The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1883-06-13
OUR TRAVELLING CoRREs-
PONDENr.

PONDENr.
On the Oregon Short Ltne-The
Great American Falls-A Very
Tough Railroad Town
Bellevue and Haley
and the Mines
Adjacent.
The conclusion Of my former COM
municatioa on outside wanderings
was at P0catello, the intersection Of
the Oregon Short Line with the Utah
q Northern. The distance from Pc.
catello to Shoshone is 1O7 miles, and
the train leaving at 7 4. m. gives the
traveller an opportunity to see by
daylight the magnificent scenery of
this wonderful country. For the
first twenty-five miles the road runs
over a high and elevated plain, when
the Great American Falls are
reached.
The bridge of the Oregon Short
Line is built directly over these falls,
- ~NAA6 0OAAOVl1uk OtCl XUV lCGG
above the water. Snake river here
has q fall of about $50 feet, not, how
ever, all in n perpendicular fall.
These wonderful falls, of which
many have heard but which few
have seen, on account of the mac
cessihle character of the country sur
rounding them, are attracting con-
siderable attention in the East, not
only from tourists who contemplate
visiting them during the summer,
but from the matter-Of-fact specula-
tor, who sees no other beauty In this
immense water power but a source of
profit. May the hand of man be
stayed from marring the grandeur
and beauty of a spot where the Al
mighty has placed the enduring evil
dence Of His power and majesty!
The ease with which Montana people
can visit these wonders of nature
makes a description of them of in
tere>t, and 1 cannot do better in this
respect than to transcribe the follow
ing from Mr.. Philo, u well known
writer:
"Snake rivers mighty volume of
water, emerging from its placid
stream above, suddenly leaps a dis
lance of several feet, pauses for an
instant a if hesitating to take tho
fearful bound, and then takes the fl
nal plunge into the watery profound,
nearly 200 feet below. Before it
reaches tho billowy deep below, it is
broken into shr. ds and dashed into q
foamy splendor of silver spray,
which the suns rays have garlanded
with myriads of rainbows; and the
wizard-like process by which this de-
lightful Transformation Is effected is
the most interesting study, as it is
one of the principal attractions
of the st%upenhoua'. AUEdeiful scene.
I have stood for hours and watched
without wearying, upon the SUBMITS
Of the mighty walls of basalt which
tower sc grandly above this marvel
of nature, the descending waters as
they poured downward into that
awful abyss that yawns 50 far below;
watched the clouds of spray as they
O s up and formed into misty mag
~nificence between the sides of the
tremendous chasm, blending their
tender frost work of silver and glass
with the purple, green and gold of the
Dull . IISuC, uIIli eI1 UiC COloISOA VIC
prism were seized, woven into fantas-
tic bonds of beauty, and bound
around the stormy brow of the ma
jestic cataract; watched the great
river as it hurried away from the
fearful scene; heard the d~eafening
roar and crash Of the madly rushing
torrent as it swept in.terrlfic grand
eur by; and my soul has stood still,
awed into reverence by the incOm-
parable spectacle. Nowhere in nature
has these great falls a counterpart;
nowhere else in nature is there such
overwhelming manifestation of ir-
power, coupled with such
wild splendor, such savegry as
hover around the Great American
After leaving the falls, we had a
ride Of eighty-two miles across the
desert to Shoshcne. Across this des-
ert the eye rests upon nothing along
the route but sage brush and lava
beds. The region is magnificent
in its desolation. The action of
long since extinct fires, leaving
rs monuments of its departed exist
ence the face of nature covered with
and scoria, has left a
where "all life dies, death
and nature has maintained an
solitude until disturbed by
the shrek of the iron horse of the
Oregon Short Line. The rock of
these lava beds is so tenacious that it
required three pounds of giant pow
der TO blast the holes for each tele-
graph pole, and there is such an ab-
sence of water in the whole region
that it required as many teams to
haul water as it did to do the grad
ing for the track. But we don't care:
the Mormons did the grading, ard
the excess of profits, if any, on the
work, would 60 to import European
paupers for the "beastly institution"
ShOshone is the present terminus
Of the main line of the o. S. l.. It
has several miles Of side tracks, and
it is thought by a great many, and
hoped by all, that the company wilt
its round house and car, ma
chine and repair shops here. 1t is
he first opportunity presented for
:hese works after leaving Pocatello,
lie chaos Of the intervening country !,
lere assuming something of \ habi-
able nature. Like all other towns
IN the frontier, Shoshone is in the
midst of a boom, but it is the boom
.ng of reughs and outlaws. 1t is a
title tho toughest place yours truly,
n a somewhat varied experience
among people not altogether godly +.
n their daily and nightly behavior,
.as wei encountered. For bad whis-
~, %indscency. profanity, ]ewdness. +,
gambling, bunko steerers, midnight :
yarroters, ssnd-bag sluggers, rollers /.
Ind the pinps and thieves of crea- !
ion, Shoshone is entitled to wear ,
champion belt, and it can be con !
identity asserted, judging from the !
aumber of damaged heads, that it .
AN show more fights to the square :
neh than any other place in the !
known world. This is an incident Of :
Ill frontier railroad building, and :
he time will surely come when :
shoshone will be a model and de- )
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