The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1905-04-29
The PLAINS OF YUMA

THE PLAINS OF YUHA
SOME oFTHE cuRioslTlEs OF THE.
COLORADO DESERT.
Graves Each Of Which Tells a Story
9agof a Tragedy of Heat, Thirst and
~Death-Odd stones. snd Shells That
Strew the Barren Region.
There is a section of the Colorado
lesert where nature has left some re-
narkable records. She has visited the
region alternately with fire and water
and has left it with neither. 1t is the
Aostdesolate, wild, barren, forbidding:
part of the desert, says the Los Ange-
es Times, and it is Stunned alike by
nan and beast. That there is good
ind sufficient reason for avoiding this
Ocality is attested by numbers of
graves, nameless for the most part,
found in the terrible region.
These graves are simple affairs,
merely mounds Of earth with a border
Df stones about each and a pile OF
rocks two or three feet high at the
head. Each tells the story Of a
tragedy Of heat, thirst and death.
Those items are about all that is ever
known Of the stories Of those who
perish. Their mummifed bodies or
bleached bones are found long after
the struggle is over, and the finder, re-
speeding; the memory Of the unknown,
scoops a hole in the earth, lays the
sxhastly relic within and piles up the
snly MONUMENT available in that Wild
region.
The plain now lies nearly a hundred
feet below the level Of the sea, and the
rocks Of the plain and the bases Of the
mountains are washed and eroded in .
wonderful manner. Mingling with the
burnt stones and volcanic debris are
rocks worn by the waves and shaped
into hundreds Of fantastic forms. There
are many acres Of these stone curiosi-
ties, and certain sections of the field
seem devoted to certain shapes and
figures.
For instance, n passes through q
region which he at once names the cab
bage patch, for it presents the appear
ance, Of a field Of those vegetables
which have turned to stone. The waves
have worn the rocks into round bowl
ders about the size of the vegetable
which they so much resemble and have
cut into the globes, Eliminating them In
perfectsimitation Of the leafy layers Of
the garden vegetable.
Another locality is devoted almost ex-
clusively to dinner plates. Thousands
Of rounded, thin disks are scattered
over the plain or are piled scores deep
In singular piles, each piece shaped ex-
actly like the crockery which adorns
our tables and quite as thin and SYM
metrical.
Another section of this truly wonder
full region is given, almost wholly to
dumbbells. These vary in size from
pieces weighing n or two pounds up
to those seemingly calculated for exer-
cising the muscles of a giant and
weighing thirty or forty pounds each.
In almost every instance these natural
dumbbells are well balanced, the balls
at either end of the connecting piece
being of the same size and weight.
There il in this plain an arsenal also.
While guns and swords and bayonets
and powder were not there to be found,
there are thousands Of cannon balls
varying In size from two and three inch
balls to those at for the big thirteen
inch guns Of modern warfare. And all
are Of stone. all formed In natures
Workshop.
There are other objects innumerable.
There are stone roses. stone lilies, stone
tulips, stone leaves, stone birds. stone
animals, stone quoits. stone ornaments
In varied and unique 4deaigns stone
canes-in fact, almost everything con-
ceivable in nature or art initiated In
stone on the plain Of Yuha.
In one portion Of Yuha rise two hills
or small mountains. One might mis-
take them In the distance for ancient
.craters, but when he approaches the
eminences he discovers them to b
monuments to an ancient nfe-the rec
ords Of species now extinct They are
shell mountains, great beds Of prehis-
etoric bivalves which were left stranded
when that ancient sea swept back from
the region and lsft . dry and desolats
land. $3.50. ls5a. s
One Of these mountains, the laroe
one. IL composed wholly oe largs rough
malls, much larger. but - elongated,
i1hxn the sheiA of tho modern oyste1r.
sasIExKinh N norna 1880 thAy 4 . much