The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-07-30


levels.
Since those far days when Fremont
found himself under its lee on one New
Years day it has been guide and land
mark TO the traveller across the great
plains through all the years the emf
grant wound his way toward the state
that sees the setting sun sink down.
ward to touch salt water Dark, for
bidding and bare, the great promon-
tory has all the gruesomeness that
Fremont described. The range of
mountains from which it juts is of
gnarled and misshapen masses of lava
rock mixed with miles of ashes About
are vast stretches of alkali plain, of
Whitened hummOcks of hardened earth.
of wide reaches of sand flats swept
into waves by the wind.
1t is all fierce, hard and repellent
Farther away the mountains bear rocks
that burst into color, and their broken
and rainbOw-hued bits beSprinkle the
washes" in the foothills. Their graV-
eled floors are thick StreWn with varie-
gated flakes of beauty-dark blue and
light blue, purple and pink; a green
that is like to emeralds, ruby or amber
! in all the beauty of their clarity and
cOloring. And where these jasper frag-
ments are not. are burned and black
volcanic powders; and then you will
come across places thickly strewn with
fragments of vivid red rOck-refuSe
(yOu say to YOURSELF from one of ma
lures great brick yards, so like unto
artificial building stone does it seem.
All through this weird and wonderful
valley, where white plumes of steam
ing springs wave here and there along
the foothills are things to hold your
curious attentiOn-acreS of Obsidian
others of Detrified wood; turquoise,
geOdeS, onyx and a thousand other
things beneath your horses crunching
hoofs to make the riding this range
worth YOUR while.
AWAY back in 1S49 a long train of
emigrant wagons, fourteen in number,
were crossing the plains on their jour-
new to the west. Following the Hum
bOldt river down the valley of the same
name. at the LaSSen meadows they
found so little feed for their stock that
/ they decided upon abandoning that
route. and instead crossing over toward
Black rock, and following the old Las
! sen road into California. But at Black
rock also thew found but scant feed
when they arrived. SO they pushed on
six miles farther to make camp and
| rest at Double Hoo Springs. About
that steamiug twin vent hole of the old
/ earth's anger was always to be found
grass green and growing-grass moist
with steam pearls and of the tender
/ shade of dollhouse plants. Go there
! when you will, you will find such
I sweetly fresh Notwithstanding
with the ever moist breath of the
springs-that you leave it with regret
to take up your journey again through
the baked plain with it's Ieper spots OF
alkali. Here they made their tempo
rary camp to give their stock an op-
DOrtunitv to rest and recover from the
journey thus far passed. Brown men
with bow in hand and the soft tread
of a wildcat. were all about the emf
/ grant in those days, pat at the springs
there was no shelter under which ar
Indian could creep upon them, so they
made a halt of a number of days
there. Their next move. was toward
Mud Meadows. around on the farther
side of the range.
Now it so happened that on the dan
they broke camp there three of the
party were deputiZed to hunt along the
mountain ridge for game to replenisI
their well-nigh depleted larder. as was
their custom when the meat supply
ran low. They were to hunt along the
mountain tops, while the wagons work
ed their way up the valleys edge, and
to meet the train that night at Mud
Meadows.
One of the three selected for that oc
casiOn was a man named Hardin, {
wheelwright and blacksmith by trade
and an uncle of ]. A. Hardin o.
Petaluma Cal. a we'll known cattle
man of that state and Nevada.
The hunters were to cross a near
lying mountain and then go over to the
farther side to join the wagons. II
leaving their camp at Double Ho
Springs they crossed, first, a piece o.
tableland and then made their way tt
the higher parts of the mountain. NJ
game was found. Keeping along thu
east side of the mountain for some dis
lance they finally worked their wa!
upward to the summit, from wher,
they had an unobstructed view of TIT
valley They discovered they had los
their bearings, for no sign Of TIT
wagons was to be seen. Thev Were
about to strike down into the plain t
endeavOr to find the wagon tracks, anC
so follow them into camp, when the1
espied, away down the desert, a team
that had stopped on the road. Thu
three hunters-glad, in this lionel!
land. to find a fellow voyager-starteC
down the mountain side, heading di
rectly for it.
They had gone. perhaps, a third o
the way when suddenly they found
gray deposit like sifted ashes. in whicl
they sunk at every step ankle-deep
And here, in the pOwdery stuff. wa
embedded something which shone 81
brightly in the sun that their gaze wa
arrested and the far-away team 70
the time forgotten. One of the tri,
had, years before, been in the Mexican
war. and after receiving his discharg'
had been employed on the pack trains
- TD~4
time before leaving that country. H
at once recognized the great slabs o
whitish metal as melted silver-ant
perfectly pure, so far as he coulC
judge. 1t looked as though the awful
fires that had scattered The lava rocl
over the land and burned and blacken
ed the face of the country in SOM
places-or blanched it in others in tn
blaze of flames we wot not of-had rul
the metal white-hot through the ashe
that covered that side of the mountain
for several hundred square feet
Everywhere it was sticking up-piece
protruding that were the size of brick
Others in uneven masses four or fv
feet Ionx.
One is slow to realize good fortune
and they could but vaguely compre
bend the meaning of what they saw
Then, gathering up lall they coul
carry. they started down the noun
tain to the place on the plain wher
they could still see the wagon stoppini
by the way. Arriving III ere they foun
an emigrant and his wife and child
who had been overtaken by disaster
for their oxen-all but one yoke, wer
dead, and the miles yet to travel er
reaching California We're many. TIL
man was engaged in trying to remode
his larger wagon to fit the circum
stances of his misfortune He wa
cutting it down from a four-wheeler I
a cart. that the remaining yoke o
weak. half-famished cattle might b
able TO draw it-loaded with their mos