The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1906-09-30

Twin Falls, Idaho, Sept. 2S.
EFT those who believe that the
sage brush desert is void Of ro-
nance and the castelated gor-
ges OF the Snake River mere
monuments OF death learn the story Of
Perrine, the Hoosier Of Blue Lakes.
Let them contemplate the struggle of
one man with nature and gather from
his conquest the lesson OF the winning
of the West.
Ira B. Perrine is now in his early for
ties. He Is slight, wiry, blue-eyed, re-
ticent, and modest, but always polite to
the stranger. He is famed from Ogden
to Portland for his optimism. "Nil des-
perandums il his rule of life, and mo-
thing delights him more than a wrestle
with brute nature. He was born in Le-
banon, Ind. and came west before he
was eighteen. He drifted into Idaho,
and one OF his first jobs was that of
chamber maid in livery stable in a
new mining camp. He cleaned up a.
round the stable one day and set fire to
the refuse. While he was at lunch the
fire was communicated to the stable,
and from the stable to the town. In an
hour the town was off the map, and Per-
rine was in the grip Of vigilance COM
mittee, which made prompt arrange
ments to hang him. A friend appeared
who told now tidy the lad had been a.
bout the stable, and how even older men
might have made such slight mistake
"a to set fire to a town. The miners
were charmed with the lawyers elo-
quence and united the rope that bound
Perrine. His rescuer is now millionaire
living in Salt Lake City.
Perrine tried prospecting, and failed.
He went against railroading, and for
tune did not smile. He floated around
at various jobs, but made no headway.
Finnaly, company with an old pros
pector who had made money in the
Boise placers before they petered out,
he struck out across the desert for the
Snake River Canyon, below Shoshone
Falls. They arrived at the lip Of the can
Won and beheld below them, smiling under
the sky, two blue lakes in a pocket OF
the gorge that rose 500 feet upward to
where they stood.
Did Not Find Trail.
Perrine and his partner prospected
along the edge OF the precipice for a
trail. They did not find any. Below
them ran the Snake River, with a
fringe Of green along its banks, and the
old prospector thought he saw fortune
in its sands. Perrine was eaptivated BY
the blue lakes, and decided on the in
slant to locate them for his home.
The cliffs lined thhe canyon OF the
Snake for miles. Above them was Sho-
,hone Falls, roaring like Niagara. Be-
low them stretched an endless desert.
There was nothing to do but to lower
themselves and their plunder over the
cliffs, They rugged up a tackle, and
Perrine dropped, as If out OF the heav-
ems into the gorge. The old miner sent
down pine boards for sluice box, grub,
and their extra clthing. They turned
their burros loose, The old argonaut
Slid down the ioPe. fAos0A
was made in the same manner, to a
spot where the drift rock had made a
sliding bank. Thus they reached the
banks of the river The old miner Went
down the river, with his boards which
cost him IS each, and disappeared.
Perrine, caching his extra grub and
clothing. wrote out location notices and
stuck them upon the rocks. He claimed
everything in sight, Then began his
twenty years struggle
The warmth Of the valley adjoining
the river, protected as it was by the 81
ant walls Of the canyon, the abundance
Of the water, and the character of the
soil. convinced Perrine that he would