints, until the beholder is entranced with the loveliness of the
vision. During the wet season, when the volume of water is greater,
the falls are even more beautiful than they are represented in this
photograph, but under the most adverse circumstances they are lovely
enough to satisfy the most critical taste. Provo Falls constitute
one of the chief attractions of Utah scenery.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The town thus established under harsh conditions grew into the stature
of a city, whose very isolation seemed to contribute to its prosperity.
For the first score of years the place was in nearly all respects one of
refuge, where the church was dominant and where priestcraft and polygamy
were the two institutions upon which the life of the sect depended. We
are not surprised, therefore, to find that the first great building
erected in Salt Lake City was a tabernacle, with a seating capacity for
12,000 persons, the largest hall without pillar supports in the world,
and that next to this a tithing house was built, for it was a principle
with the Mormons that the church should be supported by levies upon the
communicants of one-tenth of their annual profits, whether such earnings
came from the soil, merchandise or the trades. Then followed the
building of an endowment house, where the rites of the church were
celebrated; and besides a residence for the president or chief priest,
there was erected a structure known as the Bee-Hive, for the
accommodation of Brigham Young’s harem, also an assembly hall, and
lastly a Grand Temple, costing nearly $3,000,000, which, after twenty
years, is just now approaching completion.
[Illustration: BEE-HIVE HOUSE, SALT LAKE CITY.]
The City of Salt Lake, with a population of 44,000, is about seven miles
from the southeastern shore of the lake, is beautifully laid out with
streets 132 feet wide, the gutters of which are kept clean by the
constant running of pure water through them, brought down from the
Wasatch range and conducted thence through a myriad of ditches to
irrigate the soil.
Salt Lake City is one of the chief military posts of the United States,
and Fort Douglas, situated about five miles from the city, on a gently
sloping hillside at the termination of Red Butte Cañon, is a delightful
place and commands an unobstructed view of the entire valley. A mile
toward the south is Emigrant Cañon, from which point it is said the
Mormon pioneers first caught sight of the verdureless plain which they
were destined to convert into a very Eden of productiveness. One of the
greatest attractions in the neighborhood of the city (about eighteen
miles distant) is a noted bathing resort called Garfield Beach which,
during the summer season, is visited by thousands of persons who there
indulge the incomparable luxury of a bath in the marvelous Dead Sea of
America. The water is so buoyant that those who have not mastered the
art of swimming find equal sport with those who are most expert, for
they can lie on the delicious waves and be rocked like a child in its
cradle, without putting forth any effort whatever. Just back of
Garfield’s Beach is a great cavern in the Oquirrah Mountain side known
as the Giant’s Cave, the entrance to which is some 300 feet above the
lake level, though it is plainly evident that in former years the
opening was submerged. When the cave was discovered, in 1860, it was
found to contain several complete human skeletons, recklessly disposed,
as though they were the victims of slaughter or starvation. It was a
custom among the Utes to place their dead in caves and in hollows among
the rocks, but the irregularity of the positions of the skeletons found
in Giant’s Cave lends plausibility to the belief that the remains are
those of a band of Indians who, having taken refuge there, were
exterminated by their more powerful enemies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
DOUBLE CIRCLE, NEAR EUREKA, UTAH.—This photograph is interesting to
lovers of mountain scenery as well as railway engineers. The distant
hazy mountains form a soft and beautiful background, with their dark
sides and white, snow-crowned peaks; while in the foreground we
behold as fine an example of railroad engineering as can be seen
anywhere in the world. In climbing the mountains it is necessary for
the tracks to wind and zigzag and cross themselves back and forth,
until the train which first passes beneath the bridge a few minutes
later dashes across the top of it a hundred feet or more higher up.
It is exceedingly interesting to occupy a point where the whole
scene is in view and watch a train pursuing its devious way around
and over this portion of the track.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: BRIGHAM YOUNG’S GRAVE, SALT LAKE CITY.]
