davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

loving people, The custodian estimates
that $4,000 people visited it the past
year.
Il
In 1908 Ed Frost of Cody, Wyo.,
chased mountain lion into cave in
the bank of the Shoshone river just be-
low the point at which the reclamation
service has recently completed the high
est dam in the world The hunter at
tempted to smoke the animal out, but
without success. He explored to ascer-
tain the cause of his failure. He found
a limestone cavern which he followed
until it led him a mile into the mountain.
This cavern would at times open up into
vast amphitheaters hundreds of feet in
height. The whole cave was linle-in
crusted and because of this it's interior
was a sparkling white, some times Shad-
ing into beautiful rose-pink and green.
Staactites hung from the roof like so
many monster jcic!es, and stalagmiteS
often met them from the floor, forming
such series of pillars as have never
been reproduced in any building of man.
the probability of it some time becoming
one OF the show places of the west, it
was converted into national monument.
The Tumacacori monument. contain
ing but ten acres of land, affords pro-
lection to an old Spanish mission church
in Arizona. 1t built by early Jesuit
monks, who burned the bricks there
for. Its walls in some places are twelve
feet thick. and the old burying ground
which lies to the rear contains the ruins
tragedy was enacted. The cemetery and
mission are inclosed by a high brick
wall. This old mission was in the re-
jected Tumacacori land grant and has
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11
IN WHEELER MONUMENT
COLORADO

At intervals along the west walls several
streams plunge over the edge of the
chasm. forming magnificent falls 800 to
1900 feet high.
only surpassed in grandeur by those Of
fered by the Grand Canyon of the Colo
RADIO. This canyon is. in many ways.
similar to the Yosemite valley Of Cali
fornia. now in a national park. whose
vertical walls, while considerably higher
in places are not continuously perpen-
dicular and whose highest waterfall. the
Yosemite. has drop of LOCO feet. 400
feet less than some of the falls here
Of course the greatest of all these
monuments is the Grand Canyon of the
Colorado which needs no introduction 90
the people. In the state of Colorado
there is the Wheeler national monument,
which presents remarkable example
of erratic surface erosion. leaving great
fields of needlelike spikes scattered
round about. There are the jewel caves
in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which
are chiefly remarkable because or the
strange conduct of the winds that blow
through them For fifteen hours these
winds blow in one direction and then
change and for fifteen hours blow the
other way. These caves have never been
explored in their entirety and their
a national monument because of lime
stone caves that run to UNEMPLOYED depths
and pass entirely under Cave mountain.
Mount Olympus has been made ma
tional monument. and has two chief in
terests-its glaciers and its Olympic elk,
a very rare and almost extinct species or
animal.
The Big Hole battlefield i'm Montana has
been made national monument, as has
the burial ground of Russian soldiers at
Sitka, Alaska. where many of the sup
porters Of the ear fell in battle with
the Indians during the conquest of Alas
ka. In Hawaii this government owns a
real live volcano. which seethes and boils
and continually threatens to erupt. Hale
mauman is the name of the volcano, and
the Pahoehoe lava, which flowed from IL
thirty years ago. froZe into lava falls.
which are the most recently produced ig-
neous rock owned by Uncle Sam. Ii Is
proposed that this Hawaiian volcano
should become a national monument, and
ii will be the next such strange possess
sion OF the government to be set aside
indefinitely for the edification of the pub
lie.
Copyright, 49,: 10y w. A. Du PuyD
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

would form an arch above the National
Capitol at Washington. clearing the
dome with fifty-One feet to spare. The
Rainbow bridge. near the southern bound
airy of Utah, another monument, is
unique in that it not only forms SYM
metrical arch on the under side, but
presents also a curved surface above,
which resembles in shape a rainbow.
This bridge is 300 feet above the sur
face of the water that runs under it.
The Muir Woods National Monument is
one OF the most attractive of these little
parks The chief of the objects it pro-
tects and preserves is a grove of giant
redwoods. those big trees of California.
sole survivors of that age of the world
when it was Overrun with vegetation OF
stupendouS growth. 1t is located about
seven miles northwest of San Francisco
and is visited annually by thousands of
people, who may almost step over from
the crowded streets of a great modern
city into a wilderness where nature
reigns supreme and appalls with the
magnitude of her works.
The monument tract embraces 295 acres.
covered with a virgin forest of which three
fourths are giant redwoods, with much
fir and the common hardwood of the
coast country. 1t is a part of the Rancho
Sausalto. an aid Spanish grant This
magnificent possession of the people was
the gift of pubiicspirited citizen of
San Francisco and Chicago. William
Kent. who placed market value on the
redwoods alone of $150,oOO, but who be-
lieved that as the attractive.and impress
i've feature of a national monument they
would be priceless. AT the request of
the donor the monument was named in
honor of John Muir, the California nat
uralist. 1t is certain in the years to
come that this unique and accessible ma
tional monument will be visited and APP
preciated by growing army of nature
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

