The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-08-19


by interests seeking a coast outlet.
Three reports made in this way gave
varying estimates of the expense of
puttinga up the valley but the three
conceded in this that the cost would
be prohibitive. Engineers of reputa-
ton had In this respect agreed, but
Glover who looked after such work
for Bucks, remained unconvinced, and
before McCloud was put into the OPP
Grating department on the Short Line
he was asked by Glover to run pre-
liminary up Crawling Stone valley.
Before the date of his report the con
illusions reached by other engineers
had stood unchallenged.
The valley was not unknown to
McCloud. His first year In the noun
talns, in which, fitted as thoroughly
as he could fit himself for his profess
sion, he had come west and found him
self unable to get work, had been
spent hunting, fishing, and wandering.
often cold and often hungry, in the
upper Crawling Stone country. The
! valley In itself offers to a construc-
ZIONIST no insuperable Obstacles; the
difficulty is presented in the canyon
where the river bursts through the
Elbow mountains. South of this can
yon, McCloud, one day on hunting
trip, found himself with two Indians
pocketed in the rough country, and
was planning how to escape passing q
night away from camp when his COM
panions led him past a vertical wall
of rock 1000 feet high, split into a
narrow defie down which they rode,
as it broadened out, for miles. They
emerged upon an open country that
led without break into the valley Of
the Crawling Stone below the canyon.
Afterward, when he had become a rail
road man, McCloud, sitting at camp
fire with Glover and Morris Blood,
heard them discussing the coveted and
| impossible line up the valley. He had
!, been taken into the circle of construc-
I tlonists and was told of the earlier re-
ports against the line. He thought he
: knew something about the Elbow
/ mountains, and disputed the findings.
offering in two days ride to take the
men before him to the pass called by
{ the Indians the Box, and to take them
through it. Glover called 1t a find, and
, a big one, and though more immediate
{ matters in the strategy of territorial
l. control then came before him, the pre-.
s liminary was ordered and McCloud's
q findings were approved. McCloud him
II self was soon afterward engrossed In
the problems of operating the noun
q tain division; but the dream of his
I life was to build the Crawling Stone
a line with maximum grade of eight.
4 tenths through the Box.
J. The prettiest stretch of Crawling
II Stone valley lies within 20 miles of
Medicine Bend There 1t lies widest,
and has the pick of water and grass
; between Medicine Bend and the Mis-
II sion mountains. Cattlemen went into
d the Crawling Stone country before the
g Indians had wholly left it. The first
d house in the valley was the Stone
ranch built by Richard Dunning, and
=. 1t still stands overlooking the town of
O Dunning at the junction of the French
=. man creek and the Crawling Stone.
a The Frenchman is fed by unfailing
:, springs, and when by summer sun and
!, wind every smaller stream In the mid
- die basin has been licked dry, the
= Frenchman runs cold and swift be-
:, tween its russell hills. Richard Dun
II ming, being on the border Of the In
~ dian country, built for his ranch
=, house rambling stone fortress. He
u had chosen, it afterward proved, the
a choice spot in the valley and he
~ stocked it with cattle when yearlings
~ could be picked up in Medicine Bend
at ten dollars head. He got together
great body of Valley land when il
y could be had for the asking, and be
y came the rich man Of the Long Range
~ The Cummings were Kentuckians
Richard was D bridge engineer and
:, builder, and under Brodie built some
II of the first bridges on the mountain
= division, notably the great wooden
49, bridge at Smoky creek. Richart
- brought out his nephew, Lance Dun
~ ming. He taught Lance bridge.buid
~ ing, and Murray Sinclair who begar
:, as a cowboy on the Stone ranch
= learned bridge-building from Richard
No. Dunning. The Cummings both came
west, though at different times, as
"a young men and unmarried, and as fal
~ as western women were concerned
-, might always have remained So Blu
:, a Kentucky cousin, Betty, one of th'
~ Fairfield Cummings, related TO Richart
~ within the sixth or eighth degree
came to the mountains for her health
- Betty's mother had brought Richar'
a up as boy. and Betty, when he lef
or Fairfield, was a baby. But Dlck--a
ba they knew him at homeland tn
as mother wrote back and forth, and h
nr persuaded her to send Betty out for
20 trip, promising he would send he
back in year well woman
GRO BE CONTINUED