About forty miles north of Salt Lake City, and on the main line of the
Union Pacific Railroad, are two remarkable chasms known as Echo and
Weber Cañons, which are not only sublimely grand by reason of their
lofty and often vertical walls, but are also marvelously curious on
account of the weird formations which distinguish them. The first one
reached on our trip from Salt Lake was Weber Cañon, which invites
attention and admiration not so much by beetling cliffs as by its great
variety of scenery and the kaleidoscopic changes which appear at every
hundred yards of advance into it. The cañon is not always narrow, nor
are the walls invariably high, for there is a succession of all kinds of
mountain scenery, including stretches of beautiful meadow land and
fertile fields wrapped about the feet of giant peaks; colossal gate-ways
leading into dark defiles; mighty summits breaking way through
cloudland; slopes covered with pine and aspen; and ridges that appear to
have been fashioned by gods of war into towers, bastions and crenelated
battlements. Weber River has forged its way through this chasm, and
along its sinuous and rocky bed the railroad runs, sometimes cutting
under an overhanging ledge, again almost scraping the sides of the walls
that swing so near together, then leaping out of night-infested chasms
into broadening valleys that are green and russet with prolific
fruitage. While admiring the peaceful landscape and contemplating the
happy environments that render the valley a place of delightful
habitation, our dreamy reflections are suddenly disturbed by a sight of
what seems to have been most appropriately named The Devil’s Slide, a
formation whose singularity entitles it to consideration as one of
nature’s marvels. The hill upon the side of which this unique wonder
occurs is about 800 feet high, composed of a dark red sandstone, whose
face has been scarred by some internal disturbance that has caused to be
cast up from the base two gray parallel walls of white sandstone, which
rise to a varying height of twenty to forty feet above the general
surface of the hill, and are not more than twenty feet apart. This
remarkable slide begins at the summit and continues to the base, where
it is reflected in the clear waters of Weber River, opposite Lost Creek,
producing a vision that is weirdly grotesque and sublimely curious.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
CASTLE GATE IN PRICE’S CAÑON, UTAH.—We observe in this photograph not
only a castle gate but the castle itself, with its battlements and
buttresses, as natural and picturesque as any of the ruins that lend
their attractions to mediæval Europe. The scene is a grand one as we
observe it from the railroad tracks, and to this grandeur there is
added a vision of indescribable loveliness when the surrounding
country is viewed from the dizzy heights of the castle walls. Such a
view is one that never can be forgotten; it impresses itself upon
the mind as a permanent and lasting memory. All tourists who have
been this way will instantly recognize their old friend, the castle
gate, in this splendid photograph.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: JOSEPHINE FALLS, BEAR CREEK, UTAH.]
“Echo Cañon,” says an English traveler, “is a superb defile. It moves
along like some majestic poem in a series of incomparable stanzas. There
is nothing like it in the Himalayas that I know of, nor in the Suliman
range. In the Bolan Pass, on the Afghan frontier, there are intervals of
equal sublimity; and even as a whole it may compare with it. But taken
for all in all—its length (some thirty miles), its astonishing diversity
of contour, its beauty as well as its grandeur—I confess that Echo Cañon
is one of the masterpieces of Nature.”
One of the first objects which claims particular attention near the
entrance to the cañon from the west is Pulpit Rock, which is near the
village of Echo. This projection receives its name from its suggestive
appearance as well as from the popular tradition that Brigham Young
occupied it to preach his first sermon in Utah. The rocks and precipices
which line the way are variegated with subdued tints, heightened by the
pronounced coloring of the mountain vegetation that covers the slopes
and spreads out in occasional level tracts at the base. Remarkable and
often fantastic formations diversify the cañon, which for their fancied
resemblance to artificial things have received such appellations as
Steamboat Rock, Gibraltar, Monument Rock, etc. Our further advance
brings into view towering cliffs that seem to be suspended from the sky,
and again the walls reach over the way like mighty claws, and exhibit
their serrated peaks in a series of ruins that in the distance conjure
the imagination and present a vision of monoliths, temples, galleries
and castles, such as bestrew the old world. Hanging Rock and Castle Rock
are two specially bold promontories that give suggestion of Nilotic and
Rhenish ruins, a verisimilitude that is intensified by the knowledge
that when Johnston invaded Utah in 1857 the Mormons fortified many of
the cliffs of both Weber and Echo Cañons, the fading wrecks of these
structures being still visible.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
MOUNT NEBO, WASATCH RANGE.—Mount Nebo is about sixty miles almost due
south of Salt Lake City, and about twenty-five miles south of Provo.
