Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-07-16

numerous villages undisturbed, and
ranches were few and far between.
Now and then a vulture was seen
standing out against the blue of the
sky like great black spots upon "a
sheet Of canvass. Large herds of
sheep and cattle, under charge of
keepers, were passed wherever a sign
Of grass appeared. At long intervals
apart, and in localities entirely unex-
pected, church spires loonied up
above some ridge of ground thereby
designating some isolated village of
the plains. This was duplicated over
and over until the city Of Cheyenne
was reached.
Cheyenne, apparently, was one of
those cities which, at one time, had
witnessed prosperity; but at present,
for some unexplained reason, seemed
to be in state of rapid decline. Evi-
IDENTIFY the s'boom" was off, and those
who were unfortunate enough to be
left stranded upon the sand, were
grubbing along as best they could.
What built up Cheyenne in the begin
ming, unless it was the fruits of rail
road advertising, or being the capital
of Wyoming, I cannot explain, for
the country around it is a barren
waste, mostly uncultivated, watered
only by Grow creek, an aff1uent of the
South Platte, and is without show Of
mineral deposits in the vicinity with
the exception of moss agates which
are found in large quantities through
out the territory. Railroads center
there, and there were railroad shops,
and that was all. I passed through
long business streets with nearly ev-
cry place deserted. Signs of "To
Rent" were stuck up in the windows
street car tracks showed themselves
in places through the sands of the
streets, but the cars had long ago de-
parted. The greatest show of bust
ness activity discovered, was a skel-
eton of horse hitched to dilapi
dated old wagon in front of the depot,
and in it an old Irish woman who
kept ringing an enormous great din
ner bell, and shouting, ''New fresh
buttermilk at foive cints glass;"
Beyond Cheyenne we began to ap-
proach the foothills, or mesas, and
passed mile upon mile without show
ing of tree, shrub or fence. Then
came Granite Canyon, with rocky
hills, and now and then a lone scrub
pine tree. The sands along the track
among those rocky hills shone like
polished silver in the bright sunlight.
We passed Ames monument at Sher-
man, erected in honor of Ames of
Boston, one of the main projectors of
the road. 1t stood upon the highest
point of prairie land along the Rock
les, at an elevation of S247 feet above
the sea. After leaving the monu-
ment, we began to pass great granite
boulders, the color of Scotch marble,
and said to be as hard as flint. A deep
gorge was crossed, snowdrifts were
seen at intervals at that high altitude,
and at place called e'The Siding,''
the country abounded in red sand
stone which cropped up out of the
ground in many peculiar and artistic
shapes. In fact it was easy to pick
out any kind Of building or parts of
building. There were terraces and
towers; pillars and abutments; cas-
ties and cathedrals; massive forts
with the canons pointed toward you,
and everything else the Imagination
saw fit to conceive. Atlast snowsbeds
were met with, and at times we
plunged into some dark tunnel pass
ing underneath hill. The ride for
hundreds of miles had been monoto-
nous on account Of that continued
sameness to be met with hour after
hour; but Echo Canyon when we
reached it, with it's perpendicular red
sandstone cliffs seemed to relieve
that monotony, and our journey be-
came more interesting. Weber Cam
yon, which we entered next, though
not so wild looking or interesting, was
famous for it's s'Devil's Slide," the
photographs of which were offered
for sale on every train. Take a hin
of earth slanting back with sharp
pitch to a hight of five hundred feet.
See rising out of that hill, from top to
bottom, two extremely high narrow
partitions of rock, each partition not
much over four feet thick at the base,
narrowing to an uneven narrow edge
on top, consisting of points and broken
seams, each partition separated from
the other with just room enough to