Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-06-04
Arizona Wonders-The Deepest Can
yons In the World.

ABOUT the 9th Of March q party Of
prospectOrs, thirteen in number, pro-
cured the necessary papers from Gen.
Wilcox, allowing them 10 visit the In
dian village on Cataract Creek, inhabit-
ed by the Ava Supais, tribe Of Indians
numbering all told two hundred souls.
The party was known as the Beckman
and Young Prospecting Expedition.
They went from Williamson Valley 10
the Bill Williams Range, and thence 10
Pine Spring, a small watering
surrounded by pine forest. Here they
found every indication Of an old sea
bed, the gravel and rocks being round
and smooth, similar 10 those in the
ocean bed. From Pine Spring the party
directed their course for the Ava Supia
village, which is reached by descending
from the table OF mesa land down one
Of the toughest trails ever Travelled by
man, for a distance Of fourteen miles,
dropping three thousand feet. At places
along the trail we are told that it is not
over twenty inches wide, and winds
around the perpendicular walls Of sand
stone that loom above for hundreds Of
feet, while on the other side dark, deep
canyons exist, hundreds upon hundreds
Of feet deep, where by one false step or
move, man or beast would be sent TO
eternity. With great care and good
luck, ten Of the party succeeded in
reaching the village, three Of their num-
Der returning rather than run the gaunt-
let in passing down into this awful yet
marvellous crevice in the earth.
The Ava Supais practice polygamy,
each male having about three wives.
They have about one thousand acres Of
farming land, which is described as be-
ing of a yellowish color and mostly
composed Of sand; however, it is said TO
produce good corn, pumpkins, melons,
beans, ETC., with the aid Of ir-
rigating water, Of which they have an
abundance, and appropriate by means
Of a good ditch surrounding their farm.
The party was well received by these
red people, who stated their greatest
desire was to be left alone in the enjoy
ment of their land and other property.
Their houses are built with poles in a
rude manner and thatched over with
bare grass and tule. The only stock
they have are a few ponies.
Cataract Creek heads in the Bill VIII
hams and San Francisco Mountains, the
streams connecting some distance above
the Indian village. This stream emp
ties into the Big Colorado fifteen miles
below the Ava Sapai town and short
distance south of the junction of the
Little and Big Colorado Rivers. The
party attempted to explore Cataract
Creek to its confluence with the Colo
rado, but were unable TO do so from
the fact that they encountered precipice
after precipice from one hundred to two
hundred feet perpendicular, and it was
in the foolhardy attempt of D. W.
Mooney, of Williamson Valley, to de-
scend one of those perpendicular preci-
pices, one hundred feet down, that he
was dashed to a sudden and rocky
tomb, where he now rests as he fell, his
companions being unable to rescue his
body from that awful and abyssmal
grave. Mr.. Mooney was persuaded by
his companions not to attempt such an
absurd undertaking; their importantly
availed not. He took a small rope.
hardly half an inch in diameter, tied
one end to bush, suspended it over the
brink, then taking holdOf the rope, was
soon dangling between the bright
heavens and the dark, dismal gorge be-
low. Evidently cramps came in his
arms OF his mind gave way, and he fell
from almost the top to his rocky and
lonely grave below.
The party remained nearly two days,
devising means and plans to rescue the
corpse, but with failures, as no one
cared to risk a descent upon the wea'
rope. The Indians informed the part
that no man had ever passed through
the canyon, that, in fact, passage was
only possible for the birds of the air or
the spirits of the dead. The party re-
traced their steps and went around
Cataract Creek to the Grand Canyon of
the Colorado. They took in this pecu-
liar freak of nature, and describe the
walls, which are about perpendicular,
as being two miles from the apex to the
water. Where they beheld the Grand
Canyon the water is described as being a
hundred yards across; still, from the
elevated view of the explorers, the
furious stream appeared to be q silver
thread of only few inches in width.
A canyon two miles deep is a grand
wonder, which will, when the thirty
fifth parallel road is completed, draw
thousands upon thousands of wonder
seekers annually, to behold the deepest
gorge in the world. In going to the
Grand Canyon the party passed through
Prospect Valley, near the Colorado,
and had the pleasure of beholding
Bidenour & Zimmerman's copper mine,
which is found imbedded between two
solid sandstone walls, thing unknown
elsewhere in the world. The ore from
this mine is worth from sixty to ninety
per cent. and chunk of almost pure
copper weighing at least one ton is no
uncommon thing to find. The death OF
Mr.. Mooney, which took place on the
first of April, frustrated the plans of the
party, and their original plan of ex-
ploring and prospecting was not car
ried out as at first ntended.-AriyOHa
Miner.