Mexico weekly ledger., 1901-02-28
Written for the Ledger.
THROUGH SOUTH PASS.
BY W. W. cLENDENIN.

Once more | feel in a reminiscent
} mood and the scenes Of long ago come
/; trooping before me. l will now try
to describe to the readers-especially
the young ones-of the LEDGER the
most beautiful and interesting part Of
the overland trip across the plains. 1t
was about o'clock in the afternoon
of a hot July day in 1853 that we
reached the top of high hill and
caught our first viewof the great back
bone of tine American continent-the
! grand old Rocky mountains. Below
us lay broad valley as level as barn
floor, and on the left of the road,
reaching clear to the Sweetwater
river, the ground looked like it was
covered with snow. 1t was not snow,
but soda, and there was enough of it
in sight to sweeten all the sour dough
in America. We crossed the valley and
reached Independence Rock at sun
down. This huge rock stands on the
level plain near the crossing Of the
Sweetwater, and every argonaut that
saw it wondered how it came there.
1t is about 300 feet long, so feet wide
and so or 60 feet high, and no one
could ever get on top of it without
the aid of a very long ladder. 1t is a
solid rock and all of its sides are ver-
tical and the names of thousands of
emigrants were written on it when |
passed it. According to geologists, the
glacial period began about 100000
years previous to the present time and
ended $4,000 years ago. During that
time the great canyon of the Sweet
water was filed with solid ice and
when at last this great glacier began
to move out Of the canyon on to the
plain, where it rapidly melted away,
1t carried the big rock along with 1t
and dropped 1t where it now stands.
We crossed the river short distance
above the rock and camped in a very
pretty little valley in horseshoe
bend Of the river. 1t was getting dark
when we went into camp and we were
all very tired and hungry and not
stick Of wood in sight to cook our sup
per with. l mounted a horse and
started for deep canyon about half
mile from camp and when | entered
1t was lucky enough TO find some dry
cedar trees lying on the steep side Of
the narrow gorge. l dismounted and
just as was about TO gather some Of
the dry wood l hear the 'woof! woof!n
of grizzly bear in the canyon, not a
hundred yards above where | stood,
and 1t was quickly answered by two
other bears on the north side Of the
river Well, l did not propose to go
back TO camp without some wood, even
If had to fight that bear for it, so l
quickly grabbed up wholecedar tree,
and getting it on my shoulder, l
climbed onto the horse and carried it
safely to camp, but / thought that it
weighed a ton before / got there with
it.
Looking at the mountains on the
north side of the river the next morn
ing | thought that the man who gave
them the name Of 'Rocky mountains"
knew what he was talking about. For
that was just what they were; nothing
but naked rock, rock piled on top of
rock, rocks from the size of ten acre
lot down to the size of the Court
House, and they reached up into the
sky. Scanned and SCARED by the pitt
less storms of countless ages, those
eternal rocks, by the shrinkage of the
earth's crust, are slowly being pushed
upward, and this will continue until
the internal heat of the earth is ex-
hausted and then they will be wrapped
in everlasting ice and snow.
A short distance above our camp was
the "Devil's Gate" where the Sweet
water had been for $4,000 years cut
ting a gateway through the solid
rock and had only gotten down to a
depth of 600 feet How long will it
take it to cut it down as deep as the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado? win
my scientiicold friend, JudgeEdwards,
please answer?
We had 35 goats with our cattle and
they wandered so far from camp that
night in search of grass that the
wolves cut them off, and they could
not get back, but wolf has to get up
mighty early in the morning to sue
coed in outwitting a goat. When the
boys went out that morning TO lookfor
the goats they could not find them,
so they crossed the river and went
back several miles on the road, looking
for them in every direction. Not be-
ing able TO discover track or sign of
them anywhere, the boys gave them
up as being lost and started hack, and
as they rode past Independence Rock
one of them happened to look up and
there, on the very highest part of it,
huddled closely together, stood every
blessed goat of the whole outfit, kids