Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-02-17
FROM HE PLAINS.

/. 4. Cole
BEAR RIvEa CRY, January BE.
ing IN the neigh5orhood Of the lend Of
track, The construction Of which RIl
dono tess furnish ample material for an
interesting letter, [ take the present o.
portunlty to give yoU my impressions Of
the country between Cheyenne and Salt
Lake. The Union Pacife Railroad has
crossed the Rocky Mountains on an eIeva-
ted, undulating plain, constituting one
gigantic Pass, ave hundred miles in length
and between one hundred and two hun
dred in width, lying between the Wind
river range on the north and the Unitah
range on the south, having an average al
tJtude Of about seven thousand feet, With
no water fit to use for any purpose save
that Of the Widely,seperated streams, des-
tituta of life but Astounding in death, pro
dueing no timber nor vegetation bat
Bagebrush, and without doubt under.aid
with a passable combustible coal through
out, which crops ont Of the bluffs in many
places so near the track as to be wheeled
aborad the cars. The adjacent ranges Of
the Rocky Mountains, the Medicine Bow
and Sierra Madre, running north and
south aud shooting spurs northWard near
ly to the road; the Uintah; an east and
west range, whose Jagged outline bounds
the far off southern horizon the Wind
river, also ranging east and west, away
beyond the northern horizon and the
F4asatch. over and through which the road
passes into the Great Basin Of Salt lake
are full Of sold and silver yiens and COW
cred with timber; and their slopes, in
terTening valleys, and parks, afford the
best of grazing and arabic lands; but one
gets no idea of them riding on this road.
On the contrary, the landscape under his
eye is the most deso!ate imaginable It
Is 8 desert whose deathly qualities it will
task the utmost energies Of man to over
come. Ell
About enc hundred miles from the
Big Laramie, meanwhile having over
come the desert wave answering to the
Medicine Bow Mountains further south.
the summit of which is 500 feet high,
we eross the North Plate at an elevation
Of 6,474 feet.
Then We ascend to the crest Of the
continent, the Sierra Madre, or what
there is left Of it, 100 feet above sea.
after passing which the face of the land
geape gets Forse if possible, and we have
the Black, and Bad, and Bitter Greek
Deserts in rapid succession. The winds
whistle and shrek as if both astounded
and terrified; the eand rocks constitut-
ing the broWs Of the occasional bluffs,
Whitfield By the cutting storms into gro
te8que shapes, some not unlike Wrinkled
#eatherbeaten, bearded human face, seem
animated with the genius of the place
and watching in stolid anguish the inyas-
ION OF their solitude the engine itse f
40 longer whistles but yells, as if mad at
being forced to traverse the unearthiy
desert. Bitter creek itself, famous since
the commencement Of the overland travel
as a "jOruada del muerto," is sixty to
seventy miles long, crooked as the trail
of serpent, there being twenty railroad
bridges on it, the valley from two to six
miles wide, bordered by sand stone blaFs,
furnishing the best building stone on the
route. There and hundred miles west
ward are found beautiful agates and other
curious and precious stones, Bitter Greek
IS the nearest point on the road to the
6Eeetwater mines. It's waters are aka
line and poisonous generally, and this is
true OF the entire route between North
Platte and Green rivers, distance of
more than hundred miles, as to eat up
an engine boiler in few weeks, often
''kiiling' the engines while on dut7. I
was told there were eight dead engines
On the division, which extends from Raw
lings the Wasatch, 264 miles. the day [
come over 1t Eve had a cold stout wind
in our teeth and the report was given
color to BY the fact of our own dying,
compelling US to stand on switch at
Bitter Greek Station ten hours. [ sup
pose it is the worse place to operate a
rail. cad in the world.
The towns westward Of Laramie CITY
scarce deserve mention. They must all
depend on railroads for their business.
Benton, on North Platte, Is entirely de
serted. Bryan, fifteen miles west of Green
River, on Black Fork, is half cloth, Is To-
Gated in an ash pit, surrounded by ugly
bluffs and ridges. 1t has temporarily been
the end of a,divisiou, and it has rothing
before it but deserton. Probably the
Sweetwater depot will be on Green River
This is the best place for a town, indeed
the only one, west Of Laramie. I have
seen. 1t is in little recess betWeel two
ridges, like tie ''hog backs" of Colorado
which come down close to the road is
handy to the timber I spoke OF, has white
sulphur and oil springs, also copious
springs ofs0ft, sweet, water, perpendicular
veins of coal in the ridges, precisely like
tr1at at Golden City, the coal the same in
quality too but it is against it that the
track has a sixty-feet grade upon which
of course cars won't stand without the
brakes on, and there would have to be
considerable filling to bring the unoccu-
pied part OF the site up to the road level.
1t was lively place before the "riot, as
they call it, and / think it is good illus
tratIon Of what mob law will do for a
place. Between the vigilantes, the
rovghs, the Ltdea, and the railroad men,