Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1907-04-25

Los Angeles is making prcpara-
tions for the annual fiesta there.
This years celebration will eclipse
all others, it is believed. The mat
ter brings to mind the fact that Po-
catcilo might do we'll to follow in
the footsteps of the California city,
and arrange for fiesta. There is
not an abundance of flowers i'll this
part of the country, but theie is
plenty of sagebrush- Why not ar
range for sagcbrush fiesta?
In the midst of beauty and frag-
rance, in the Land of Sage "a will
derness of odor,'' as the poet might
phrase it,-whcrc every soft breeze
heavy with the fragrance of mill
lion sagebushes, and where the hab-
itations of the lowly and exalted are
both powered beneath the odorous
bush, where summer zephyrs, whis-
pering up from the Snake, bring
breath of naked nature from the
north, to mingle with the scent OF
cedar and pine brought down from
the skyline hills on the wings OF a
gentle wind-what more appropri-
del salvia-a holiday given over to
reveling in fragrance and sweetness,
subdued by Lity for rapidly dis
appearing species? Some time this
year the government of the United
States will begin the expenditure
OF $3.50, 900 in the construction OF
an irrigation system on the Fort
Hall lands, including the immense
tract abutting on the moth end of
town, where hundreds of Pocatello
citizens have taken up homesteads,
and al awaiting the application OF
water to mark the Transformation
from aridity into fertility, from a
vast waste of sagebrush into waving
fields of grain. Within a couple
of years at most the sagebrusl will
have disappeared from this tract,
and in it's place will appear the
plebian cabbage, the succulent young
onion, saccharine sugar beet, the
earthly, but palatable, potato, the
useful alfalfa and the humble hay.
Before this transformation is ac-
complished, before the rains of
two more springs kiss the level
acres into greenness and sweetness
and purity, Pocatello should honor
the sage, should attire herself in
wreathes of sage, and festocn her
homes and public buildings with
sprigs and bouquets of sage, heap
ing homage upon the altar of god
dess who is about to be deposed, but
who is worthy of all honor for past
greatness
Time was when the sage ruled
supreme in Idaho. Over million
acres it reigned, clinging to the
preCipitous walls of the canyon of
the Snake, fighting with the lava
rec fs of the Great Losmet River
palms for a foothold, battling
bravely with the bunchgrass for the
scanty moisture of the arid belt,
drinking thirstily. of the winter
rains and autumn showers, creeping
to the dooryards of urban homes,
scenting half state with an odor
clinging to and cloyiug. Coyotes
and jackrabbits roamed amid it, af-
fectionatc woodticks clung to it,
pinto cayuses threaded may way
through it, and Indians of other
days avoided it in their migrations
from winter camp to summer hunt
ing grounds.
Then civilization came and view
ed calm-eyed and unafraid, this vast
waste of sage. Slowly, as befits
the task of Transforming an en-
pire, the sage began to be elbow
ed out, not urgently, but always
unrcgrctfully- The magic wand of
water was waved over the Boise
valley, the Weiser valley, the Pay
cite valley, the imemnse valley of
teh upper Snake Gases began to ap-
pear, widening with the years.
Farmhouscs, powered amid shade
trees, began to dot the desert.
Husbandmen encouraged by sue
cess, boldly attacked the encroach-
ing ranks of sage, and new fences
threw out their tenacular arms to
embrace more reclaimed land.
= Across the turbid Snake great dams
WIRE thrown at Miner and Mini
doka and the rough winding mile on
mile of canals water was conducted
e. >f Il d. <@f