Its snow-covered summit may be seen for a hundred miles or more, for
the atmosphere of this region is so clear that the vision has almost
an unlimited range. This mountain, as well as many other points and
places in Utah, was named by the Mormons on account of its fancied
likeness to its celebrated Old Testament namesake. It is one of the
finest mountain scenes in the whole Western country.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: PULPIT ROCK, WEBER CAÑON.]
Church Buttes and The Witches present a strange conglomeration in
uniting religion with superstition, for they appeal to the two strongest
attributes of human nature. From the west the “Witches” first come into
view, a group of fantastically-wrought images that appear like chaotic
creations, the rock-carved dreams of distempered boyhood, the feverish
personations of old Granny Bunch’s tales. There they stand, like an
assemblage of weazened and wrinkled wizards plotting some scheme of
diabolism, though everlastingly anchored to the eternal hillsides,
where, like Giant Grim, they can do nothing more than make faces at
passers-by.
Church Buttes are more harmonious in their outlines, as well as massive
in their proportions, simulating as they do cathedrals and meeting
houses, some with towers and spires, and others of less ostentatious
architecture, but all bearing some intimation of a worshipful purpose.
But these curious efforts of nature are not confined to the cañons
named, nor a limited district, for directly north of Green River, and
reached by a Government trail leading to Yellowstone Park, are what are
known as the Bridges and Washakie Basins of Bad Lands, a region that is
remarkable for its capricious formations, the results of upheavals,
glacial scouring, and erosions by wind and water. This district of
marvelous forms is a part of Fremont county, covering an area of twenty
by twenty-five miles. The country is a mixture of limestones, shales and
calcareous sandstones, with occasional green clays, marls, and whitish
sand, the latter often drifting into long dunes. Towards the south end
of this dry valley there is a chain of bluff escarpments, extending
about fourteen miles, and it is in these escarpments that the most
remarkable examples of Bad Land erosions are to be found. The ridges
rise 300 feet above the valley and present a series of abrupt, nearly
vertical faces, worn into innumerable architectural forms, with detached
pillars standing like monoliths some distance from the walls. Along the
dry ravines the same curiously picturesque forms occur, so that a view
of the whole front of the escarpment, with its salient angles, bears a
striking resemblance to the ruins of a fortified city. Enormous masses
project from the main wall, the stratifications of cream, gray and green
sands are traced across their nearly vertical fronts like courses of
immense masonry, and every face is scoured by innumerable narrow, sharp
cuts, which are worn into the soft material from top to bottom of the
cliff, offering narrow galleries which give access for a considerable
distance into this labyrinth of natural fortresses. At a little
distance, these sharp incisions seem like the spaces between series of
pillars, and the whole aspect of the region is that of a line of
Egyptian structures. Among the most interesting bodies are those of the
detached outliers, points of spurs, or isolated hills, which are mere
relics of the beds that formerly covered the whole valley. These
monoliths, often reaching 100 feet in height, rise out of the smooth
surface of a level plain of clay, and are sculptured into the most
surprising forms, surmounted by domes and ornamented by many buttresses
and jutting pinnacles.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
OLDEST HOUSE IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH.—Whether or not this is actually
the oldest house in Salt Lake City might be a disputed question, for
when it comes to ancient things, or to the oldest inhabitant, we
generally find that there are several claimants for the honor. But
we can say with sincerity and truth that this is one of the oldest
representative houses of the Mormon capital. It is one of the better
class, erected immediately after the city was laid out, and it has
been occupied continuously ever since. The house and its
surroundings have an air of quiet restfulness that is exceedingly
inviting, and a tired man could sleep like a new-born infant under
the board roof with the rain pattering down upon it.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: WITCH ROCKS, WEBER CAÑON.]
