The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-11-08
WILD RIDE IN IDAHO
MOUNTAINS
Mining Engineer Alone with an In
tOxfcated Stage Coach Driver.

stage coach Driver.
From the Salt Lake Tribune.
For genuine Wild West experiences
John 7. Breckon. the well-known min
ing engineer, is prepared to recon-
mend to the tenderfoot a trip over
the state line which runs from
Ketchum to Stanley, on the middle
FORK or the Salmon river in Idaho. Mr..
Breckon, having just returned from
that country and having made the
trip one way alone with a drunken
stage driver and the other way with
plenty Of company as drunk as the
orlVer, is peculiarly qualified to speak
on the subject. The mining engineer
makes many trips to wild parts of the
country. but he declares that he has
never encountered anything quite SO
wild as that particular stage ride.
In the first place you must know
said Mr.. Breckon, that there isn't a
rougher stretch of country anywhere
IN the Rocky Mountains than the six
ty or seventy miles traversed by th.:at
stage route. 1t is simply a success
sion OF precipitous mountains with
deep canyons between, and the road
is continually describing almost i'm
possible angles. Austin Tiernan.
John III. McChrystal and Otto Bos-
sert had just come out of the country
as l was going in, and they gave the
stage driver tip to give me the ride
OF my life over those mountains.
Il imagined, however, that they
had rather overdone the matter of
preparing the driver for his stunt, for
we had no sooner started than he in
sisted l should do the driving while
he took nap. / handled the lines all
right until we reached Galena, which
is at the summit of the divide. and
when looked over and saw the al
most sheer descent of five or six miles
ahead of us 1 baked and awoke the
driver. He felt little grouchy over
being awakened from a sound slum-
Der, and when I gave him the lines he
swung his whip over those four horses
in a way that sent us fairly rolling
down that rock slope-that is, we were
rolling when we weren't sliding.
II never will know how we reached
the bottom without going over some
of the perpendicular cliffs, but we did,
and it took us less than fifteen min
utes to travel five miles. For hair
raising rides it certainly beat any
thing ] had ever experienced up to
that time.
But on the return trip we had one
even more thrilling. There were seven
on the stage and all were drunk ex-
cept another man and myself. The
tons started out after us in a light
rig and succeeded in passing the stage
This feat hurt the professional pride
Of our driver and he watched for a
chance to get ahead again.
He saw it when we came to, place
where the road had been built around
a deep canyon. The saloon keeper kept
on the road and the stage driver cut
across the canyon at breakneclS speed.
When the saloonkeeper saw what was
going on he whipped his own horses in
to run. II was plain that when
at the point Of the mountain either the
stage must go into the river or the sa
loon mans rig must 50 up the noun
tainside.
AS the stage had the better OF the
argument IN weight and strength the
other team took to the mountainslde.
The saloonkeeper's buggy was smash
ed to pieces and he and his companion
were thrown out on the Jagged rocks.
They were too drunk 10 be seriously
hurt but the saloonkeeper's under lip
was badly cut. fully an inch square OF
II hanging by a slender piece Of flesh
and skin. Someone took a jaCkknife
and cut of the Up and threw II into
the road.
After this we proceeded 70 our
destination without special incident.
the experience having served 20 sober
the crowd somewhat"