The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-07
northeastern UTAH
IS A LAND OF WONDERS
Marvellous Ice Cave, Where One May Skate In August
Disappearance Of Streams In Mysterious CavernS.

Denedln the surface. Al one point the
mountain rises abruptly from the bot
tom of the wash, and half way up its
side is a great deep hole, where the
solid formation seems to have given
way, as all around it are solid walls of
lime. Trees and all have gone down
and are piled up in confusion in the
! bottom of the big hole, which is thirty
or forty feet deep.
Water Disappears.
To every one who visits these caves,
/ the question naturally arises, what be-
comes of this water? Eight miles be-
I low the ice cave is a big spring that
! gushes forth from the solid formation.
/ The eight miles between the cave and
the spring is through a rugged gorge,
with walls hundreds of feet high. The
gorge is dry and barren. The big spring
below is what constitutes the water
supply that irrigateS the farms along
the banks of Brush creek TO its mouth.
Below the cave on little Brush creek
no water ever appears again save a lit
tie spring that irrigates a few acres of
land at one point.
Above the caves, although the water
is as clear as crystal. no fish have ever
been found. Below the spring on Big
Brush creek the big salmon trout bring
Joy to the heart of the angler.
Old settlers relate how once years
ago, during a great food. the cave on
Little Brush creek became damned
with timber and debris at its mouth
to such an extent that the water, back
ing up, filling the gorge and finally
overlooking into the wash below, tore
through the dry sand, washing out
trees and tearing out the deep gulch
that now exists between the cave and
the main creek.
The sudden rush of water took trash
of all kinds, which had accumulated
for years. and swept it into the main
creek, making several jams along that
stream. Bridges, dams and everything
were swept away.
On Ashley and Dry Fork, above the
dead line, the case is different. as these
streams are there filed with beautiful
mountain trout. Trout Creek park,
through which Ashley flows, is a fav
orite of the disciples of Walton, and is
an ideal place for an outing.
Ashley Creek Sinks.
Ashley creek takes it's rise under the
shadow of old Mt. Badly, and flows
unsteady through the lovely timber
encircled parks of one of the most
beautiful of mountain ranges, until the
lime belt is reached, when, with char
acteristic suddenness, it disappears be-
meath the surface. For nine miles be-
low is the Ashley gorge, with its tow
ering walls, at the mouth of which
gushes another monster spring that
forms the Ashley creek that is known
to the settlers below. 1t is from this
generous spring that the life-giving
fluid courses through the arteries of the
great system that has made the Ashley
valley one of the fairest spots on earth.
From the southern side of Mt. Badly
rises the Dry Fork stream, which, in
the same fashion, sink from sight in the
lime formation, never to rise again, ex-
cept on occasions of very high water,
when at a certain point a few miles
above the town of Mountain Dell, it
sometimes comes to the surface in a
hole or depression in the old creek bed
At times it rises sufficient to force a
small stream down the old channel.
The strange feature of this stream is
that fish are known to rise with the
water at the hole just described and
as the water recedes they disappear
with il.
Below this hole the water never is
seen again, and the Dry Fork stream.
which is as large as Ashley creek, is
lost forever. A weakly spring fur
nishes a scant supply of water that,
however, is found sufficient to irrigate
the beautiful little settlement of Noun
tain Dell. Below this the dry round
cobblestones glare in the heat, and the
frisky bullhead finds solace in a few
little pools that are formed by the
water that seeps from the irrigated
land of the settlement above.
Twenty miles east of the Little Brush
creek cave is what is known as Jones'
hole, great deep basin surrounded by
lofty mountains. In the bottom of the
gorge and directly under the lime for
nation, and upon the red sandstone
issues forth a magnificent stream of
pure water that empties itself into
Green river. two miles below. Does this |
water come from some of the caves de- |
scribed? Who knows?
Sawdust Disappears.
The water that rises at the mouth of |
the Ashley and Brush Creek gorges |
may or may not be the same that |
fact in this connection is noticeable, |
however, and that is that although |
there are saw mills on all of these |
streams, in no instance has |
sawdust ever been seen in the streams |
below.
Could one but see beneath the sur
face, no doubt some strange sights |
would be revealed. Under the great |
lime belt may be caverns of great SIZE |
and perhaps here and there great veins
of the rich ore that reveals it's exist
ence at many places along the crop
pings of the reef, as at the Dyer HILL
Grizzly mountain, Pot creek, Douglas
mountain and other places.
Could one but find the key to all this
great underground system he would no
doubt have revealed to him some of
the grandest sights ever beheld by NOR
tai man. Under the mountain and into
the depths below has gone the drift
and sentiment of the mountain streams.
perhaps for centuries. What becomes
Of it all? What a wonderful tangled
mass of rubbish must be piled UP there.
far down in the bowels of the earth.
An Irrigation Project.
On Dry Fork company was once
formed to fiume the waters of that
stream around the sinks, and pour into
the old channel below, where il might
be transferred to the thirsty benches
along the western edge of the Ashley
valley.
Several miles of flume was con-
and the water diverted around
the old point of disappearance, but it
was found that the flume was not ex-
tended far enough down. as the water
Uttered away between the rocks after
striking the old channel. Nothing fur
her was ever done in the matter, but
he day may come when these waters
will cease to flow through these under
ground passages and will be applied to
he useful task of making the desert
blossom as the rose
Truly the great Uintah basin. to-
sether with the magnificent ranges
hat sweep majestically around it, with
heir beautiful and innumerable lakes
md parks, afford some grand subject