Clarence King, U. S. Geologist, in a monograph on the Bad Lands, says:
“It is not altogether easy to account for the peculiar character of this
erosion, resulting as it does in such singular vertical faces and spire-
like forms. A glance at the front of these Bad Lands shows at once that
very much of the resultant forms must be the effect of rain and wind-
storms. The small streams which cut down across the escarpment from the
interior of the plateau, do the work of severing the front into detached
blocks; but the final forms of these blocks themselves are probably in
great measure given by the effect of rain and wind erosion. The material
is so exceedingly fine, that under the influence of trickling waters it
cuts down most easily in vertical lines. A semi-detached block,
separated by two lateral ravines, becomes quickly carved into spires and
domes, which soon crumble down to the level of the plain. It seems
probable that some of the most interesting forms are brought out by a
slightly harder stratum near the top of the cliffs (like the strange,
and often uncouth, examples in Monument Park, Colorado), which acts in a
measure as a protector of the softer materials, and prevents them from
taking the mound-forms that occur when the beds are of equal hardness.”
As we follow down Green River, the same effects are observable in the
vertical bluffs which extend along the shores, images to which fancy has
given such names as the Devil’s Tea-pot, the Giant’s Club, Vermilion
Cliffs, and many others, for the geologic structure is the same through
nearly the whole of southeast Wyoming. But the so-called Bad Lands are
not wholly confined to Wyoming, for they are met with in both North and
South Dakota, west of the Missouri River; though for beauty and
magnitude, those of Wyoming are incomparable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
MORMON TITHING HOUSE, SALT LAKE CITY.—This is one of the houses
occupied by Brigham Young during his lifetime as a residence and for
office purposes. We presume from the name that it was also the
appointed place for the payment of tithes by his devoted followers,
and if this is true we can safely estimate that many millions of
dollars were carried through its gates and deposited in the coffers
of the Church as a tribute from ignorance and superstition to the
superiority of cunning and avarice. The Mormon leaders have all been
shrewd money getters and have not overlooked themselves while taking
care of the interests of the Lord.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: HANGING ROCK, AMERICAN FORK CAÑON.]
From Green River Station we doubled our track and returned to Ogden,
where we took some very beautiful views of Ogden Cañon, the Narrows,
Adam’s Falls, and the mountains that soar very far skyward at the city’s
rear. But our stay here was limited to two days, when we took the Oregon
branch of the Union Pacific for a visit to Shoshone Falls, on Snake
River, which for size as well as magnificence takes a position second
only to our world-wonderful Niagara.
Directly after leaving Ogden the road enters the valley of Bear River,
which it follows as far north as Weston Falls, a distance of about
seventy-five miles. The scenery along this part of the route is almost
as rugged as that of Weber Cañon, being a succession of cañons and
lovely stretches of level lands brought into the highest state of
cultivation by Mormon industry. At Pocatello the road branches, one of
its iron arms extending northward to Helena, while the main line turns
westwardly to Oregon. The district which it penetrates after leaving
Pocatello is desert-like and devoid of interest almost to the western
limits of Idaho, if we except the point where the road crosses Snake
River. Here the American Falls go brawling and boiling over immense
basaltic rocks that are struggling with the impetuous stream, and whose
tops are flecked with tufts of foam thrown up by mad-dashing waves. But
the waters have not yet worn a chasm through the desert, which spreads
away on either side a level plain, until forty-four miles distant the
dreary monotony is broken by three buttes that rise into view out of the
uninviting landscape. We now enter a region that is somber beyond all
power to describe; a wretched desolation that is relieved by no
vegetation save of sage-brush, which straggles through little rifts in
the earth and barely lifts its head above the surface. These are the
lava beds that extend from Beaver Cañon all along the north side of
Snake River, until they lose themselves in the stream where it turns due
north and draws a boundary line between Idaho and Oregon. The land
appears to have been cursed with such a fire as destroyed Gomorrah, for
the eye wanders over nothing but the fiery sputa of volcanoes, that,
having wrought the fullest destruction, were in turn destroyed.
