The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-09-08
IN The RED DESERT
STRANGE FREAKS OF NATURE ON
THE PLAINS OF WY
DINING
COUNTRY IS PICTURESQUE
Settlers Are Now Closing in Around
This wilderness, for 1t Is Sus-
ccDtibIe to Artificial
Irrigation.

To be consumed in the furnace heat OF
noon 10 suffer the topsures of thirst, of
which 40 pen has truly written, and
then IL that same tWenty-four hours 10
lte with face fearlesSly uncovered to the
heavens, to pull the blankets close about
to keep OFT the chill night air, TO start
and wonder at the mysterious noises Of
the night; all these things and others fail
10 the lot of the traveller III the wonder
ful Red Desert of Wyoming, says a Red
Desert, WYo., correspondent of the New
York Commercial Advertiser.
The sun rises each morning at his duly
appointed hour with no cloud TO make in
definite the sky line of the low hills. AT
first his light and warmth are sensuously
please nj. The coolneSs Of the night stan
fingers. The small bird which has ven
tured far from leafy bowers fits smartly
from one clump of age brush to another.
thoughtloss OF the painting heat of the
day Ia come. The ground even seems
moist rom the dew of the night and the
twiSs gathered for the early camp fire
are damp ana pliable. This is not the be
ginning OF the day time, however, ady
time OF many hours, each one stretched
L. its fun limit Of human endurance.
The sun hardenS its look TO a brazen
stare. The fitting bird crawls under a
soon lose their suppleneSs and become
lard and brittle il their dryness. The
soil dark red with the slight moisture Of
early morning, grows lighter in colCr and
soon becomes as brick dust. A drifting
wind drives the loose earth over the red
shale vita sound as Of q dancer step
ping lightly on the sanded boards. Be
tween the clumps Of stubbed sage and
horny crossword gullies are cut out,
NJ In ORC l0ilc1
the desert sand as though some giant
fame: had hilIed and laid by for har-
vest an unsight1y crop.
A flock OF sage hens, led by a proud
male. filed quickly along by devious
paths, making its appearance suddenly
and disappearing almost mysteriously
into the sea of shrub beyond. Lizards
flash across the bare places on the earth
and a horned toad blinks comfortably in
the shade of a thorny spike. Rattle
snakes move quickly as though unusual
heat We're in their sluggish bodies. The
horizon loses its sharpness. The heat
waves culver and roll across hill and
plane. Small buttes become great noun
tainS and some seem to float upward until
a strip of sky is between them and the
earth. The thermometer marks nearly
120 degrees in the shade. What it may
be in the sun is no concern of man or
beast, for where there is no shade it is
not wise to heat the imagination of a
brain already on fire. This is the Red
desert of Wyoming at noon on an Au>
gust DAY, and during that time of day
and year it is deserted by man and
beast unless the latter be driven thereto
by strange specimens of the former
whose curiosity deties nature in her most
inhOspitable moods.
Al evening time the sun, seeming to
have burnt out the fercest of his heat,
drops below the hills a dull red bail CLINT
ing the redDess of the shales into s m
biance of molten metal. The air soon
grows chill and toward morning it is not
far from freezing. The sky is clear and
ablaze with the stars, for mere they seem
more numerous and hang from. rather
than dot, the heavens. Even the desert
has no quiet, for the drifting sand rustles
along the runaways, and the slightest
movement of some small animal in the
chaparral is easily magnified into the
sound CT approaching danger.
On the outskirts OF this desert the coy
oJeS proWl but they do not venture FAR
Trim, the ranch or stock range, for there
lies their easiest hunting. At times, how
ever, they hold high revel on the sand
CUneS and their sharp, short bark and
long plaintive howls travel far out on the
night wind, fit but uncanny dirge for
The life which ends where the sand be-
gins.
P IN Southwestern Wyom ng lies the
Greatest rec. desert of all and its area IS
counted to be at least 1900 square miles
There are other deserts of like nature
some. of them far to the northwest and
others in the Big Horn country near the
Montana line. lrOn-staiaed gypsum and
salts give the red color to the earth and
soluable clays and crumbling sandstone
ledges take on fantastic shapes in their
decay.
-, Where the country is hiIly and broken
- or TO 2
nerce showers and blown by constant
winds until the erstwhile hill becomes a
tGrreted castle Of pile of temple ruins.
me broken columns often stand in rows,
as though they had BEEN in the glory of
tn'Ir past, part of an ancient but now
dead civilization. Some still maintain
tAelr UpTightneSs and wear a Gaping of
harder stone, which spreads far beyond
the diameter of the supporting columns.
Mute and sphynX-like, these SEN
1Ihtis CT the desert stand forever
watching the ever changing hort
ION UNTIL worn with constant str1Ig-
gle against the elements, the disintS
6iaIec columns give way, the capstones
Cou-e 10 earth, and heavy rains make
S-iSr. Work OF obhterating the pedestals
-)uflng the summer season the red dos
e e" arS practically uninhabitable in their
natural state, but in the winter. when
tEefe IS snow to furnish moisture great
t tl u cattle and sheep are driven to
tAese nils and plains and there thel,
thrive, returning to their owners in the
spring with minimum naraentaea nf
Joss. The land is apparently bare of what
- commonly called vegetation. but the
strange looking growths which dol the
Teu SAND furnish the necessary food FOR
live stock " hOi
Bright Sren hues are rare. The growth
upon this arid, salt-ibpregnated Soil is
marked by colors which blend with those
OF the earth. The land itself is~.a bi@L
a idtl T0iiIlFg plateau, crossed by ranges of
low nils, and occasionally gongad int
ueep canyons by torrenttal rains or cIond
puFStS, winch are characteristic of tho
tf5SIon' some OF these canyons are a
thousand 1eet or more in depth and The
fantastic shapes assumed bv the coft
sitaIe rock in its diSintegration is one of
the Notwithstanding features of the land
Scape - ''1e i"iu-
;, The soil is heavily charged with aka
rs ~ OF salts. Inc rainfall is too limited
70 carry much of this away and tho
WHole deposit is incrusted upon the hank
OF dry creek beds and in the low places
Nhlch become shallow lakes after a
S.o t Inc a!kali, which spoils the little
water available, is from to 60 ner cont
OF the soil. 1t is formed of SODIUM
chIor.oe and sluphate and calcium and
magnesium sulphate, combinatinn
1Malich has killed thousands of mead of
STOCK and driven men to deIirium
anu Geath In suffering from a thirst ag
mated water. pfes
mere are two types of vegetation IN
me REQ Desert, one persistent and ono
~ toahSient. The latter is in evidence only
IN the spring, when the melting snog,s
leave some moisture in the ero1,nd 10 10
springs up quickly blossoms. wifhars
disappears within a few DAYS of its COW
LHS Icr the sun establishes it's supreroacv
S 10y ia the spring months and there are
lew forms OF life which can withstand it's
rays In April and Nav come fIoa liz
nuStards, beans and chickweeds u,itb