Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-09-06

animal victims of the terrible leap shine
forth white and glistening when the sun
Is high and reaches that spot witty its full
glare. The progeny of the surviving
animals from the fall are fat and sleek
though, and have their sunny beds, deer
like, where they lie for warmth in TIE
winter and TO them the monument of
skeletons Is no source of disqnietude
There is no fierce mountain lion or more
dangerous bear, nor, in face. any osher
animate thing within this COW GARDEN of
Eden. As yet, too, no man has been able
to reach or disturb them.
The Utes have a tradition that savors
of q romance connected with this wonder
full spot. It is that a Young buck who
was OF Plah's renegade band became en-
amored of Young quarter bred Sioux
squaw and sought to take her to his tribe.
The Utes have a virtue, If such IL may be
called, of total prohibition from minglIng
vi b the white in marriage relanon.
Even when there have been instances of
women of their tribe becoming too IA
mlilar with white men they have invaria
by been visited by the severest punish
ment, the progeny destroyed, with the al
most equal certainty of killing the indis
Greet squaw. So, for "Se-ne jaho" and
MS Sioux bride, they had no welcome.
Added to their three-fourths white blooo
was the still worse odium that the only
Indian blood in her veins wss Sioux, a
tribe which the Uses hate as they hate no
white or other living being.
The bucks drove ''Se ne Jaho and tbs
woman away. After weeks of outlawry,
often pursued and clingiug to an exist
Of fnrr he hr1nE nd ~
squaw determined that they would seek
ths Cattle Valley, which the Isdians call
the Lower Earth" and try to lind access
Once there they could dwell in peace, and
would be rich in the possession of hun
dreds of animals, the flesh of which they
could eat, while from the skins they coulJ
make their clothes. They tired a
score of ways in which to gain access.
Descent was death. The rapids of the
river was the only course. The buck pa
tiently made Il dugout from a log and a
paddle from a limb. Twelve miles above
they launched the rude craft, themselves
dashed it, and went whirling and shooting
on downward. When they emerged from
the dark walls into the opening which
they had hoped would be their iupregna-
BILE refuge the dugout was bottom up, and
diICduy SSAiNdob WI II d thOu
sand jagged rocks, while it bore on, in
the reslstless current, two lifeless end
bruised bodies.
This remarkable spot is where Blue
mountain and Cross II ountain, both we'll
known landmarks for the hunter, savage
and white, rear their PERCEPTIONS sides
out from the Bear river. Among the now
living witnesses of the accuracy of the
statements made by the Indians of the
existance of cattle in this inaccessible
valley is Alexander Powell, more famil1-
arly known as "Coon," who makes his
headq uarters at Meeker. Powell is an
intelligent man, of good VIrginia fami-
ly, but like many others who drlfted west
wears ago, has lost both ambition and
desire to return home. He has spent ten
years earning precarlous livlihood as
guide and trapper and has frequently
visited this particular spot.
The other most curious physical for
nation which has separated animal life
from the possible approach of man, is
one of the Flat Top mountains in Gar
field county, Col. This mountain stands
up like gigantic cube. On one side is
perceptable, the place whore the connect
ing link, with it's broad and level sum-
NIT was centuries ago. Marks of 'hog
back" which once ran out and dowL 80
the other mountains can be plainly seen.
From vantage points some miles away,
field glasses will disclose on q clear cay,
moving
ANIMALS ON THE GREAT MESA.
Those who have been there pronounce