Everywhere we look there greets our vision waves of lava that lashed the
earth until, tired of their devastating work, they became congealed, or
were arrested by the hand of omnipotence. But between the knolls of
scoria are occasional depressions, which are cross-seamed and cracked
until in many places the fissures are hundreds of feet deep, apparently
extending in depth to the very vitals of the earth. Some of the crevices
are only a few inches in width, while there are others several feet
broad, into which creeks have lost themselves, and lead into bottomless
pits.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
THE DEVIL’S SLIDE, WEBER CAÑON.—This great natural curiosity is in
Weber Cañon, about forty miles north of Salt Lake City. It is
composed of two parallel walls of white sandstone, thrown up by some
ancient convulsion of the earth, which stand out in bold contrast
with the dark red sandstone of the hill. The “Slide” is nearly 800
feet in length, the walls rising to a varying height of twenty to
forty feet above the general surface of the hill. A few feet to the
left of the “Slide” there is another wall of similar formation, but
almost covered by the accumulated washings of centuries. It is a
pity that so remarkable a curiosity should have received so profane
an appellation; but we presume there would be no regrets if the
devil should be required to take a hasty run down the top of the
ragged and jutting walls of his famous slide.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: TEA-POT ROCK, GREEN RIVER.]
It is a little more than one hundred miles from Pocatello to Shoshone
Station, at which point we left the train, and by private conveyance
struck across the lava fields, a distance of twenty-five miles due
south, over the dustiest wagon-road that mortal ever traveled. The way
is like a switch-back, up and down over sharp waves of lava, with
desolation and discomfort obtrusive companions, and nothing rising above
the dull undulations except a purplish tint in the horizon, marking with
faint intimation a range of mountains one hundred miles away in Utah.
For more than four hours we traversed this wearying stretch of parched
and begrimed desert, without a sign of the river, until at length
turning the base of a higher ridge we came suddenly upon the brink of a
tremendous chasm, and there, 1,200 feet below our feet, was the river
which we had journeyed so far to view. Long before reaching this
objective point, we had heard a deep, rumbling noise that seemed to
emanate from the earth’s internals, but now, with astounded sense of the
awful, we beheld the cause. There before us was the vexed waters of a
large river pouring over two precipices, the first 82 feet and the
second 210 feet high, producing by the final plunge a colossal caldron,
from which the mists rose up in boiling clouds that ever and anon hid
the falls from sight.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration:
PULPIT ROCK, ECHO CAÑON, UTAH.—This singular overhanging rock, with
the reading stand in front, has been known as Pulpit Rock since the
early days of Mormonism in Utah, owing to the fact that it was used
by Brigham Young as a pulpit in the delivery of his first sermon
within the present limits of that territory. But it is not for this
reason that we include it in GLIMPSES OF AMERICA, for we have no
sympathy whatever with Mormonism or its doctrines. The rock is one
of the prominent curiosities of Utah, and as such it is here
represented. The surrounding scenery is very beautiful, with
glimpses of the winding river and the rolling hills as a background.
It is a favorite resort for tourists, both on account of the scenic
beauties and the healthfulness of the pure western air.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration: MAIDEN OF THE BAD LANDS.]
A glance at this tremendous waterfall more than compensated for all the
annoyances and discomforts that we had endured. It was a scene of
positively bewildering majesty; a vision of the incomparably grand; an
object lesson teaching the mightiness and mysterious ways of God. In the
deep diapason of its voice we recognized nature’s hallelujah, and the
thunderous boom of its plungings was like a chorus of invocation welling
from a million throats. Its lovely grandeur, bursting out of the heart
of desolation, is the personification of powerful, awe-inspiring
sublimity, an exaltation of deity, an inspiration to the soul, a very
glorification and apotheosis of nature.
[Illustration: WITCH ROCK, BAD LANDS OF WYOMING.]
