Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-12-30

uon The SOIL like much OF that on the Rio Del Mort
and in southern specuar and deceptious look
ing thin and sandy to the eye but having element
fertility in 1t which water mpregnates and enables Il
send forth vigorous vegetation. All it wants, and tina
only in places irrigation and for this purpose and fo
all purposes, there is water enough; for this valley II
probably the best watered region in the world, and Il
obliged to be from the confguraton and structure
the country The valley is formed by the lofty ranges
the Rocky and Wahsatoh mountains which, wide apart
at its lower end, converge they 60 north and unite
above latitude 42o, giving to the long and broad valley
they enclose the form Of the Greek letter delta
our inverted The SUBMITS Of these mountains are
covered with eternal SHOWS their sides with annual
winter SHOWS and these latter beginning to melt early in
the spring and continuing till mid summer fill the earth
with moisture, and give rise myads of springs creeks
and small rivers which collect into the forks Of the
Colorado called by the hunters Green and Grand rivers,
and, in their junction. constitute the great river itself
for the country below being sterile and arid contributes
but little to swell the volume Of the great river which
traverses it, The climate in this valley is mild, the
month of January being like autumn to We this
knowledge to the last winter expedition of Fremont who
says /" The immediate paHey Of the Upper Colorado for
about 100 miles in breadth, and from the 7h to the 21st Of
January entirely bare Of sno, and the Eeaher
6sd autumn cih U.s." This would be the fourth State
equal in extent any, inferior in SOIL superior in wood
and water softer in climate better in due alterations Of
woodland and prairie and being part of the Utah Terri
tory 1t is under the dominion Of law Enforcement
and open to immediate settlement which in fact
going
The fifth State would consist of the remainder Of the
Wahsach and Anterra ranges and extending 800 miles
to the California line upon whatever breadth might be
desired 1t would include towards its eastern border)
the Little Salt Lake. which is 260 miles south Of the Great
Salt Lake, and which desgnates country much supe
ror to that Great Salt Lake sefs inferior to that
large and marvellous body Of salt water 1t would be
magnificent State Its eastern limit there the rim of the
Great Basin, would embrace the broad expanse Of the
Wahsatch and Anterra ranges rather blocks they
are cut up into short sectonsprobably the richest
mountain region in the world where nature has crowded
and accumulated into an hundred iies sa.ars isv
vast magazine profession Of her most valuable gifts to
mansoil, water, grass, wood timber, rock-sat coal,
stone due alienation of mountain and valsythe for
into blocks white the with snow dark the
sides with forests and their bosoms filed with the
valleys green with grass fresh with cool water opening
into each other by level gaps defes the eli
mate soft that animals live oat all the winter, and
February ESQ frosty and frozen with us the usual month
there for starting the plough say starting the plough
for the Mormons since several years. have the beauty
of this region and have upon it. Weowe to Fremonts
last winter expedition the revelation public view of this
magnificent region valuable than all the gold mines Of
California and Australia put together He had these
ranges in his previous expeditions and given them page
in his journal and place in his map but it was not until
his last expedition that he penetrated their recesses and
their hidden treasures. He was fourteen days in
themrom the Oath Of January to the It'll Of February
and thus speaks of what he saw:
They lie between the Colorado valley and the Great Ba
SIM and at their western base established the Mormon
settlements of Parowan and Cedar city They what
called fertile mountains abundant in water wood, and grass
and fertile valleys offering Inducements to settlement and ia
ciies for making road These great store
house Observation-Disclosures ron coawhich would be Of in
dspensable in the construction and of the
road and solid foundations build the future prope
ry of the rapidly increasing Utah State Salt is abundant
the eastern border mountains-as the Sierra de Satbe
ing named from it, In the ranges lying behind the Mormon
passes are accumulated great wealth Of iron and coal and
extensive forests heavy timber These forests largest
acquainted with in the Rocky Mountains, being in
places twenty miles in depth of continuous forest the
growth lofty and large frequently three feet diameter
and sometimes reaching five feet the red and yellow
pine predominang At the actual southern extremity the
Mormon settlements consisting the two enclosed towns Of
Parowan and Cedar city to which line passed.
mine has been opened for about eighty yards and iron works
already established Iron here in extraordinary
accumulated into mountains which comb in
crests Of solid IRON thirty feet thick and hundred yards long,
Fremont brought home specimens of this coal and IRON
of which Professor Baird Of the Smithsonian Institute
has made the analysis and which, give in his words
Magnetic oxide Of iron: Paroan. Seems very pure
Of and suitable purposes. Nay be esi
mated 70 eon'an about seventy %
ta IRON oehat similar to the the great beds Of NORTH
No York. solid than usual there probably very
veU adapted the manufacture Of steel The appeasto
be Of ereeent quality emi-bitamnoas somewhat appear
like the ansiton coat of the Susqaehannah mines
Pennsylrania."
must ask the pardon Of of my auditors for sup
posing that they not be better acquainted with the
language Of geology than was myself when supposed
that this combng out Of the solid iron into crests
descriptive language, suggested by the taste of the
writer found it not So but the technical language
which the geological science required to be used and
which, being used, conveyed exact meanng-that of
mineral showing itself above the surface and browning
the top of the hill mountain crest does the helmet
and the comb the head Of the cock In this view of its
meaning the language here used by Fremont and which
to have been the suggestion Of excited imagna
on becomes the subdued expression science and tech
nicaty And what picture he presents! Here are, in
fact the elements Of great Sateenough Of themselves
to build up rich and populous State but appurtenant
to it, and interlaced with it, bordering upon it. is
great extent Of valley countrythat of the Little Salt
and its tributaries and multitude Of other and
Valleys all stretching along the western base Of the Wah
satch and within the rim Of the Great Basin that Basin
remarkable here for beauty and fertility in most
other parts for sterty and deformity The Mormon set
Elements Of Paragoons Parowan and Cedar city along
the edge Of this rich mountain region and the wetrod
Mormon road from the Great Salt Lake Southern Cali
forna relieved with bridges and marked with mile
pass these towns all announcing to the traveller that
in the depths of the unknown wilderness he had
tered the comforts Of civilization. Messrs Beae and
Heap passed these settlements at and speak
in terms Of enchantment not only Of the beauty of the
country, but Of the improvements and cultivation pretty
towns built to pattern each square, the sides formed
by lines Of adobe houses all facing inwards with flower
in the crowded with growing grain, and all watered
both fields and gardens, and the front and rear Of every
house. with clear cool streams brought down from the
mountain sides and from under seeming canopy Of snov
grist and mills at work; FORCES smelling the iron
ore; golfers digging the coal; blacksmths hammenng
the redhot iron into farming implements or shoes for the
horses assisted by dextrous Indian boys cattle roaming
in rich pastures people quaryng, and the cattle licking
the rock-salt Emgrants obtain supplies herebeef and
flour at moderate prices; and IL here that Fremont
retted after his days Of living upon his mules
which died from exhaustion The number and beauty Of