Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1870-05-06
Z DottiDgs by the Way.
Correspondence Of Keo,0ee Courier.

Sln,A ~ a..
BRYAN, WYOMING IERRITonY, !
'lEl On Express Train, 10 am 21$April, 10.
|s8 DEAR CouRIEn: We arrived hero this
morning three hours behind timo, our. on.
sgne got out Of order, and could not comc
'to time, the first time, sincefsse left home
and making about three Thousand five hun
dred miles! 81 d. S,,is ~
This morning at 8 O'clock wo;ss found our,
selves at Bitter -~4-, Crcok, station, about
Somiles back. Nov, to bring up our notes
!, g. Misplace. Yesterday We lett you near
Court House and Chimney Rock Station, "a
small place, with little else than i water and
troop station. Little further on, you have
Antelope Station, and Just around Heree it IS
said tq be the finest grass on thef road Ehc'
valley and bluffs are covered with luxuriant
sGramma or,lsunch Grass j Jast now show
ing green. Tho$tation above takes it's name
from two large noted rocks, rising from Two to
five hundred feethigh, aiding as they did in
times agope, as beacon, yligbtssto, the weary
California Pioneer in bis rctildns trip:acloss
5tho desert plains. ,rhenl we make Iqahncll,
Pine Bluff Fort Morgan, Ebert, IIillsdsle,
Archer all small spdahot thing. of note, to, say
of them !, save they are all military; lele-
graphic and water stations Oh the road. Not,
habitationin in view, but those named, I, for
more than one hundred miles in d ,yast plain
desert. AT Pine Bluff, or near by, We had
first view of the .farfamcd Rocky Mountains,
and as we see thcir'lofty snow capped peaks,
we were struck with awe and solcmnity, and
made to contrast the littlcncss Of man and
the eatncss Of Him who made man--the
earth aud the fulncss thereof.
Pixies Peak, about one hundred miles
southwest, and Longs Peak, about one hun
drcd and sixty miles nearly west, and in
Colorado Territory, first meet tho eye
The firstis near Denver City, Cherry Creek.
That was where our friends the Steclc's,
Moss, Carver and others omigratcd there at
the first gold excitement in 1859 We arc
now at Cheyenne, the Capitol of Wyoming
Territory, the largest place on tho road from
Omaha to this place by great odds, and is
522 miles from Omaha, has population Of
about 5000 inhabitants. The place is lively
aud many soldiers around, particular stirjust
now. An Engir ,cr was killed few days
ago near here by the Indians. We saw the
evergreen around his body at the Deport. We
had dinner at tlis place, stopped half an
hour, and from this place you have pretty
full view Of the celebrated Black Hills, whose
peaks like Pclion on Ossa, black, blue, gray
aud white, stand like giant scntncls in the
great desert country. Here SOU find the
black and cinnamon bear, the Rocky Noun
tain lion, elk, deer, antelope, grouse, sage
chickens, &c, and just as you enter Omaha
80" haa tho snow fences. some nf them Of
earth, others made ofstone to be had pentifully
around, aud of plank made and braccd, so as to
stand the storms and set on top of the ground
and placed in most exposed places, about
twenty feet from Railroad track, to catch the
drifting snow before it reaches tho track.
Somc times you will find them running back
parallel three deep, and as far as SO yards
from the track. The snow sheds are first
seen here, and are made of strong poles, put
across the Railroad track, as we put our raf.
tcrs over dwelling, and sheeted with plank,
touching, but joints unbrokcn Sometimes
we pass through these wooden tunnels mile
long, and see snow now in them dri(tcd
through the crcvices from two to six feet
deep: Wcncxt pass Hazard Station miles
from Omaha, then Otto, Granite, Canyon and
Butord, twenty-six miles from Omaha, as
cending rapidly all the time the rugged black
hills, with two powerful locomotives
hitched double headed on to our immense
train. Wc now arrive at Sherman, the
highest point on the Union and Pacific Rail
road, being 1926 fect the highest grade
being about 80 feet to the mile. And now
we need not talk any more about the grand
sublime picturesque and beautiful, but say,
that at Sherman, and the ascent thereto, YOU
have them all in the fullest acceptation of tho
different terms, and we add peculiarly SO
The black hills ere in somc places nearly
covered with small scrubby pines, and aspin,
and back of them looking west you have some
pretty good sized pines, and find wood here
to burn, the first in hundreds of miles, and
amongst these barren wilds, there is nothing
to disturb the wild animals, that Il" great
numbers inhabit them. Sherman is a small
town, the government has troops here, tho
Railroad company. their shops, &C.. The air