Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1890-04-29
GREAT sHosHONR FALLS.
A Graphic Description OF the Home
ofthe American Eagle.


midst the dashing spray and mighty,
ceaseless roar Of the grandest cata-
ract on the continent, twelve years
or more ago, pair OF eagles chose
the top OF rock in Idaho for their
home, and liking it, have kept it ev-
er since. Well may they like their
home, for eagles eye never looked
down upon more picturesque view.
The tall rock upon which this home
is built stands in the foaming rapids
OF Snake river, just above where the
waters make their last grand leap
over the Great Shoshone Falls.
What fitting home for these wild, |
free birds which have been so prop
erly chosen as Americas emblem of
freedom! On spot inaccessible to
man, on lofty rock bounded on all
sides by foaning torrents, in clouds
of spray tossed by the winds and
decked with the fitting iridescence
of brightest Of sun coloring; in the
never ceasing thunders of the mighty
cataract whose roar resolves itself in
to rythmical cadence all its own,
these proud birds rear their young in
a nest built of white, water-worn
sticks carried one by one from the
basin in the great abyss, below the
falls, and as they have increased its
size each year by adding more sticks,
it now stands some ten feet high
and looks as if it mig ght contain four
or FIVE cords of wood. The rock up
on which this romantic home is
perched, stands about eighty feet
above the surface of the river, and is,
perhaps, twenty-five feet across at
the waters edge. Some time in the
long ago there have been wonderful
displays of the tremendous forces of
nature exhibited here. The river
runs through narrow canyon whose
grim, black lava walls loom more
than a thousand feet above its sur
face. A few hundred feet above the
real falls, portion of this great cliff
has evidently fallen across the chan
mel, forming an immense dam over
the ragged and broken breast of
which the divided stream pours in
ten separate waterfalls of an aver
age height of eighty feet. Any one
of these ten water falls placed beside
the famed falls of Minnehaha would
be pronounced quite as attractive as
that famed synonym Of laughing
water; and yet no two of them are
alike. The same forces which
hurled this dam across the river left
between it and the great falls below
numbers of immense rocks, and it is
upon one of these that our eagles
nest is built. Therefor, looking up
the river, the eagles see ten pictur-
esque falls eighty feet in height, and
looking down they see the entire riv.
er massed IN one volume, six hundred
j feet wide, making tremendous per
pendicular leap of two hundred ant
ten feet, into fathomless and foam
ing basin above which stands per
: pendicular cliff of lava rock NOR,
than one thousand feet in height
: Imagine our eagles perched upor
: their eyrls contemplating such
e scene! Conjure up all the descrip
V tions you have ever read in eithe
e books of travel or fiction, even if yo,
o have been with Allen Quartermain t
e King Solomon's mines, or with ''She
e into the caverns of eternal fire, an
: think you could the eaglet, born un
0 der the bright, clear skies of Idaho
t who plumed his unfedged wing
n above the turbulent waters of She
e shone Falls, and essayed his initia
v flight, splitting rainbows with HI
S. pinions to reach perch a thousan
|. feet above him and contemplate th
|. picture below, could be find upon th
entire globe an equal in grandeur
the home of his birth?
S, No one will ever read descriptio
" of Shoshone Falls and thereby acquil
A. any conception of their grandeur ar
Or beauty. The genius never will
3, born who can either with pen
e. brush, inspire in the mind of man
i'll comprehension of their magni6cens
IN because one can see some new wo
lis der to admire from a thousand diffe
We ent points of view. As it is said
'i- two persons ever see the same raj
mt bow, so no two pair of eyes probat
e. ever see this grand picture exacr
ne alike. At every turn there is
rn changing of shading or colori
of which keeps ones interest continua
of axasaned. and eyen with ones eN