Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-12-27
TIE bad LANDS. !"
A sACRAMENTAN's DESCRIPTION OF
THE SIOUX STRONGHOLD.
Strange and Weird Sights Seen on the
March, Former Home of the
Elephant, Mastodon. Etc.

ELEPHANT, MaStOQOn. ETC
The Irish question and the Indian war
are just now the chief news topics OF the
day, and as the telegraph keeps the read
ing public informed of the movements of
the Messiah-crazed Indians, and the gather
ing of their warrior bands in that mysteri-
GUS locality in Dakota known as The Bad
Lands description of that romantic
place cannot but be of interest. DR.. J. r.
Lame, of this city, is a member of local
body known as The Critic Club" which
meets once a week. At these meetings
papers are read, and their subjects discussed
by the members.
at the last meeting, held on Sunday
evening, DR.. Lame read long and very
interesting paper on 10 the Poor Indian"
in which he discussed that lively creature
from the standpoint of one who knows
him thoroughly. While the entire paper
was deeply interesting, that portion relat-
ing to the much talked of bad Lands
the impregnable stronghold of the Sioux
was especially So as the following extrac.
from the doctors narrative will show:
ON THE TRAIL OF THE CHEYENNEs.
1875 the remnant of the CHEYENNE
tribe, numbering about 600 men, women
and children. broke away from their
agency at Antelope Hills, in Indian Terri
tory, and crossing four or five lines of
railroad and several streams of importance,
travelled 600 miles north and reached Red
Cloud Agency. not far from the camp in
the Bad Lands. Troops were sent from
every military post to intercept them. l
accompanied six companies of cavalry
from Fort Laramie, and we encountered
them on the Running Water We fol-
lowed close in their rear until they reached
Red Cloud, where they dismounted and
distributed themselves in friendly lodges,
leaving their recently unpacked animals
standing drenched with sweat and with
heads hanging down, too tired to Craze.
There was no engagement as the orders
were simply to prevent injury 10 person
and property.
The autumn of the same year found me
returning from summering in and around
the Black Hills of Dakota, acting with
the military escort to the Geological ex-
pedition known as
THE JANNEY EXPEDITION
In the Black Hills. sent out under the au-
spices of the Interior Department. On the
completion of this work we returned to the
eastern side of the mountains and hav.
ing some sick and wounded men, was
sent forward with an escort Of one officer
lLle1tenant John Cole Of the Second
Cavalry and thirty men to cross the Bad
Lands and reach Spotted Tail Agency On
the White Earth. The scientific partv, or
"b1g,sharps," as they were COMMONLY
called, remained TO make a selection of
rare fossils for the Smithsonian Institutio-;
at Washington.
We travelled from camp near large, noble
springs forming the head of Rapid creek
and moved down Grassy Banks toward the
mouth of the Rapid, where it empties into
the south fork Of the Cheyenne. Here the
banks were white With tie ef1orescence of
alkali. The Cheyenne is, at all seasons of
.nS s va aar tnrh'd ue,ill1ow and bitter, The
bottom is miry qucksand. The water is
unfit to drink until settled by crushed or
mutilated cactus, the mucilage of which
renders it drinkable. Crossing this stream
with difficulty, camp was made in
WINDY AND DISMAL PLACE
On the south side of the stream. 1t rained
in the night and the wheels of our vehic .,os
the next morning gathered the greas . anil
in great rolls like snow. We cir abed he
range of grassy mesa to the So ,,beost ord
were charmed with the Low slv view W.
had come upon beautifr.., prsirie tbickiy
coated with buffalo g-ass. Az far as the
eye could reach was an undulating ernanse
of mesa.
AFTER Hf .fch of perhaps q mile in
sWale, OF s-noyo, in the plain, our road led
to an ELEVATION on the other side, where
mos astonishing view met our gaze. With
Gut warning we were transferred from an
illimitable expanse of beautiful prairie, far
from the haunts of men, to close proxim-
ity to an old city built of brick and stone
There were massive walls domes
pinnacles and monuments. These
had all the appearance of being arti-
fetal structures, with accessories
of buttresses and turrets, arched doorway
and clustered shaft, pinnacle, final and
tapering spire.
IS wEIRDLY ROMANTIC SIGHTS.
TO increase the illusion, great rents rum
ming zigzag aslant the massive walls, gave
them the appearance of age and decay. A
nearer approach dispelled the agreeable IL
fusion. We were not approaching great
city, and all the fsncied architecture re-
solved itself into piles of hardened sand,
clay and silica. But now at our feet, there
is no longer a grassy plain, but an almost
vertical descent of two hundred feet over
hard clay and bright, broken silica, ring
ing like broken glass. The wagons were
let down with ropes. There was no grass
nor trees at the bottom. On every side
lowered these
GIGANTIC AND GRoTEsoUE FORMS.
The bottom was like white and yellow
chalk, baked by the sun and void of vege-
tation. The varied courses of masonry of
which the surrounding structures were
formed added to the delusioD. These, at a
certain distance, were SO vivid and clear,
and the rents so much like the cracked
wall of large. building, that it was
merely an illusion. The mas onry
was composed of successive deposits of
clay and sand of different colors, and the
breaks and rents were real slides, filled up
by deposit of silica held in solution in a
rapidly drying Inland sea.
THIS INTERESTING REGION
Is about 30 miles wide, by 90 long. 1t is
the bed OF tertiary sea. That is, the en-
tire plain was the bed of a sea, and the
erosive action of winds and rain Oh a
crumbling soil, that almost melts when
wet, has washed away the softer substance,
leaving the harder and more resistant to
stand IN mimiory of an ancient city with
similitudes of huted shafts and clustered
columns, which at the top sometimes have a
brown entablature of overhanging grass and
low scrub cedar, or continued upward into
tower and mineret.
WHERE INDIANS HIDE AND FIGHT.
In moving forward on the floor of this
desolate region our progress was suddenly
INSTRUCTED by ditch with vertical walls
and OF variable depth, but rarely more
than six or eight feet wide. These were
created by the latest rain. when travel mus,
have been altogether impracticable a;
this time the soil was as hard as chalk
We saw no living thing bat some dimin-
utive antelopes, which believe appeared