The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-05-01
REACH HOME
FROM SAN JUAN
Culmer Exploring Party Penetrates
the Heart of the Wilderness.
SLEEP IN THE CAVES
VISIT ONE HUNDRED HOMES OF
THE CLIFF JEWELLERS.

\. Culmer. :. T. Whitaker and
Carl W. Holmes are home with Won
derful stories TO tell of adventures,
privations and the abodes of the Cliff
DweIlers. The complete account of the
expedition would fill a large book. and
the book would be far more interesting
than many that now repose on the
shelves of popular libraries.
The exploring party left Salt Lake
April l. The leader, Mr. Gunner, an
nounced at the time that they would
be out for month They were gone
exactly thirty days. Mr. Gunner and
Mr.. Holmes reached their homes IN
this city yesterday morning while Mr..
Whitaker continued on TO Ogden. The
men had the appearance of having
been on forced march They were
dirty. tired and uushaVed- Soap. raZurS
and clean clothes put an entirely dit
fereut face on the situation Then IL
was made to appear that the men were
in the best of health, that they had
had profitable and pleasant trip and
that they had met with no serious
mishap from beginning to end
How the Start Was Made.
The expedition started in this city
April /. From here the three men
went to ThOmpSOn's Springs, station
on the Rio Grande Western between
Green and Grand rivers. From there
they went to Moab and from Moab to
Monticello and from Monticello TO
Bluff. The trip of 15I miles from Monti-
cello to Bluff consumed one week. II
took as long to traverse this 49, miles
as il would have taken TO make the
trip TO New York and back The slow
progress was due to the WTetChed
roads. and this condition was brought
about by the unusually heavy rain
and snow fall
From Bluff we dived into the
Wilderness Mr. CUImeT said last night
i'm speaking of the expedition Wilder
ness Is the only term that VIII
describe the country The word
desert does not convey any idea Of that
vast tract of desOlaJe waste Friends
ask us why we did not remain longer
i'm this wilderness It was a physical
impOSSibIity to do So We had i'm our
party four men besides ourselves. max
ing seven men i'm all, and we had
twenty horses. Those twenty horses
could convey food enough for twelve
days in addition to all the other things
they had to carry, and 1t was
mathematical impOsSibiIity to extend
y
ont adding materially to the size of
the exploring party. Even then 1t
would have been most difficult We
did not know that there were to he
rains such as that region had not eN-
perieuced in the memory of the oldest
inhabitant, and that there was to be
grass along our way or we could have
planned to stay longer
Never Such Rains Before.
They had wonderful rains down
there Every stream was swollen to 2
torrent. The residents were cut off
from their supplies. and il was lucky
for us that we took a supply from Salt
Lake. as we found the little stores
along our road to Bluff badly depleted
Coming out we met one freighter who
had been two whole days in making
fourteen miles on the road between
Dolores ard CoTteZ with a fire four
horse team and not more than $500
pounds Of stuff on his wagon. and he
was an experienced fTeighter at that
In one respect the heavy rains were
Il GOdseUd to us We did not have to
pack water at any time. There was
never n time when we did not find good
wholesome water on the riTH-rOckS-
Some Of these receptaCles held good
drink all around for the party while in
others q man could take good bath
II had Tained for sixty days. Coming
out We found an abundance Of grass
for the horses 1t seemed this grass
would grow an inch i'm a night
Were Out Twelve Days.
We left Bluff April y and were
back there twelve days later. We were
in the wilderness from the time We
started Our guide was Al Scorup and
the other three men we're experienced
cattIemen. with an extensive knowl-
edge of the country by virtue Of herd
ing cattle over ii portion Of II. The
country is made up of cedar ridges and
box canyons with sand everywhere We
had it in our eyes, i'm our hair. i'm our
victUals and were lonesome when we
were not envelODed in it. II was just
such sand as they are taking out of
Brigham street nOW-the same color
exactly and the same quality If they
were placed side by side you would
not be able to tell which was san
Juan county and which was Brigham
street This sand sucks the water up
with wonderful rapidity after a RAIN
and leaves nothing on the surface in
the way of water except a few isolated
springs, and in many of these the
water is not good.
Sleep in Mammoth Caves,
Nights we slept in a tent we carried
with US or in caves and caveTns- Some
of these caveruS were as large as the
Salt Lake tabernacle and some of
them had springs in them One of
these caVerns in which we camped for
the night was 45O feet long and 100
feet deep it had "a beautiful spring
of running water in the back part of
IT. We were convinced that it was
these springs that had attracted the
Cliff DwelIeTs TO that country. The
same is true of the cave dwellleTs.
In our travels we visited 100 habita-
tons of Cliff Dwellers-unfoTtun
for US the people were all away from
home when we called. We saw enough
pottery to cover one of the city blocks.
but almost all of it was broken. It is
not easy to get perfect unbrOken
specimens, and it was impossible for
us to carry the stuff anyhow We got
axes made from 5000 to p 600 years
ago. These are as perfect as any ]
have ever seen. The handles are
fastened on with the fibsr of the
yucca plant, which is rema rka bly,
tough. The ak that Mr.. Whitaker Sc
cured was covered with blood Ii
seemed to US that these weapons had
been hid away in d recess in the rocks
and had been buried for centuries by
cave-in.
See the Great Bridges.
THE climax of our expedition was