The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1912-09-06

oOuIl VI iowa anu IulOuSu hdA-
"A sas or Nebraska on one of the
a fast continental trains, the trav-
eler soon leaves the region Of
ample rainfall and abundant verdure.
And for day more and for all night
the train rushes along through the
great state of Colorado and then Utah
desert, except as irrigation has
transformed it, until Salt Lake City
is reached This, as it is today. But
What about the fortitude of the early
settlers who penetrated this wilder
ness with prairie schooners or OK
unknown trails?
When the first Mormon caravan, 60
years ago, after long and almost hope
less wandering across trackless
waste emerged from Emigration can
yon into the valley of the Great Salt
lake, the weary outcasts saw. gently
sloCing away from the dark shadows
Of the mountain pass. fair land
reaching to the sunlit shores of a
wondrous inland sea- Proceeding
little farther they caught sight of a
large fresh water lake some miles to
the south emptying it's surplus waters
into the great lake through a slender
river which shone like a ribbon Of
silver
Into the Promised Land.
The striking comparison suggested
by this scene might have occurred to
less compromising mind than that
Of the Moses of this exodus, leading a
new tribe of Israel to new Promised
Land. Spread before the eyes of the
little band of enBgrants were counter
parts of the three prominent features
of Palestine-the Sea of Tiberius, the
Dead sea and the River Jordan So
here the prophet. Brigham Young, and
his followers proceeded to build their
New Jerusalem, and today Cculptor
Dallin's golden figure of the Angel
Moroni looks down upon the scene
from that stately pile of Utah granite
the Mormon temple-reared at
cost Of 40 years labor and s600O.OOO
Unconsciously these desert pioneers
had settled in a region Of most won
derful natural phenomena. On the
east the Wasatch mountains reared
their brown and rifted peaks and IL
the wanderers noticed their peculiar
terraced formation. terrace after ter
race rising sharp and clear to a
height Of 1000 feet above the valley
floor. they failed to recognize them
as the most remarkable of beach lines,
the ancient shores, in fact, of vast
inland prehistoric sea.
The Great Salt lake is but the feeble
remnant OF the ancient Bonneville. the
lowest remaining depth of a one-time
majestic sheet of water, fed from the
mighty glaciers and snow fields which
then clothed the mountains to within
short distance of their highest
peaks. The extreme length of this
prehistoric lake was GAG miles and its
greatest width AS miles Were its
waters today to rise again to their
old level, scores of towns and villages
would be submerged and several thou
sand people driven from their homes
The Mormon temple at Salt Lake City
would stand under $50 feet of water.
A recent geologic study of the gla-
citation of the Wasatch mountains and
the commanding Uinta range lying to
the east confirms former conclusions.
drawn from the study of Lake Bonnie
Vile, that there were two distinct gla-
cial periods in these mountains. In
Helibly recorded in the moraines and
The lacustrine beds-the rock debris
ground and secured ous of canyons
and swept down by the vast ice flow
are two distinct epocns, separated by
q long interglacial interval Prof. Wal
lace W. Atwood of the United States
geological survey has made report