The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-26

ant as an Quitting station for parties on
the sway to hunt in. the "Jackson's Hole
country. The mountains to the north
abound in game OF all kinds, elk and ante
lope being particularly plentiful. There
are also bears, mountain lions, wolves
and deer. The characterization Of these
sections of the country as .holes dates
from the days when the fur trading COM
panies which controlled them divided
them UP and gave each in charge Of some
agent after whom they have been named.
A little northwest of here is the Thunder
Mountain country which is described in
Owen Wister's "Virginian," and which
Dad Moon says is "nothin' but mountains.
and each of EN- set up on end And not
far aWay-as distances are estimated in
this part Of the country--is the Boise
basin, where. back in the sixties, there
was a great gold mining excitement, and
whence no less than $4,000, 900 was
washed by placer mining.
The Wlerd Snake River.
There is something wierd about this
country, and particularly about the great
Snake river stream rising In one of the
widest and most inaccessible regions on
the continent. and flowing at various
times toward all points of the compass,
a distance of no less than Thousand
miles within the borders of Idaho alone.
The Indians named 1t the Shosone, which
means snake. For hundreds Of miles it's
course Is thru meandering creVasse In
the flat lava bed which is the basis of
the country. It's banks are hard, precip-
itous, barren, fire. SCARED lava, and it
flows. dark, deep, sullen and full of
treacherous swrls and currents. 1t is
excessively dangerous, and white men
seem to have inherited the almost super
.stitious dread felt for it by the Indians.
Boats attempting to cross it have fire.
St1n hnn ,>,iu tIN ,te
drowned Bathers have many times been
sucked down, never to appear again.
There are places where great logs hurled
into the water, are sucked down by the
vicious rundertow. and if they ever come
to the surface it is so far down stream
as to be beyond the discovery of those
who have tried the experiment. At Idaho
Falls, where the river is crossed by the
Oregon Short Line, there is said to be a
hole near the bridge which has no discov
cradle bottom; people Of the town have
found by sounding that the normal depth
of the water is Sc feet.
1t IS in this part of Idaho that the
mysterious Lost river plunges beneath the
surface Of the earth, never to rise again.
While no one has been able to discover
certainly, it is surmised that it is the
water of the Lost river which breaks
forth from the bluff in the socalled
Thousand Springs" near the town of
Bliss.
A BottomIess crevasse.
There Is a little sta ton east Of Idaho
Falls called Crevasse, from the fact that
the ground has opened in crack a num-
Der of miles in length and several feet
in width. The depth Of the crack never
has been sounded. A stone thrown into
it will be bound from side to side on the
way down, and the sound of it's bounding
continues until swallowed up by the dis
lance. It cannot be heard to strike bot
tom.
The whole region abounds with unusual
sorts of springs-rnineral. a1I<al. hot. cold,
intermittent and the like. The city Of
Boise is heated by natural hot water. A
private company has tapped hot spring
and sends it thru a system of pipes into
private residences. where it serves not
only for bathing but fills the radiators and
does away with stoves, furnaces or steam
heating plants. The water is hot enough
when it comes from the tap to boil an egg.
Idaho contains $4,000 square miles. 1t
is as large all the New England states
and part of Pennsylvania. There are $780,
600 acres of arabic land in the Snake
River valley alone, and $50 miles Of irri-
cation canals in operation or process of
construction. w. w. Jermane.