There are three or four monuments in
the southwest that are set aside by the
federal government because OF the excel
lent specimens OF cliff dwellings that
they contain and the desire to protect
those dwellings. Among the most i'm
portant of these is Montezuma Castle. in
central Arizona. Montezuma Castle is
a great cluster Of cliff dwellings in the
face Of mountain that rises perpendicu
larly from a riverside. The principal
ruin now stands forty-e.ght feet in
height. has five stories and contains
twenty-one rooms. generally in a remark
able state of preservation. Back of
these living rooms are great caverns
which run to UNEMPLOYED depths into the
mountain side and which were evidently
used in the time of the occupation OF
these dwellings as storage space and as
burying crypts. The writer twenty
deep in the musty caves of this mountain
side. remnants of bags of corn that had
been stored centuries ago. Still deeper
in the mountain he found the mummified
remains of prehistoric child and a pre-
historic man, these probably comparing
in age with the mummies that are often
found under the pyramids of Egypt. In
the absence of scientific treatment, how
ever, these mummies fell into dust when
brought in contact with the outer air.
Probably the most beautiful canyon in
the United States is that of the Mukun-
tuWeap river, in southwestern Utah.
There is not one man in a thousand.
however who has ever heard of this
canyon. and there are probably not
hundred white men in the world who
have ever seen it, so remote is it from
customary lines of travel and so difficult
is 1t of access.
The canyon has smooth, perpendicular
W. lie IN, ict,t % NM
feet, which are, with the exception of one
trail, unscalable within the monument
limits. and this trail is SO dangerous that
only unburdened animals are permitted
to use it. The canyon is split by
tongue or cliff high enough to cut off all
view from either side of the canyon to
the opposite canyon wall, thus dividing
the canyon into two parts equally i'm
portant. The north fork of the Rio Vir-
gin, stream twenty feet wide and
eighteen inches deep. flows through the
canyon. The United States deputy sur
veyor, who explored the canyon. reports
that the climate i'm the bottom of the
canyon is tropical, while the regular
mountain temperatures prevail imme-
diately adjoining and beyond the rims
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11
FRAGMENTS Or PErR1r1Ep foREsrs

of Cibola." Here the explorers rested
awhile among the Zuni. the Moqui and
the Navajo. the most interesting Of
Americas Indians. Here, while they
rested, they carved their names and the
dates of their visits into the cliffs that
visits, according to the original records,
run from 1929 to 1877. Many are believed
to be much older than this, but the ero-
sion OF wind-blown sands and other nat
ural agencies have made the dates illeg-
ible. So interested is Uncle Sam in these
original writings of his early history that
he has withdrawn 100 acres of land from
settlement, converted it into a national
monument and intends to keep it forever
The federal government is the owner
of three of the greatest natural bridges
in the world, the existence of which was
not known a decade ago. 1t was in 1898
that Emory Knowles, a cowboy, riding
the range in southeastern Utah in search
of the unbranded maverick, stumbled
upon such natural span over a canyon
reported his find and later acted as guide
to party which revisited this and dis
covered two other similar bridges. In
May, 1908. the general land Office in
structed w. 3. Douglass, an examiner of
surveys, to visit and report upon these
bridges. He did SO and recommended the
withdrawal of a forty-acre tract around
each bridge
The Augusta Natural bridge. the larg-
est of the three. is a splendid arch of
solid sandstone measuring 335 feet from
wall to wall and having clear opening
of 357 feet above the stream which it
spans. 1t is more than three times as
high and has twice the span of the cele-
brated Natural bridge in Virginia. 1t
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