Pausing on the bank to contemplate and measure the colossal wonder of
the falls, we saw the emerald stream gliding along as placidly as though
its mission was one of peace; nor was there any appearance of danger to
the ferryman, who operated his boat by an over-head wire cable stretched
from bank to bank, only 200 yards above. The quiet flow, however, was
better understood when we learned that the river here is 200 feet deep;
a very ocean filling a mighty chasm; an inundated cañon whose volume of
water equals that of a dozen Niagaras, for this tremendous gorge extends
a distance of eighteen miles, and its bottom lies under the river 1,400
feet below the brink.
Shoshone Falls proper are 950 feet wide at the point of precipitation,
but only a few yards to the rear of it are Bridal Veil Falls, whose
width is 125 feet, and which constitute the first plunge or precipice,
which in turn is broken into a series of minor cascades, known as Bridal
Train and Natural Mill Race Falls, the divisions being produced by the
interposition of Eagle Rock and Bell’s Island. One mile and a half below
the cataract are Cascade Falls, while three miles above are Twin Falls,
which leap down a height of 180 feet, thus showing that there is a space
of nearly five miles in which the tremendous chasm has been torn by
convulsions which most probably occurred after the river was turned into
its bed. An exquisite word-painting by the journalistic pen of Hon. C.
C. Goodwin is here reproduced:
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[Illustration: MONUMENT ROCK, ECHO CAÑON.]
[Illustration: GIANT’S CLUB, GREEN RIVER.]
These two natural curiosities, the one in Echo Cañon and the other near
Green River, have been well named, for a glance at either immediately
suggests its proper use. Their immensity can be estimated by the size of
the man who stands at the foot of the Club, who, although he is taller
than the average of his race, is hardly able to reach to the first
wrinkle on the giant’s weapon.
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[Illustration: BANKS OF SNAKE RIVER.]
“The lava beds of Idaho are a marked feature of that Territory. Starting
near the eastern boundary, they extend southwesterly for a long
distance, and are from 300 feet to 900 feet in depth. This mass was once
a river of molten fire, the making of which must have succeeded a
convulsion of nature more terrible than any ever witnessed by mortals,
and long years must have passed before the awful fiery mass was cooled.
To the east of the source of the lava flow, the Snake River bursts out
of the hills, becoming almost at once a sovereign river, and flowing at
first southwesterly and then bending westerly, cuts through the lava
fields nearly in the center of the Territory, reckoned from east to
west, and about forty miles north of its southern border, and thence
flowing with great curves, merges finally with the Columbia. The two
rivers combined make one of the chief waterways of the continent, and
here and there take on pictures of great beauty. Never anywhere else was
there such a scene; never anywhere else was so beautiful a picture hung
in so rude a frame; never anywhere else, on a background so forbidding
and weird, were so many glories clustered. Around and beyond, there is
nothing but the desert—sere, silent, lifeless—as though Desolation had
builded there everlasting thrones to Sorrow and Despair.
[Illustration: BAD LANDS OF WYOMING.]
“Away back in remote ages, over the withered breast of the desert, a
river of fire, 100 miles wide and 400 miles long, was turned. As the
fiery mass cooled, its red waves became transfixed, and turned black,
giving to the double-desert an indescribably blasted and forbidding
face.
“But while this river of fire was in flow, a river of water was fighting
its way across it, or has since made war and forged out for itself a
channel through the mass. This channel looks like the grave of a volcano
that had been robbed of its dead. But right between its crumbling and
repellent walls, transfiguration appears. And such a picture! A river as
lordly as the Hudson or Ohio, springing from the distant snow-crested
Tetons, with waters transparent as glass, but green as emerald, with
majestic flow and ever-increasing volume, sweeps on until it reaches
this point where the display begins.
“Suddenly, in different places in the river-bed, jagged rocky reefs are
upheaved, dividing the current into four rivers, and these, in a mighty
plunge of eighty feet downward, dash on their way. Of course the waters
are churned into foam, and roll over the precipice white as are the
garments of the morning when no cloud obscures the sun. The loveliest of
these falls is called “The Bridal Veil,” because it is made of the lace
which is woven with a warp of falling waters and a woof of sunlight.
