The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-07-08
AUTOMOBILES
CONQUER WILDS
OF DIXIE LAND
{. G. WOOIiey, Jr., and Party
Home From Notable Trip
to Grand Canyon.
TERRIFIC OBSTACLES
SUCCESSFULLY MET
CEMPED AT BRIGHT ANGEL,
HIGH ABOVE WATERS OF
THE COLORADO.

For the first time In the history Of the
state. the remote southern portion Of
Utah has been conquered by the automo-
bile Two automobiles have just returned
from Bright Angel. on the Colorado river,
after most remarkable journey. The
most southerly point in this state, here
totore reached by an automobile was
when a drummer. five years ago, man
aged TO get TO Panguiteh. in Garfield
county. But the drummer never came
back In the machine; he shipped his car
out by freight
The party left Salt Lake Saturday.
June IS, in two automobiles. a LOCOmobile
OF forty horsepower and a Thomas car of
seventy horsepower. Those who COM
prised the parry were David A. Affleck
Adelia Burt, Mr.. and Mrs. u. @. WOOlley
Jr, and four children and Sandy Dun
lOD, chauffeur AT kanab where the
camping outfit was taken up, Ed Little
joined the party as cook and George En-
nett as horse wrangisr.
Trip Without Accident.
The two automobiles were maryeiously
fortunate in that they met with no acct
dent which could not be repaired by the
occupants. The machines made the jour
ney on their own power and with the
same tires with which they left Salt
! Lake. IL is true that the tires present %
sad appearance, but the fact that thev
/
their tOughness. Two mishaDs occurred.
one TO each machine. in the twisting of
the transmission shaft. but these disar-
rangemeuts were remedied without out
side help. Once the Locomobne was
stuck I'm the mud and once the Thomas
had the same trouble. As each pulled the
Otner out. hOnOrs on this score are con-
sidered even.
Good and Bad Roads.
Mr.. WOolley's description Of the trip is
intensely Interesting. we found the dis
Jance from Salt Lake to Bright Angel to
be 43} 4-l0th miles, said Mr.. WOolley yes
terday, and it is a curious thing that we
covered the return ia exactly seven-tenths
of a mile less. These are the records Of
both machines which we're equipped with
Warner speedOmeteTs. We account for
the slight difference in going and coming
back by the fact that, on the downward
trip, we took a few little sidesteps, SO to
speak IN every ease we found that we
/ had the oldest inhabitants distances beat
en- Our instruments proved that our dis
tances were shorter than the local dis
tauces, sometimes by two or three miles.
we found the best roads I'm SanData
stretches further south that were real
terrOrs- You can say that we worked our
poll tax from Monroe to Bright Angel and
back again.
Some Bad Going.
1--WE had a mixture Of good and bad
roads from Salt Lake TO Kanab which
we reached the fourth day. From here
TO Monroe the roads were good. From
Fountain Green to Sterling there was a
splendid road and from Sterling TO Cum
nisOn there was some sand. From Gun
niSOn TO SaIiud the roads were average
They were on the benches, and had some
ruts, but on the whole they were good
Then on to Willow Creek we found them
cut UP. From Richfield to Monroe, how
ever they were fine. The people have
been improving with gravel which lz
found whereabouts in great quantities.
Monroe mountain is very steep, and
very smooth and slippery. We encoun-
tered two very bad places. From Marys-
vale, the end Of the railroad. to Circle
ville thirty miles. the roads are fair. but
in Ctrcleviile. canyon they are Wretched.
'Our chief trouble all along was taking
out high Centers, Instructions I'm the mid
die Of the road-sag ebrush. stumps and
uOcks-Which could be negotiated with a
wagon an right. but which we had TO re-
going and coming.
Another trouble we met with was
humUback bridges over irrigating bitches
Dozens of times we found bridges with
out any aprreciable grade iu the ap-
proaches. and as we had to take these at
the sloWest speed. we lost much time.
Across SEWER Dam.
cone Of our worst experiences was our
passage across the Sewer river dam This
embankment has recently been put iu to
mold the waters i'm q great reservoir. BIZ
IS sixty or seventy feet high. and the TOP
Is just wide enough TO accommodate "a
ago1. We unloaded the folks and crept
across. The Thomas skidded three times.
but held
When we reached Alton. OF Upper
Kanab we stopped to repair the twisted
shaft on the Loc0m0bile. From Alton 10
Kanab is forty-fouT miles, all except four
teen of which is the worst lot of roads
lima eiuable. OF these fourteen there are
four at Johus0u's wash that are ideal For
the rest. they are sand, sand without bot
tom.
Gay Times at Kansb.
Through every settlement we passed
the people turned ont en- mssss to see
the cars. It was quite amusing to see
them make bee line for the fence when
the power began to make a noise.
'Our entrance into kanab was FRI the
nature of a uiumphaI procession. The
whole town turned out and all night long
scores of curious people visited the shed
where we put up the cars. We made sew
eral drives out Of Kanah with people Of
that place and they were immensely
ticklCd.
"Ou the fifth day out from Salt Lake
we rested. and on the sixth we reached
Ryan. having sent the camping outfit
ahead with a start of a day and "a half
The outfit included q wagon for provi-
siOns. another wagon for extra Dasseu-
gers. saddle horses and, I'm short, a COM
plete camping outfit
Ryan is where the big C0c0uinO sueIt-
@ hrr-f The ~rfn-+