Among these national monuments there
are frozen falls of lava and cinder cones,
indicating most recent volcanic activities.
There are natural bridges lost in such
wildernesSes as to have remained undis-
covered until half a dozen years ago. and
yet they are of such magnificence as to
overshadow anything OF their kind in the
world. \ valley in southern Utah almost
unknown to men has been withdrawn by
the government as a national monument
because federal agents state that its
heauties far surpass those of Yosemite.
In these reservations the primary pur-
pose is to preserve some object OF scien-
tific or historic value Such was the in
tention, for instance, when, five years
ago the government withdrew from pri-
vate acquisition the petrified forests of
Arizona. Here. through the strange proc
esses of nature, have the remains or
what were once huge forest trees slowly
hardness. Scattered over a territory en-
bracing nearly Il hundred square miles
are TO be found the stone trunks of trees
that grew in ages past Here has been
left such q record of that growth of past
ages as is found no place else in the
world and here is recorded one of the
stranSest transformations from wood to
stone that the world has ever known
y quarter or century ago private
companies sought TO exploit this stone.
for when dressed, these pillars showed
such Jasper, agate. amethyst and chalce-
duHy as to surp4ss the Siberian jaspers,
the Pyrenees marbles and Chinese jadeS
that had won world fame Tracts of
Land were located placer claims, and
thus did private companies attempt to
get possession OF this great wonder. So
hard is the material in these stone tree
trunks that when pulveriZed it forms a
a. . ~i.T Ir,a for
U.s. Cor abrasive. purposes. Much of this
petrtfed wood was ground up into this
T1N;ier before the government finally
withdrew il from entry, and in the end
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11
-SWlSS EXAGGERATE THEIR ALPINE TRAGEDIES

proper since the first ascent of 1t by
Balmat in 1856, viz:
1s2O-11th ascent. The Hamel trag-
edy. Three guides buried in crevasse
by a snowslide
1S6O-n72nd ascenD. Three Englishmen
and a guide slipped down a snowslope
on the Italian side Two other guides.
front and back, each holding the rope,
let go-eXceptional coWardice.
1S64-Coutett. porter for two Austrian
gentlemen. walked into a crevasse under
the eyes of the guides and party.
1s6e-Sir George Young and two of his
brothers. without guides and roped to-
ssether. descending from the summit. the
foremost slipped and dragged the others
over a precpice onto soft snow. The
youngest brother broke his neck.
1s66-Capt Arkwright, a guide and two
porters all buried in falling ava
lanche.
oliver Gay of Virginia broke through a
snow bridge and ingulfed in crevasse.
Gay had given the lady his arm" to
walk about while others rested
1S7O-An entire caravan of eleven per-
sons persisted. Mr.. Randall, American
gentleman of fifty. met Mr.. Bean. an
other American. and the Rev. McCork-
indale of Oxford at their hotel. None had
climbed. Iney nlfeQ three guides
and five porters, reached the Grand Mu-
lets refuge and passed the night. The
next day. through the telescopes, Cha
mounix people saw them start on up,
struggling with wind and whirling snow.
Not one returned. The diary found on
Mr.. Bean contained pathetic farewells to
his family.
1S7tMr. Marshall of Leeds and two
guides broke through snow into Gre
vase.
1SSO-A Courmayeur guide and two Ital-
ian tourists were resting. high on the
Italian slope. The guide wandered off a
few steps, slipped and dashed into the
abyss.
1891 q, 257th ascent)-Herr Rothe and a
guide killed by an ice avalanche.
1s91-Dr Jacottet OF Chamounix. died Of
mountain sickness at the summit.
1892!R. Mettleship. Oxford tutor, died
Of exhaustion after night in a snow
refuge which he helped to dig:
1S95-Dr. Schnurdreher OF Prague, his
guide and porter found dead In a Gre
vase.
1851. n. Riegel young college man,
from Riegelsville. Pa. with recklessness
equivalent to suicide, actually ascended
Mont Blanc alone, and descending the
italian slope toward Courmayeur, fell
over a prec1pice.
1907. Staeling and II. Mauduit NOM
beers Of the French Alpine Club, lost In
windstorm, wandered all night and died
Of exhaustion within half an hour Of each
other. close to the Vallot refuge. Their
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11
.sJs Ell

