Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1907-03-14
THE PLAINS OF YUHA
SOME CT TIE CURIOSlTleS OF THE
COLORADO DESERT.

Graves Each of Which Tells n story
nc@th-OUd stones and shells Tha,
Strcw the Barren Region.
There is Il section of the Colorado
desert where nature has left some Tt.
mar&abe records. She has visited the
region alternately With fire and water
ana las left it with neither 1t is the
most Ge5olate. wild, barren, forbiddina
part of the desert, says the Los Ange
les Times, ana it is stunned Ike by
man and beast. That there is good
and sufficient reason for avoiding this
locality is atteSted by numbers Of
graves, nameleSs for the most part
found in the terrible region.
These graves are simple affairs
merely mounds Of earth with border
OF stones about each and pile OF
rocks two or three feet high at the
head. Each tells the story Of a
tragedy of heat, thirst and death
Those items are about all that is ever
known of the stories of those who
perish. Their mummified bodies or
bleached bones are found long after
the struggle is over, and the finder, re-
specting the memory Of the unknown,
scoops Il hole in the earth, lays the
EhaStly relic within and piles up the
only monument available in that wild
region.
The plain now lies nearly q hundred
feet below the level of the sea, and the
rocks of the plain and the bases of the
mountains are washed and eroded in a
wonderful manner. Mingling with the
burnt stones and volcanic debris are
rocks worn by the waves and shaped
into hundreds of fantastic forms. There
are many acres of these stone curiosi-
ties, and certain sections Of the field
seem devoted to certain shapes and
figures.
For instance. one passes through a
region which he at once names the cab
bage patch. for it presents the appear
ance of 4 field of those vegetables
which have turned to stone. The waves
have worn the rocks into round bowl.
ders about the size of the vegetable
which they SO much resemble and have
cut into the globes, Eliminating them In
perfect imitation of the leafy layers OF
The garden vegetable.
Another locality is devoted almost ex'
elusively to dinner plates. Thousands
of rounded, thin disks are scattered
over the plain or are piled scores deep
ia singular piles, each piece shaped ex-
actly like the crockery which adorns
our tables and quite as thin and sym.
Eletrical.
Another section of this truly wonder
full region is given almost wholly to
dumbbells. These vary in size frors
pieces weighing one or two pounds VI
to those seemingly calculated for exer-
cising the muscles of giant and |
weighing thirty or forty pounds each.
In almost every instance these natural
dumbbells are well balanced, the balls
at either end Of the connecting piece
being of the same size and weight
There is in this plain a1Slrsenal also.
While guns and swords and bayonets
and powder were not there to be found, |
there are thousands Of cannon balls
varying in size from two and three incz |
balls to those fit for the big thirteey |
inch guns Of modern warfare. And all |
are OF stone. all formed in natures |
workshop.
There are other objects innumerable.
There are stone roses, stone lilies, stone
tulips stone leaves, stone birds, stone |
animals, stone quoits, stone ornaments
In varied and unique designs, stone
canes-in fact, almost everything con-
ceivable in nature or art initiated in
stone on the plain Of Yuha.
In one portion Of Yuha rise two hills
or small mountains. One might mis-
craters, but when he approaches the
cminences he discovers them to be
to an ancient Nfe-the rec
ords Of species now extinct. They are
shell mountains, great beds of prehis-
toric bivalves which were left stranded
when that ancient sea swept back from
the region and left q dry and desolate
land.
One of these mountains, the large
one, Is composed wholly Of large rough
shells, much larger, bot less elongated,
than the shells Of the modern oyster,
which in some respects they so much
resemble as to lead to the suspicion
that they are the remains Of the ances-
tors of our much priced bivalve.
The lesser hill Is composed Of tiny
shells Of a prehistoric type Of brachio-
Doda Like the larger shells, they are
found except on the surface In an un-
disturbed state, both valves Of nearly
every shell being found in position.
Although the mOllusk dwellers of these
shells vanished several centuries ago,
30 perfect are the shells one almost ex-
oects when he opens the valve Of the
she'll to find the living creature within.