San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1897-11-22
A FARM IN A HOLE.
IL Is TOO Feet Below the Surround.
ing Territory.

1OIuuSu ihlO d NSIltdule pdrdUlSe. "A
hole in the ground" is what most people
called the place before Perrine began
his work of transformation. Some, with
wider flow of language, called it the
Devils Corral" 1t is on Snake river.
in southern Idaho, 20 miles south of the
little town of Shoshone, and five miles
down heriver below the great Shoshone
falls. The "hole" is about 700 feet deep,
and embraces 600 or 200 acres of bottom
surface.
For ages and ages this Devils Cor
raj" has just been staying here, silent,
CHASTITY, unknown. The prehistoric peo-
pie, and, fancy, the Indians of later
date passed around it when fishing
along the Snake river. The more daring
white man looked at it, gave it name,
and made money out of other white men
by bringing them along to see it. One
adventurous parsonage, about half
white man, decided that down in the
depths of this great basin beside the
river there ought to be gold. Accom-
panied by an Indian wife or two, and
half dozen children, he clambered
down, located mine and began to work
it. His progress is not worth recording.
Burt Perrine, young man from In
diana, seeking his fortune in the west,
came out to see the Great Shoshone
falls, and to see this satanic corral. He
clambered down the cliff to where the
miner was. He was not impressed by
the mine, but he was impressed by the
situation and general appearance of this
rock walled basin. His first thought
was: 'The north wind can never find
its way down here. This place ought to
be transformed into a ranch or a truck
garden or fruit farm"
Upon closer examination ne found
that if the rocks were rolled out of the
way, and the miscellaneous bushes
around were grubbed up and burned
there would be several hundred acres OF
very choice soil. In the highest part of
this big basin he discovered, connected
together, two glorious cod water lakes.
They were 40 to so feet deep and the
two covered about an acres of space.
They were as clear as crystal, as bike
as the sky above them, with white sand
glistening in the bottom and very lively
trout of the mountain sort darting
through them. From these lakes the
entire basin could be easily irrigated.
Again the undertaking was the III
most incalculable amount of work
necessary to clear and level and irri.
gate the land; the uncertainty as to
what the winters that brought snow six
feet deep over ALI the plains above
might do down here, and the possible
power of the north wind to find its way
down after all. AS an additional men,
ace to the undertaking, there stood
giant lava walls towering above from
500 to 500 feet and slopiug from an angle
of 20 degrees to a straight perpendicu-
lar. These lava walls, burnt, rent, torn
and twisted into confusing shaplessness
by the fires of former ages, seemed now
as enduring as time.
He went away and advised with his
friends about it. They told him he was
crazy. Without exception, they laughed
at the idea of putting this great 'hole
in the ground" to any useful purpose.
They said that even the solitary miner
was -half-witted or he wouldn't try to
get gold dust out of there. But he de-
cided to put his opinions to the test and
bought out the claim of the miner so
as to have the hole all to himself. He
surveyed the place and found that it
contained 420 acres that could be worked
or reclaimed. He homesteaded a part of
the land and made desert entry on the
balance.
Then he began the work of transfer
nation. He managed to blaze out along
the rocky descent trail down which
pack animals could travel, and it may
be well to remark just here that the lit
tie mules and the little burros used in
this country can almost climb a tree or
walk into a well. To do the work nee
essary down in this corral, Mr.. Perrine
had to have wagons, scrapers, harrows,
| plows, powder and dynamite and all
sorts of things to work with that even
pack animals couldn't carry. These had
to be let down with ropes over per-
pendicular lava wall of GOO feet. They
were so let down. Think for moment
of the care and work that this required.
But to get q road up that 700 feet Of
miscellaneous precipice was the real
puzzle. Perrine had done some survey
ing and little railroad engineering
back in Indiana, and he thought he
could build a road here. By the use of
much dynamite, more powder, all the
arts of removing rock that wouldn't be
removed, and paradoxical amount of
persistent work. the road was graded
and built. 1t does much winding in and
out, up and down, back and forth, aside
and across, and at general glance it
has more the appearance of a stairway