ting them aside that they may be pre-
served for science and for pOsterity OF
all the awe inspirers beneath the flag
there are seventeen that have been DEEM
ed worthy of entering into this exclusive
classification. Having entered, they are
designated national monuments. and 1t is
put down that they are to belong for
ever to the public They are the lesser
national parks taken care of by the fed
eral government. incidentally they are
spreading their charms these hot summer
days and inviting the wanderer in the
great outside To come TO see.
These seventeen wonders of the United
States are scattered quite Unfortunately
over the map. The greatest of them is
the Grand Canyon OF the Colorado, with
its 00s, acres of Withdrawn land. The
smallest is that little plot of ten acres
which surround the cid Spanish mission
OF TUIGacac1ri, IN Arizona. There are
the monuments created by men, such as
the American Indians. or the clif-d yelling
OF that prehistoric people which preceded
then; there are those towers of rock in
certa sections of New Mexico upon
which. 20 years ago. the first explorers
cut in,0 the stone the records of their
visits EeTe.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

made out of it the petrified forests mon
ument-a wonderland now containing for
ty-fve square miles.
II
Another of natures curiosities of diff
ferent class and located in a different
part of the country is Devils Tower. in
Wyoming. Here. in the midst of an open
plain surrounded by grazing lands and
forests, is situated magnificent pile of
rock which rises to great height. with
walls SO precipitous that they have de-
fled the attempts of the most daring
mountain climbers The mountain from
which the tower rises covers a thousand
acres, and it's walls are rugged and diff
-ficult in the scaling. On top of this noun
tain is the Devils Tower itself. which
covers twenty acres of ground and rises
]. 500 feet above the plain. Here 1t STANDS,
a sentinel and guide post for all the
country round about. just as it stood in
the days when the early travellers first
penetrated to its base and found red
men there worshiping it as a deity. The
Devils Tower was in national forest and
thus reserved from private acquisition
before il was made national monument
half G>oZen years ago. 1t Is proposed to
some day bolt an iron stairway to its
side. that the summer tourist may go
aloft and from its point of vantage view
the world.
His Satanic aJeSty seems to nave had
good deal to do at least with the
naming of those objects that have been
regarded as of sufficient Importance to be
set aside to be preserved for poster.ty.
Close by the Yosemite National Park and
within the Sierra National Forests Of
California is monument which is known
as the Devils Post Pile. The principal
object protected by the monument is
series of fine basaltic columns which have
I'm part toppled over, revealing an ap-
30 IL,
sections which, from a distance. str.k-
ingly resemble a pile of posts. 1t looks
though such store of neatly squared
logs had never been accumulated be-
fore was here gotten together by some
giant of the wilds against the approach
of that time when there would be a
famine in railroad ties. 1t further looks
as though some rival had entered the
storehouse. split open the stack of logs
and hurled half of them broken, down
the mountain side.
In the lava-strewn valley of the Zuni
river of New Mexico, where dwell those
Indian worshipers of many strange gods
made concrete by the dolls OF Their house
hold. is to be found written in rock some
of the earliest of all American history.
Here, in the days when interior America
was as Yet unknown to the outside world,
came those romantic Spanish adventures
who claimed nearly all of America by
right of discovery and exploration. These
men went beyond De Soto and De Vaca,
who sought the mythical seven cities
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

Nat was in 1SS7. He who became by
marriage Jean Characterization and sew
eral taeS a millionaire in francs re-
mains "a why, slim, bald little man with
wecdy beard. the fable 4 Chamounix
guides who dream of marrying a rich
and lovely American ciri-now YOU know
why they are so gallant to lady-cIimbers.
IS&bella. after the happiest and riskiest of
-rpine lives, settled down sedately in her
later years to be the providence OF guides
wives and early hacker of the Chamounix
ciuematograph. with perfect horror OF
women risking their existences in noun
tain climbing. In her last ascension, at
about the age Of forty-five. she, who had
never know fear. was taken with sudden
vertigo. and could not get over 1.-THE
Kind Of vertigo that makes Your head
swim down On the level plain, merely
iooians zap at peaks.
isabella Str:tton in her later years
threw all her great Chamounix influence
into disCouraging amateurs attempting
Mont Blanc in baI weather-and woman
climbers III any weather. The cinemato-
graph, in honor of her. still continues to
ruE the warning films which she ina gined
in the earliest days Of moving pictures,
though now vastly improved
Charlet remains garrulous old native
nabob, in rusty clothes and soft hat guild
ing, now and then, for fun Only four
years ago he accompanied Wertheim up
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

