The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1910-11-10
New Mexico and Arizona Hold the
Record For Nature Interest
Than any Other Equal
Erea in America.
MIGHTY GRAND CANYON
Impress Upon the Seasons Traveller
is MISUNDERSTANDING Thous-
and People Have
Seen it.

called the enchanted land, and .na
name is we'll deserved. Certainly no
other similar area of the worlds sur
lace has more to hold the interest
and attention of the traveller than
this country of sunshine, blue sky,
mountains, deserts and titanic mani.
festations of natural force. 1t seems
almost as though nature had here set
up her house of experiment, and bac
fashioned some things, that were 100
big, too beautiful or too absorbingly
interesting to be transported to 9TH
er climes.
The mightiest of these is the Geand
| Canyon of Arizona, beside whica eg-
cry scenic attraction, wherever To-
Gated, must talse second place. Even
the sky piercing Himalayas of Asia,
and their great rivals in South Amer
lea fail to impress the seasoned tray
eler, as does this magnificent gorge.
To say that it is 217 miles long. IS
miles wide, a mile and quarter deep
and painted like (. sunset, is to say
nothing To say that in this tragic
cash the world building processes,
from the earliest time, geologically,
are laid bare for human eye to see, is
to say nothing. To say that here
great mountains have been carved
from the solid rock, by the patient
chisel of water nd wind, that
trough, to carry river half as big as
the Ohio, has been eaten through S.,
900 feet CT sand stone and limestone
and 1,00O feet through the primitive
granite, that hundreds of side can
yons, each greater than any found
elsewhere enter the great cleft from
every direction, is to say nothing. But
to say the Grand canyon of Arizona
is the Grand Canyon, that is to say
everything.
OF the 8O,O00,O00 people in the
United States, perhaps $4,000 have
seen it. During the past ten years
about 1A5,O00 visitors have gone to
the Grand Canyon. OF this number
several thousand were foreigners and
many Americans have been there on
several occasions. But the number is
insignificant at best. If this superla-
tive attraction we're located in the
depth of Siberian 1astness, 1t would
have been seen and wondered at by
more Americans than have ever
thought of going to explore the won
ders of their own country.
When Ex-Presidcnt Roosevelt visit
ed the Grand Canyon in 1908, he de-
clared it to be one that every Amer
lean should see.
However, the Grand canyon is but
one, of the hundreds o. things that
make the enchanted land unique.
South and east Oh the Canyon, near
Adamana, Arizona, station on the
Santa Fe railway, lies the wonderful
Petrified Forest. Thia marvellous de-
to stone, is the largest and most
beautiful exhibition of fossil wood in
the world. Tens of thousands of acres
are covered with the trunks, branches
and fragments of trees that cast
their grateful shade over the deni
zens of the Triassic world hundreds
of thousands, perhaps millions. oil
years ago. In the bright Arizona sun.
shine the fragments flash and sparkle
like the crown jewels OF million
kings. John Muir, the eminent explor
er, geologist, and nature lover spent
nearly year exploring and studying
these forests and he added three new
centers to those already known
Halley's comet brings to mind an.
other wonder of this remarkable re-
gion 1t is known as Meteor Mountain
and lies about seven miles south OF
Sunshine, Arizona. This remarkable
formation rises above the dead level
of the surrounding country to a
henght of about $50 feet and from the
railroad looks much like an ordinary
hill On nearer approach the sides
are seen to be covered with huge
fragments of sedimentary rock
thrown about in great confusion as
though forced from their beds by
some gigantic hsu1, climbing to
what seems the summit, the adven
turer is confronted with the .easor
for the confusion, for there before his
eyes lies a great pit nearly 1000 fee
across and 600 feet deep. The first
explanation to flash into his mind is
that he Is on the Drink of one of the
numerous extinct volcanoes that dol
the country. But closer inspection
fails to disclose any of the trace.
usual to such formations. If his guide
/ is informed he will be told that tbs
I scientists of the United States Gee
logical Survey, after long and care
full study of the locality, have declar
ed that this great hole was mad,
not by volcanic or other interna
forces, but by the impact ~ = grea
meteor from outer space-the great
est by many times, of which any rec