The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-08-22
THE HAYDEN SURVEY.
Area and Character Of the Country 10 be
Worked This Season.

The work of the Hayden Geological
and Geographical Survey is progressing
satisfactorily. The area Of country to
be worked during the season is about
$1,000 square miles, mainly in South
western Wyoming and Southeastern
Idaho. 1t embraces the country about
the heads Of Sweetwater, Green river,
Bear and Snake rivers-a mountainous
and well timbered region for the most
part. Within this area is the Wind
River range, whose peaks average be-
tween $4,000 and 1900 feet in alti-
tude, and the group of the .Tetons, the
highest of which rises 1855 feet.
Within this area also is the Green Riv-
er Basin, one of the ''great American
deserts" which was indicated upon the
geography we used to study by a pulver-
ulent area Of fine dots, supposed to rep
resent sand. Indeed, this whole dis
trict was put down as "unexplored''
upon one of the latest maps 1 have
seen.
So far as any systematic survey with
competent instruments is concerned
this is true, but the region is not en-
tirely unknown. AS early as 1872
GERS, went down Snake river (often
called Lewis') to the Columbia. A few
years afterward Captain Bonneville
passed through there to Oregon, and
Cooper told the story of his march in
"Astoria." The Rev. Mr.. Parker, a
Presbyterian missionary, crossed
through from the Upper Missouri to
the Dalles, in Oregon, about 1884, and
Father De Smet, about whom so much
has been said in connection with the
Black Hills, penetrated somewhat into
the district embraced i'll the surveys
proposed territory.
The southeastern portion of the dis
trict, that part assigned to Mr.. Chit
tenden, is full of historic interest
connected with the old overland trail
to California and the early surveys for
Il railroad route to the Pacific. There
is the valley of the Sweetwater and the
South Pass, and those mountains are
full of gulches in which trappers and
Indians fought the first battles of the
long war which was waged ever since
in the west between the two races.
The head of the Green River, the Port
nGuf and other streams in what is now
Southern Idaho were favorite points Of
rendezvous for trappers and hunters in
those early days, before Stansbury,
Lander, Fremont or any other of the
explorers whose names are now famous
had marched through the unknown
mountains.
The geological features of the west
ern half, at least, of the territory indi-
Gated are unknown, even in the most
general way. 1t is stated as probable
that all the formations, from the
archean up to the tertiary, will be
found in the district, and the detailed
study of them will bring to light many
facts, not only of Importance in a
scientific point of view, but of great
practical interest. The shales of the
Green River basin are known to be full
of fossils, which the psychologists
are eager to begin the collection of.
There is little doubt that extensive
coal beds will be found there also, and
probably large deposits Of salt. Toward
the west granite and gneissic rocks are
presumed to exist, and in them mineral
deposits may be looked for. Hunters
and prospectors who have traversed the
country give glowing accounts of the
magnifcence of the scenery, the value
and extent of its forests, the abundance
of the game, and its richness as an
a~nricnltnral and grazing rarinn-