Above this and near the right bank, is a long trail of foam, and this is
called “The Bridal Trail.” The other channels are not so fair as the one
called “The Bridal Veil,” but they are more fierce and wild, and carry
in their ferocious sweep more power.
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[Illustration:
WEBER VALLEY, AND TUNNEL THROUGH GRANITE WALLS, UTAH.—We have a
beautiful landscape and a grand mountain view combined in this fine
photograph. The rugged wall of granite, through which the railroad
tunnel has been cut, forms an appropriate frame for the picture of
the peaceful valley and the winding river. The place has a restful
look, inviting to the weary worker who seeks rest and health away
from the noise and hustle of city life. Here, shut in by the
surrounding walls, and with rod in hand, one could sit upon the
banks of the mirror-like stream and imagine himself out of the world
and away from all its cares and worries. It seems almost a pity that
the demands of modern commerce should require the cutting of the
hill and the breaking of the solitude by the screaming of the
rushing locomotive.
]
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[Illustration: PETRIFIED TREES OF THE BAD LANDS.]
“One of the reefs which divides the river in mid-channel runs up to a
peak, and on this a family of eagles have, through the years, may be
through centuries, made their home and reared their young, on the very
verge of the abyss and amid the full echoes of the resounding roar of
the falls. Surely the eagle is a fitting symbol of perfect fearlessness,
and of that exultation which comes with battle clamors.
“But these first falls are but a beginning. The greater splendor
succeeds. With swifter flow, the startled waters dash on, and within a
few feet take their second plunge into a solid crescent, over a sheer
precipice, 210 feet to the abyss below. On the brink there is a rolling
crest of white, dotted here and there, in sharp contrast, with shining
eddies of green, as might a necklace of emeralds shimmer on a throat of
snow, and then the leap and fall.
[Illustration: BEAUTIES OF THE BAD LANDS.]
“Here more than foam is made. Here the waters are shivered into fleecy
spray, whiter and finer than any miracle that ever fell from an India
loom; while from the depths below, an everlasting vapor rises—the
incense of the waters to the waters’ God. Finally, through the long,
unclouded days, the sun sends down his beams, and to give the startling
scene its growing splendor, wreathes the terror and the glory in a
rainbow halo. On either sullen bank the extremities of its arc are
anchored, and there in its many-colored robes of light it lies
outstretched above the abyss like wreaths of flowers above a sepulchre.
Up through the glory and terror an everlasting roar ascends, deep-toned
as is the voice of fate, a diapason like that the rolling ocean chants
when his eager surges come rushing in to greet and fiercely woo an
irresponsive promontory.
[Illustration: CEDAR CAÑON, BAD LANDS OF DAKOTA.]
“But to feel all the awe and to mark all the splendor and power that
comes of the mighty display, one must climb down the deep descent to the
river’s brink below, and pressing up as nearly as possible to the falls,
contemplate the tremendous picture. There, something of the energy that
creates that endless panorama is comprehended; all the deep throbbings
of the mighty river’s pulses are felt, all the magnificence is seen. In
the reverberations that come of the war of waters, one hears something
like God’s voice; something like the splendor of God is before his eyes;
something akin to God’s power is manifesting itself before him, and his
soul shrinks within itself, conscious, as never before, of its own
littleness and helplessness in the presence of the workings of Nature’s
immeasurable forces.
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[Illustration:
THE BLUFFS OF GREEN RIVER, UTAH.—If the traveler should come suddenly
in front of the towering bluff to the right, with its striped and
pillared front, it would require no great stretch of the imagination
for him to conclude that he was sailing up the ancient Nile and
viewing the ruins of Thebes or some other of the great cities that
flourished with life and commerce many centuries ago, but now sit in
solemn silence contemplating the glory of the dead past. This scene
is a very striking one, and the splendid photograph does it full
justice. It stands on the printed page just as nature made it,
solemn, grand and silent. There is something really sphinxlike in
the wrinkled front of the large bluff in the foreground.
]
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[Illustration: MOYEA FALLS, IDAHO.]
