The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-08-04
BY BYRON CUMMINGS.

Have you ever spread your blanket
on the. soft, shifting sand of one of the
many lofty mesas of southern Utah
and gazed INTO the star-decked canopy
Of the sky Have you tried to pene-
tTate those vast realms and caught,
perhaps, a glimpse, in perspective, of
the infnity of the universe? No at
mosphere was ever clearer. no sky ever
revealed more Of it's secrets and more
of the glory and beauty of its design
ing than this. The inspiration of the
vision above you and the peaceful
stiffness with which you are surround
ed make you feel at peace with all
mankind and invite you to slumbeT-
SlumbeT deep, refreshing and invig-
Grating. - . -H..
At the break of day the parting
scream of q coyote or the cooling of
the turtle doves brings you back to
earth again As you rise, filling your
lungs with the purest air that'caresses
the earth, a new ana vet little less
striking scene lies before yOu-a morn
ing salutatiOn. as it were. About you
and to the south and the west as far
q the eye can penetrate stretches a
vista of mesas scanned and SCARED
with a labyrinth of canyons and gOrges
that twist and turn and wind across
the eXpanse like so many huge SER
1evOtees of the same kind. Far away
The San Juan river, thanked by its bold
bluffs and cTags. huTTies its shifting
waters to the southwest to drop them
into the grand gorge of the Colorado.
Still farther to the south, across the
San Juan, the eye rests upon the lofty
summit of old Navajo mountain, ard
the huge piles of rocks of varied and
fantastic shapes that tower hundreds
of feet above the plain and look like
mighty sentinels in the dim haze Of
that distant atmosphere. Behind ard
TO the east rise the ridges of the Elk
mountains. whose SHOWS and springs
feed White canyon and its tributaries
This canyon, with its numerous
branches. seems to stretch out over the
earth like some mighty octopus extend
ing its tentacles and dra wing every
thing within its ever-thirsty nav
One tries to count the ages that must
have elapsed while the mighty seas
and surging rivers were tearing down
the mountains and spreading them out
IN these vast strata of sandstone; and
then is amazed at the titanic forces
that have pushed these thousands of
feet of formation upward until il has
opened in great seams and cracks that
zlgzaS about you and through which
the raging streams of former times and
the infrequent floods of today rush
away in quest of the ocean, ever wear
ing jutting points and retreating re-
cesses into rounded and graceful
curves that give you a new vision of
beauty at every turn.
AS one gazes out over these vast
stretches of mesa, covered with cedar
and pinOn or Sagebrush and grease
wood, and peers into the depths of
these canyons inhabited now only Ivy
the coyote, the bobcat and iackrabbit
he wonders for what purpose this part
of the world was created. 1t now
seems almost a barren waste. merely
furnishing range for cattle a portion of
the year. He feels himself in a part
Of the world that has never felt the
subduing influence of man. Nature
seems here to revel in all the primitive
ruggedness of her strength. But as he
Wanders over the high tablelands
among the sturdy old cedars and pin
Dns he often finds a tree that shows
the buffetings Of many a storm grow
ing within the ruin of what seems like
piece of the stone wall our grand
fathers used to build in old New Eng
land.
On closer examination, however, YOU
easily trace its outline and find it
to have been a rectangular enclosure.
In some places these walls stand ex-
posed six, eight and ten feet in height;
and the ends of the wooden timbers
that supported the floor of the second
story are still plainly visible He walks
out on some jutting crag or climbs
some eminence to get a better view,
and finds that some industrious brother
of long-fOrgotten age has been there
before him. Thick walls of stone and
clay or huge rocks fitted together with
out clay have rendered the place we'll
nigh impregnable. Within these walls
or clustered on the lower shelves of
this same cliff are found the ruins Of
numerous homes that mark this as
once a center of life and activity.
Again you thread your way down the
rich bottom of one of the many can
yons or washes and you continually
stumble upon the ruins of what were
once the homes of many men and wo-
men. You wonder how these people |
passed in and out of these narrow
gorges, and run your eyes along the
almost perpendicular cliffs in search of /
trails; and, to your astonishment, youI
see clustered in the depths of the large
caves that are frequently found. |
washed out of the soft sandstone for !
nation, or perched along some shelf |
where the sUrging waters of the DAYS |
Of Noah washed out the soft shale and !
clay leaving the sandstone below as a /
floor and the stratum above project |
ing as a fine defense against the storm. |
the granaries, homes and ceremonial |
chambers of a people who certainly |
difficulties that would /
stagger a modern engineer. In the de- /
bris everywhere you see fragments of !
broken pottery of great variety and of |
excellent workmanship.
You realize then that this land was |
hot always the silent trackless waste |
that it now seems to be: that these
1plands and narrow canyons once sup /
ported a numerous industrious people;
and that these deep gorges and tower
ing cliffs were once the defense of a