Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1906-06-29
THE WINDING SNAKE
Vivid Description Of Idaho's Great
River.
A THOUSAND MILES LONG
No Other River Has so Many Magnif
icent Cascades and Grand Water
Falls as the Snake.

The world is less familiar with
the Snake river of Idaho than with
any other river of importance in
the United States; and yet it is
our seventh largest rlver-more
than 1000 miles long. 1t is one of
the most wonderful and impressive
waterways in the world. The few
who have tried to follow its winding
course through wild and forbidding
extents of lava plateaus, do not
wonder that so little is known of it,
for no railroads traverse the lifeless
desert that borders it, and no boats
for hundreds ot miles at a stretch,
dare plv It's waters. 1t is navigable
for only 100 miles from it's junction
with the Columbia to the Idaho
boundary, and in several isolated
sections of the interior. For the
greater part of its course 1t flows
through old and magnificent canyons
of it's own making through desolate
and awful wastes, the result of
vomiting craters and of conyulsions
of the earth.
1t dashes and roars, IN whlrlpools
and rapids, through forests of
mighty pines, between snow-capped
peaks, beside extlnguished craters,
through gloomy chasms, amid an
indescribable chaos of weird and
fantastic masses Of molten rock,
crags, peaks and preclpices, through
naked deserts; and, again, broad
and tranquil, 1t ripples through
smiling meadows, and green, fertile
valleys, past prosperous towns and
thriving communities, and is lost
again in the deep and solemn can.
yons.
1t rises in the Rocky Mountains,
on the southern slope of the Great
Divide, and flows southeast, and
then west, in a great serpentint
curve through southern Idaho. Ii
the western part of the state j
bends sharply northward, and. fo
$50 miles forms the boundary lin,
between Idaho. Oregon and Wash
lngton, and finally emptles INTO th'
Colum bia, 20 miles below the Ore
gon boundary.
AT first it is mere mountain tor
rent made up of melted snow from
the Teton range. Then for man,
miles it flows majestically through
silent wilderness of primeval for
ests, mirroring an endless cham O
rugged peaks. Then great an
awful change begins to take place
The deep woods grow less and les
dense, the mountains decline Int
endless rolling hills and deep r,
vines. At every turn the countr
grows fatter and more featureles,
until great plain stretches out il
definitely, the gloomy barenness {
which is emuhasized by the fe
pyramid-like cones which stan
there, solitary reminders of a dea
and terrible period. 1t is the gre,
Snake river desert. After an ol
servers first shock and his. feelins
of isolation have passed, the bonn,
less plain loses its monotony. IT
expanse seems to awaken AMI thrs
with life, the silent sentinels OF Il
desert tell tale of long aga, whs
mysterious forces were at pla
For this rs the field of the mo
gigantic volcanic actions that ey
Occurred In America.
Curious evidences of the terri
movements that once took place a
apparent at "Cinder Buttes,"
miles west of BIackfoot, in maj
well preserved volcanoes of comp,
atively recent date. The plains a
strewn with vast numbers of ci
ders, bombs, and other volcar
relics.