“Not quite so massive is the picture as is Niagara, but it has more
lights and shades and loveliness, as though a hand more divinely skilled
had mixed the tints, and with more delicate art had transfixed them upon
that picture suspended there in its rugged and somber frame. As one
watches, it is not difficult to fancy that, away back in the immemorial
and unrecorded past, the angel of love bewailed the fact that mortals
were to be given existence in a spot so forbidding, a spot that,
apparently, was never to be warmed with God’s smile, which was never to
make a sign through which God’s mercy was to be discerned; that then
omnipotence was touched, that with His hand He smote the hills and
started the great river in its flow; that with His finger He traced out
the channel across the corpse of that other river that had been fire,
mingled the sunbeams with the raging waters, and made it possible in
that fire-blasted frame of _scoria_ to swing a picture which should be,
first to the red man and later to the pale races, a certain sign of the
existence, the power, and the unapproachable splendor of Jehovah.
“And as the red man, through the centuries, watched the spectacle,
comprehending nothing except that an infinite voice was smiting his
ears, and insufferable glories were blazing before his eyes; so, through
the centuries to come, the pale races will stand upon the shuddering
shore and watch, experiencing a mighty impulse to put off the sandals
from their feet, under an overmastering consciousness that the spot on
which they are standing is holy ground.
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[Illustration:
SHOSHONE FALLS, IDAHO.—Shoshone Falls are in Snake River, in the
southern part of Idaho, and they constitute one of the greatest
curiosities of our western country. In some respects they resemble
Niagara, and have accordingly been designated as the Niagara of the
west. The place is rapidly becoming a popular resort for tourists,
and this popularity will greatly increase as it becomes better
known. The surrounding scenery is beautiful, consisting of prairie
valleys fringed with distant mountains. A splendid description of
the Falls is given on page 110 of GLIMPSES OF AMERICA.
]
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[Illustration: THE FERRY AT SHOSHONE FALLS.]
[Illustration: NATURAL BRIDGE, SHOSHONE FALLS.]
“There is nothing elsewhere like it, nothing half so weird, so
beautiful, so clothed in majesty, so draped with terror; nothing else
that awakens impressions at once so startling, so winsome, so profound.
While journeying through the desert, to come suddenly upon it, the
spectacle gives one something of the emotions that would be experienced
in beholding a resurrection from the dead. In the midst of what seems
like a dead world, suddenly there springs into irrepressible life
something so marvelous, so grand, so caparisoned with loveliness and
irresistible might, that the head is bowed, the strained heart throbs
tumultuously, and the awed soul sinks to its knees.” The time is fast
approaching when the sublime glories of Shoshone Falls will be
appreciated by tourists, and by that large class of summer vacationists
who are always searching for sights and places that will drive away the
_ennui_ from which they chiefly suffer. The beat of ocean billow, the
roar of waterfall, the stretch of landscape from lofty mountain peak,
the lonely quietude of glen and wilderness, each have their votaries;
but about Shoshone’s chasm there is more to charm than all of these, for
the very desolation of its environments adds fascination to the wild and
tameless scenery of the falls. The poet and the painter find here an
inspiration for their genius; while the most prosaic spectator is
thrilled by the matchless grandeur, the majestic awfulness of a mad-
cantering river plunging through a gigantic rent, and over a precipice
so high that the waters are scattered into mist and dissolve in rainbows
when they meet the seething caldron below. It is a strange exhibition of
nature’s power and freakishness, a manifestation of mysterious force, a
blending of results precipitated by vomiting volcano and an irresistible
flood of waters, the joining of rivers of fire with streams breaking
over the barriers of mountains and pouring down upon the plains.
Considering the surroundings, the bleak sterility of what appears to be
a boundless extent of lava fields, and the mighty, awe-compelling
avalanche of waters that cleaves it, Shoshone Falls is perhaps the most
remarkable waterfall to be found anywhere on either continent, a wonder
in which Snake River has an almost equal part. Indeed, this
extraordinary river exhibits many equally astonishing features along its
extreme length, for while a greater part of the stream flows through a
belt of scoria, the lower portion is a succession of waterfalls, second
only to those of Shoshone.
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