Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1906-06-08
The Spider Water


shook their heads, denied and turned
their faces to the mountains. They
stretched their arms straight out under
their blankets, like strlngers, and put
out their palms, downward, and NUT
tered TO HALEY: ,'e
~ "Plenty snow"
81 reckon they're lying" said Bucks,
listening There's some deviltry up.
They're not the kind to clear out for
snow"
Now, the Spider wakes regularly |
twice; at oil other times irregularly. |
Once In April-that Is the foothills wa
ter; once In June-that is the mountain !
water. And the juno rise is like this |
-. But the April rise Is like this
Now came an April without any rise:
that April nothing rose = except the !
snow I'VE shall get II all together"
suggested Bucks one night.
cor will it get us altogether2" asked
HALEY
EITHER way" said Callahan. at will
be mostly Mt once"
May opened bleaker than April; even
the trackmen walked with set faces;
the dlrtiest half breed on the line knew
now what the mountains held. At last,
while we looked and wondered. came a
very late Chinook; July In May; then
the water.
Section gangs were doubled and
track walkers put on. By-passes were
opened, bridge crews strengthened, ev-
erything buckled for grief. Gullies
began to rae, culverts to choke, creeks
to tumble, rivers to madden. From
the Muddy to the Summit the water
courses swelled and boiled-all but the
Spider; the big river slept. Through May
and into June the Spider slept, but Hal
leywas there at the Wickiup always and
with one eye running over all the line,
0paG rned always to the Spider,
men Ind two. night and
Ell me lazy surface water
and through the vagabond
tween Hailey's monumental
" Sever an hour did the operating
department. lose to the track. East and
west of us railroads everywhere clam
ored in despair. The flood reached
from the Rockies to the Alleghenies.
Our trains never missed n trip; our
schedules We're unbroken; our people
laughed; we got the business, dead
loads of It; our treasury flowed over,
and HALEY watched, and the Spider
slept
Big Ed Peeto, still foreman of the
bridges, hung on Hailey's steps and
tried with his staring, swearing eye to
ali . hot To- nv
expected to happen, for 1t was plain he
was thinking. Whether smoking or
speaking, whether waking or sleeping,
he was thinking. And as May turned
soft and hot into June with every ditch
bellying and the mountains still buried.
it put us all thinking.
On the Both there was trouble be-
yond Wild Hat, and all our extra men,
put out there under HALEY, were Tight
ing to hold the Rat valley levels where
they hug the river on the west slope
1t wasn't really IIaileys track. Bucks
sent him over there because he sent
HALEY wherever the emperor sent Ney.
Sunday while HALEY was at Wild Hat
1t began raining. Sunday 1t rained;
Monday it rained all through the noun
tains; Tuesday 1t was raining from
Omaha to Eagle pass, with the Their
mometer climbing for breath and the
barometer fiat as an adder-and the
Spider woke.
Woke with the April water and the
June water and the rain water all at
once. Trackmen at the bridge Tuesday
night tagged No. ! and reported the
river wild and sheet Ice running A
wire from Bucks brought HALEY out
of the west and into the east and
brought him to reckon for the last time
with his ancient enemy.
He was against it Wednesday morn
ing with dynamite. All the day, the
night and the next day the sullen roar
OF the giant powder shook the ice jams
Two days more he spent there watch
ing, with only an occasional thunder
bolt to heave and scatter the Spldei
water into sudden, shivery columns o.
spray; then he wired, ice out" anC
set back dragged and silent for hom'
and for sleep--ten hours out OF TIVE
hundred, maybe, was all he reckoneC
to the good when he struck n pillow
again. Saturday night he slept, ant
Sunday all day, and Sunday night
Monday about noon Bucks sent up I
ask, but HALEY was asleep. The,
asked back by the lad whether the,
should wake him; Bucks sent word
"No."
Tuesday morning the tall roadmnste
came down fresh as sunshine. and a.
day he worked with Bucks and the dis