GUIDE and porter. returning to give news,
fell into a crevasse. the porter breaking
his skull
1907 2195th asceno-An unknown
American was killed by falling rocks be-
low Mont Maudit
1910-Mr. Pogson of New Orleans 90,
struck by lightning and killed near VAL
lot refuge.
Such are the forty-three victims of
Mont Blanc proper. out of a total of
2,552 ascents to the summit. The three
deaths which occurred while I was in
Chamounix last summer occurred. like
others I have omitted, around the edges
of the Monarch mountains. Georges Call
let. well known Alpinist: young Jacques
de Lepiney Of Paris. aged fifteen, but
very strong, with a guide and porter.
started to climb the Aiguille de Plan, one
of the rocky pointed peaks First a fall
ing rock crushed the porters skull The
three survivors were sadly descending to
give the news and form a caravan to
seek the body when NJ. Caillet slipped
and went crashing into a precipice with
such force that the rope that should have
held him Tor dragged down the others)
cut on a sharp rock. The fifteen-year-old
boy and guide came into Chamounix
the Hotel de fAngleterre terrace.
1t took ten guides two days to get the
unhappy porter's body down and the
funeral. attended by L5oO persons was
very impressive. Two days later NJ Call
lets body was found by the famous
guide Auguste Blanc. For two days
Blanc was a hero Every body wanted
him. And now see the irony of fate. Co
ing up Mont Dolent, as guide to the
perienced DR.. Thomas Of the French AL
pine Club, all roped together usual,
Blanc told them to hold still while he ex-
amined a great rock which they must
pass in front Of. Standing cautiously by
the edge, he reached out to feel if it We're
solid at its base. A touch sufficed. The
equilibrium Of the great rock was so deli
cate that 1t swung back toward Blanc,
crushed him. cut the cord and dashed on
down the mountain. with the thunder of
an avalanche, Bianc's mangled body fol-
lowing.
Yet none Of these accidents deters climb
ers. The next day Mr.. and Mrs. Roop
Of Berkeley, CAL went up to the summit
of Mont Blanc-the first woman of the
summer Of 1911. AS yet, this summer. no
woman has done the whole trip, but in
1911 the total was sixteen women. of
whom seven were Americans. and no ia
tai accidents.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-08-11

finally covered IL below the Mauvais Pas
Regularly the natives exaggerate their
Alpine tragedies. And tourists help them.
If you arrive at Grindenwald you hear
that some one fell at Zermatt. and vixen
you reach Chamounix they are talking OF
a fatal accident at Grindenwald.
Recklessness with names and dates
ma gn:fies the rumOr
There is always an Englishmap who
was at the Bear Hotel the day that Wal
ton fell. and another who heard by tele-
phone how a tourist at the slot-telescope
saw the rope break and the American
pitch into the abyss.
What American His name, was
Campton. or Carruthers Three English
men, six guides and three porters started
first and then these others. The Germans
seemed seasoned climbers. and the newly
arrived American hastily bought rope,
pick and creepers to profit by their ex-
perience.
"Ah, yes.-Poor Billings. he was from
Denver or Altoona, his pajamas and
things being marked G.. II. In the after
noon. friend OF mine saw a caravan
of six with ropes. knapsacks and skis go
up alone. They were guides who had can
ccled their engagements to risk death
for the American who would not pay for
their services
Quite so. One is not likely to forget
1t. They found the Germans Sa1e, mellow
the Couloir, but the unhappy Hardness
had pitched into a crevasse and was COW
cred with a million tons of snow. The
hotel clerk showed us his police slip, so
often negligently filled up by Americans.
1t was lead pencil Scrawl: Alvin or
'Harkins and America"
And, passing the parlor door, you hear
an impressive female voice concluding:
They passed the night under a ledge.
The tempest toppled over seracs as big
as houses with a noise of thunder.
What time is it?' whispered Vein in
momentary lull. 'Half-past eight re-
piled the porter. Then whispered
Zeirr. there is great chance that none
of US get back to Chamounix alive
Yet in the early morning they were able
to drag off exhausted. Soon Zeim felt
the rope stretch taut: Mr.. Blake has
fallen unconscious. His last words were:
I'm dying. send word to- He never
finished the sentence Light the lantern
said Zeim, in broad daylight. He was
all but blinded by the snow glare. In
this state Blenstok helped him down.
ward without the rope: and such was
the pride Of those two Zernatt men
that. meeting an ascending caravan,
they refused help for themselves. say
ing, simply: There's a dead American
up there; were going to chamountx to
Another dead American? You have his
name right. Blake YOU may 60. of to
st. Gervais and spread the newsTun-