The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-09-04

d
following close behind. 1t took the car
twenty-five minutes to make this cross
ing. but we got on the other side and
thought that our troubles were nearly
ended.
Through DesoIate Country.
eve ran on to Rawlins and there rest
ed for a day. and then found that the
crossing of the Platte was but prelude
to greater difficulties yet to come. With
a rancher, who well knew the way, we
started early on Saturday morning to
conquer the Red Desert, passing through
a country where for ITO miles no one
lives from choice, the only human beings
there being the section men who are
compelled to remain in order to hold their
jobs with the railroad, There is no
water to drink, there is no food that can
be obtained and a breakdown there meant
calamity We followed through the val
ley of the Bitter Creek, where the bad
man is said to live. and that winding,
alkaline creek gave us more trouble and
grief. Its feeders had worn out deep
ragged guliies, many of them heavy with
sand, and the only way we could get out
of some of them was by putting on ali
power the cal Possessed, pulling UP two
or three feet. then blocking the wheels.
and going over the performance until the
crest of the gulch was reached We fin
ally got to Rawlins at 10 o'clock at night.
Desert Full of Water.
Sunday we started for Green River
and Granger We reached Green River
toward noon, having been delayed by
heavy hills and by water-and incidental
~ L may say that there never has been
known to be so much water on the des-
ert and in the mountains as at present
The rivers are full and the gulches are
full. We could not take the usually
Travelled road from Green River to Gran
ger owing to the high water in the Black
Fork river. Mr.. P. w. Spaulding, lead
rr-Tf u1C
having met us at Green River for day s
outing, which ended in our giving him
an outing of a day and night and part
of another day, as he guided us over the
road which would take us to Granger
without fording the river.
I'VE kept going and going through a
deSOlate country, where no one lives, ana
where no one could live, and when about
seven miles from Granger at about >
o'clock at night, we found ourselves at
the edge of a gulley very deep. that had
eighteen inches of water and mud at the
bottom. Its sides were so steep that no
automobile could climb it without assist
ance. There was nothing to do but to
camp for the night. and while we had no
water and no food, Mrs Powers. Roger
and 1 slept in the automobile and Harry
Russ, our driver, and Mr.. Spaulding,
slept on the ground.
Another Close Shave.
Eve rose with the lark and secuted for
two hours in the vain hope of finding
some crossing of that gulch, but found ii
could not be done; so We started back TO
the little station of Bryan. On our way
we got into a gulch that we had passed.
through at night. the bank of which on
the eastern side stood at almost 10 de-
grees. We rushed the car up as fast as
it would go, blocked the wheels. got out
our block and tackle and after having A
tug of war for forty-fiVe minutes, reach
ed the top and started out again.
when we neaTed the Black Fork river.
the boys waded that stream almost waist
deep to a construction camp and got
Dot of coffee and some sandwiches and
we breakfasted at high noon. Down at
Bryan We procured flat car and loaded
our motor upon it. Mrs Powers and /
took the limited for home and the boys
will go by freight with the car about
fifty miles until the bad roads are passed,
when they viii unload and bring the car
into Salt Lake on its own wheels. 1t is
a forty horsepower, seVen-passenger
Glide touring car, manufactured by the
Bartholomew Co. at Peoria, Ill, and has
given us no trouble since we started out.
Its engine has run as perfectly as clock
and we have always felt in the morning
that we would reach our destination at
night.
Cars Narrow Escape.
"Our trip was filled hourly with excit-
ing incidents. / remember one place down
south OF Elk mountain in the wilderness
where we had started down a hogback
of soft earth. on a steep incline, and
where the dirt under one of the front
wheels began to crumble and the car
gradully sink, there being only about two
inches Of dirt between the outer edge of
the wheel and the space leading down into
a gulch where the car would have dropped
into eternity. We all hustled and gath
cred rocks, Mrs. Powers included. and
built up stone wall under this
wheel, which held il until we were able to
pull back up the hill.
Among the interesting points visited
by US down east was the Mormon HILL
near Palmyra, n. Y, where Joseph Smith
unearthed the golden plates; and Garth
age, in the state of Illinois, where stands
the old Jail now turned into dwelling
house, in which Joseph Smith was con-
fined when killed by the mob. We also
passed by the monument in New York
state, erected to the memory of Morgan.
who Is said to have exposed the secrets
of Masonry. We had an opportunity to
see the country as one does not see it
when travelling by train, and we have
been surprised at the beauty of many of
the small villages through the eastern
states. where they have paved streets and
well clipped lawns in towns no larger
than our country towns
Surprise for Children.
1.-The entire country seems to be enjoy
ing an era of unexampled prosperity. and
farmers yards in the east large automo-
biles. We were In sections of the coun-
try where an automobile never had been
seen For instance. down south of Elk
mountain In Wyoming there never had
been an automobile. That is a country so
sparsely settled that the children at one
place go eight miles to school, and YOU
can imagine how surprised the rancher's
children were when they walked that
morning, after our attempt to cross the
iivide, and found large red automobile
standing by the side of their house
We had no accidents, with the excep-
ion that in Michigan we killed rooster.
we used every effort to
avoid a collision, and l have sometimes
thought that he had tired of life by rea-
son of domestic difficulties and selected
hat way of ending it. We caused no run
aways and we obeyed the speed laws and
we have come back with excellent health
and with the memory of a trip SO full of
interest that it is impossible to describe
L"
There could be no question about the
health Of Judge Powers as he sat at his
iesk brimming over with enthusiasm and
keen enjoyment of the trip. Bronzed and
staiwart looking. as no man who spends
his time in an office can ever look. he is
15xrfvz Ill