Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1898-08-19
IN JASPER CAVE.
By Charles Kelsey Gaines.
Copyright. 1893.

TWAS just II years old when we
moved to Granite Falls, and I
thought it the most wonderful place
i had ever seen. And it is a wonderful
place; though since have grown older
I have sometimes doubted whether it
was any part of the plan of creation
that people should live there. For
Granite Falls is mere rift through
the mountains, with swift, foaming
river tumbling down the middle of it.
On each side the rocky hills rise up so
steep that you seem to see the sky
through long slit, just as when you
look up between the tall buildings of
city street. And there isn't much
more earth in sight, either, than you
see in the paved streets of the city.
The road that follows the river bank
runs along bare lodges for the most
part, and the roots of the scraggly,
stunted trees sprawl out over the
rocks like claws with only thin skim
of soil to grip in. The winters are
something terrible; for the SHOWS
gather in the narrow valley until the
big drifts cut across the second-story
windows, and you have to make tun-
mel to get to the well, and another to
get to the barn. Sometimes for a
whole week you can't reach the store
or the post Office or the house of your
nearest neighbor. Indeed, the only
reason why anybody ever does try to
live at Granite Falls is because of the
splendid water power and the great
log-drives that are foated down the
river from the vast forests above, to
be sawed into planks and boards in the
mills. The dismal scream of the saws
is always heard there, and the air is
full of the sweet. peculiar smell of the
moist, fresh-cut lumber-except, of
course, in the dead of winter-and
really, in summer it isn't so bad-es-
pecially for a boy, who doesn't have
to break his back and risk life and
limb struggling with the wet, heavy
logs and feeding them to the ravenous
teeth of the saws. Anyhow, I found
a deal to interest me all day long
through all the summer months; and
SO did Bessie, my sister.
Fathers mill-dam ran across from
the shore to a long, narrow island,
that split the torrent like 1inty
wedge; and just below the dam the
channel was almost empty, for the wa
ter that came through the sluice was
only enough to make sort of brook;
cascading down the bare bed of
smooth black rock, here and there
spreading in shallow pools. and finally
Joining the main body of the river be-
low the island. 1t was the best sport I
had ever known, to wade about in the
warm water, setting up toy mill
wheels whitfield out of pine where the
stream leaped and spouted, and feed
ing and herding the shoals of darling
minnows in the miniature ponds. It
was great fun, too, scaling the cliffs
and climbing about on the mountains:
and it was on one of these break-neck
excursions that l discovered Jasper
cave.
Idon't mean that was the first who
ever visited the place, though l doubt
that any white man knew of it at that
time. found it by the merest acct
dent, for its mouth is about half way
mp the side of a precipitous mountain
almost as steep as the side of house
and no opening is visible from below
It can only be reached from the forest
above, by zig-zag track along the
face of the clif-a path scarcely six
inches wide in some places. SO that one
has to lean against the rock to keep
hte balance. In front of the cave