Albuquerque daily citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1895-1903, 1903-06-08
RANCH IN GRAND CANYON.
A Rich Arizona Pasture In a ChdSm
Of This Wonderful Gorge.
AN INTERESTING SUBJECT.

because OF the wonders Ii could un
fold. 1t is given up only to horses and
cattle and cowboys. saw for the few
travellers who pass from Utah to Ari-
IONA or the other way, and the post
rider. who crosses IL twice a week on
country.
1t Is a natural Enclosure about seven
ty-fve miles long and fifty miles wide
at its widest point, on which the Kai-
bah Cattle company feeds its thou
sands OF cattle and horses and bids de-
fance to the sheep owners who would
invade it's rich p~asturage OF sage brush
m prairie grass. says a Flagstaff,
Ariz., correspondent Of the Philadel-
phia Ledger. Nobody can dispute the
possession of the cattle company. al
though it owns at best less than 1000
acres of all this domain. In that 1000
acres. however, is all the water that
a be obtained in the whole stretch
of what is known as the House Rock
valley.
Except in the winter. when the 10Y
is on the ground, and the cattle and
horses lick it up for their supply of
water. and in the spring, when the
snow melts and torrents rush through
the valley to empty into the Colorado,
there are only five watering places.
Lesson in the Conservation of Water.
A little spring, whose water is car
ried to big tanks that store up every
drop OF the precious fluid, is at House
Rock. the company's station at the en-
trance to the valley on the WACO
road. Fifteen miles further on is an
other spring that yields no more. and
there are again the big tanks and the
big corral surrounding them to keep
out all %intruders. Fifteen miles fur
liter is a stream called Soap creek.
because it's water is whitish with al
kali-but it Is only of the breadth of
the span OF a mans two hands, and
the company controls the land through
which it flows as it empties out OF the
mountains and then dives into a deep
"box" canyon. Two other springs lie
down the valley, and around them are
/ liz company , ltHNt anu lno aim
to take all they supply.
There Is a great lesson in the con-
~servation of water to be learned from
the company's efforts at these springs
The one at House Rock is merely a
little trickling, dropping stream that
comes out OF the face Of the cliff
There Is scarcely volume enough to fill
the half-inch pipe that carries it to the
great tanks. Yet in the summer. when
the streams out in the valley have
dried up, 1900 head of cattle and 500
head OF horses find plenty to Stake
their thirst from this meager supply.
In the valley itself nature shows
many caprices. Ii is inclosed on its
three sides between the Buckskin
mountains. another great range of
sandstone mountains that extends far
up into Utah and the Canyon of the
| Colorado. Across the Colorado the
valley seems to extend far away, but,
although to one who does not know,
it seems like an unbroken plain. the
land on the other side of the big can
yon is called by another name.
House Rock valley slopes east from
the Bright Angel cliffs hat overlook
the Colorado canyon The Colorado
flows west. 1t breaks out OF the sand
stone cliffs-through which it flows
from its beginning at the point where
the Grand and Green river unite in
Utah-and after flowing along the lev
ell for about a mile it begins to burrow
into the harder formation OF the Buck
skin. After leaving the sandstone it's
first canyon has wars of beautiful
marble in varied colors, terraced and
buttressed, and as the river goes deep
er and deeper it exposes wondrous
formations of stone that would furnish
life work for a g%eologist.
In like fashion the valley Is cut
through Little Soap creek flows out
from a great canyon cut in the sand
stone, with beetling walls rising for
hundreds OF feet, in shapes hat re-
mind one of great castles. AS soon as
II reaches the valley il begins to delve
to the level OF the Colorado. It crosses
the wagon road that gives the passage.
'eF Wan " lAApllds dlh llth
suddenly jumps over a cliff fifty feet
down. A little further 1t falls over
another clirf and half a mile from the
sandstone 1t is so deep in the marble
that the stream cannot be distinguish
ed except when the sun Is right above
the canyon.
Story of a Stranger Who Lost His Way
These box" canyons cut the plain in
every direction. Every stream that
gets life in the spring from the melt,
ing of the SHOWS has n OF them. The
trails and roads used by the cowboys
wind far out Of their way to find the
places TO cross them.
The story is told of a stranger who
started n day to cross the valley
from one OF the company's posts TO
another. He could see his destination
In the distance, and he remarked that