The Arizona sentinel., 1888-01-07
MINNEHAHA FALLS.
An English Estimate of Minnesota's Most
Picturesque Scene.

An English Estimate of Minnesota's Most
Picturesque Scene.
Travellers visiting the Falls of Min
nehaha will do we'll not to expect TO
see too much. The waterfall is in no
respect gigantic or imposing. There
are in many parts of the world others
which fully equal it in their attrac-
tions. As a matter of fact, it is GER
tain that the Minnehaha would never
have attained to any thing like its
present fame had not LongfellOw
brought it so prominently into notice
by naming after it the bride of his hero
in the Song of Hiawatha," wherein
he speaks of the ''dark-eyed daughter
of the ancient arrow-maker, who
was
Hayward as the Minnehaha.
With her mood of shade and sunshine,
Eyes that smiled and frowned alternate,
Feet as rapid as the river,
Tresses flowing like the water,
And as musical as laughter.
Nevertheless we do not for a moment
wish to deny that Minnehaha is an ex-
ceedingly beautiful and picturesque
waterfall. On the contrary, we assert
that it is 10. The stream, on arriving
at the edge of the overhanging preci-
pice, throws itself over it in a broad
unbr oxen sheet. which, after falling
some sixty feet or more in graceful
curve, reaches circular pool below,
the sides of which are kept perpetually
wet by the steamy spray thatis for ever
rising from beneath the falling water.
After dashing itself into this pool, the
water glides rapidly away along a
narrow channel occupying the bot
tom of the valley and closely hidden
by dense growth of bushes and small
trees, laughing and chuckling to itself.
as though pleased with the graceful
feat it has just performed. A Sc
cluded pathway runs for mile OF so
along the bank of the little stream,
through the thick brushwOod. until it
suddenly reaches The bank of the broad,
saw-dusty river, fastening rapidly on
ward towards its far-distant ocean
home, over two thousand two hundred
miles away in the Gulf of Mexico.
From this spot the visitor must return
to the falls, as no path can be made
along the foot of the nearly perpen-
dicular bank formed of a fine white
sand, which rises almost straight from
the waters edge. But the Minnehaha
well deserves another visit. Its DIFF
ferert aspects are too many to be all
taken in at one glance. One of-.its
most notable peculiarities lies in the
fact that visitors may walk
right round beneath it, from one
side TO the oLher,----a5syf a.
passage which is, we believ3, partly
natural and partly artificial 1t gives
strange sensation to walk the length
of this passage, with solid wall of
limestone rock on the one hand and
torrent of falling wafer within arms
distance on the other, pouring down
with thunderous noise into a pool
some thirty feet below. Certainly
the waterfall has about it much that
is calculated to fascinate and charm
the beholder. 1t is impossible to enter
tam any DuG pleaSanC thoughts >
AS one sees the Mnnehaha, ,-.: .,
Cleaning, glancing, through the branches.
As one hears the laughing water
From behind it's screen of branches.
But Minnehaha is not always thus. At
times when the ice-lling has laid his
grasp with ulnsual severity upon the
fair face of nature, he builds the
Maiden-Spirit of the Falls a splendid
palace of ice, of which the noble hall
is fioored, curtained, columned, arched
and walled with ice. Chaste stalactites
of ice are hung within. and without the
massive walls and roofs are added to
and lhiekened till the whole forms a.
huge dome of ice, which has been
fan cifully called :the Ice-wigwam of
Minnehaha. In this, so says the
legend of the red man, Minnehaha
sings the long cold svinter through At
the time of our visit, however. it is al
most needless to say that the maiden
wore her summe + gafb. = Good Words.