The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-08-29

CNCu Q16tduCc QOCS IlOI lCuQ cllCtldIlL-
ment to the view, there still remains
a semblance of life; but slight as it
is, it forms wide and strange con-
trast with the more glaring, death
like environs. Over the less rugged
portions and wherever there is any
showing whatever Of soil on the lava
and in the crevices, there bunch
grass, characteristic of its tenacity,
has gained strong foothold. It
is sufficiently abundant to induce
stock and game to seek the lava
plains to obtain it, when not too far
from water, as it is sweeter and
more nutritious than the grasses Of
the hills. In fact, the country of
the lava beds is the general winter
home of deer and antelope. When
the November SHOWS begin to fall
these migratory game animals, for
a hundred miles or more back in
the mountains, herd in bands and
instinctively take up the line of
march for the lava beds, where feed
and shelter await them. Black-tail
deer are 80 numerous along the line
of the road during the winter season
that they often crowd on the track
4 in large bands and stubbornly per-
sist in the right of way, much to
the annoyance of the train men.
Here also the sage-hen, jack-rabbit,
badger and grounding find an
alluring home retreat, while all the
streams flowing from the mountains
out into the lava beds are literally
alive with trout.
But that arm Of the lava plains
crossed on the way from Shoshone
to the Wood River country is tame
compared to the more extensive and
more prominent fields farther to the
east. On the old stage road lead
ing from Blackfoot to Bellevue and
Haley (the main thoroughfare be-
fore the railroad was built) the
traveller had a good opportunity to
view the lava country in all its diff
ferent phases. In many places the
road winds around close up to, and
sometimes on, the foothills to avoid
the heaps of rugged lava and the
holes and caverns with which it
abounds. In the vicinityo vi So:..nn-
wood, Champagne and Lava creeks,
fifty to seventy-fve miles east of
Wood River, volcanic action is more
marked than anywhere else on the
road. Here are extinct craters on
hills 500 to 1000 feet in hight. A
few of these hills or peaks are burnt
to cinder but did not melt. Others
again are melted down on one side,
while in many places the road is
graded through immense banks of
ashes and fine cinders, similar to the
volcanic debris described by histo-
rians as having buried the cities of
} Pompeii and Herculaneum. There
is here and there an extinct crater
in the hills mile or more back from
the edge of the plains, from which
the lava flowed down into the
gulches and ravines, and in a num-
Der of places it is backed up stream
into South Fork of Antelope~and
Champagne creeks, where it resem-
bles great waves Of chilled Stag, and
where the water sinks beneath it.
Where the craters border the plains
the lava in most part flowed out
, into the valley, and here is where
the volcanic action shows to have
been the greatest. While many OF
the peaks no doubt melted down
level with the ground, as the course
of the lava flow shows, others again
experienced intense heat but not
sufficient to convert them into more
than crisped and blackened heaps
Of basalt and cinders.
Careful observations taken along
the edge of the lava plains in the
, locality mentioned cannot fail to
! establish the reasonable theory that
! the lava here is merely local; that II
did not flow any very great distance
from the craters, and that 1t is en-
tirely indigenous to the immediate
neig ghborhood. Near the craters the
: lava flow is as fresh and bright as
though it had just cooled. 1t Is
twisted and wound about in every
direction and in all manner of curl
Gus and fantastic shapes and is
!. brilliant in the diffusion of mineral
, stains, purple and green and blue
which the suns and frosts of many
: ages have failed to bleach or tarnish
Gold, silver, lead and copper
mines have been discovered on the
: very edge of the lava beds. At Era
!. and Lava Greek districts a number
of the richest gold and silver bear
:. ing quartz veins are located neal
, the old craters, and in several in
I stances in close proximity to ths
!. beginning of the lava flow. Posi-
bly the fine gold found everywhere
! along the Snake River valley came
? from the hills burnt up by volcanic
, fires.
! Looking south from the crater'
= of Cottonwood and Lava creeks
. one has grand view of the immen
! sity of the Lava Plains. From her
) to the Snake River the distance i