The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-07-31
EASTWARD.

After ten years my face is again
turned eastward. New England by
birth and education, but | have adopt
ed Idaho, as she has me; fair Gem
of the Mountainsl Years ago | decid-
ed Idaho was my choice of all the
West, and Canyon County of all
Idaho.
| have heard of people leaving
home between two days." when not
DESTROYS that people should know of
their going; not for that reason, but
the time schedules sent me out of
Caldwell the darkest hour before
dawn" By the newspapers | had
kept tab" on the development of
the county east OF Caldwell, but its
growth more than met my magma
ton; | have known the region since
1885, where there was a station house
and water-tank in now town with
streets, buildings, trees and homes.
And American Falls, whose wild rush
and wasted power | have so often
marked is now harnessed and at
work; and the hill sides formerly so
dull brown with sage brush or salt
grass is now yellow with field upon
| field of wheat culture in our state,
but did not realize how great it was,
and from McCammon-grain, grain,
grain, as far as the eye reaches.
When ! was first in Pocatello there
were the station, Pacific Hotel, rail-
road round-house and shops and one
row of company houses" which had
been brought down from Blackfoot
and rebuilt Before the Short Line
days that was the division point" on
the Utah and Northern narrow gauge.
At my first visit lady was about to
take me out calling, and leaving her
daughter at home, cautioned her to
keep the back-door locked; and ex-
| planned: "the railroad had it's 40 rods
right of way, and the railroad cot
tages backed up to the line; the lean
to kitchens, which had been added,
were over the right-of-way of the In
dian Reservation, and the squaws
knew it; and If they found kitchen
door unlocked, they entered and made
themselves free of its contentsl Long
before the town was surveyed the in
creasing population "squatted" and
when the survey was made it often
happened that the line of the lots
chosen ran across two or three OF
them as surveyed; then the squatters
would agree to draw lots and ar
range their lot lines to meet the town
lot lines.
The great Utah valley was once
the basin of fresh water lake as
large as Lake Huron, known to geo.
| logists as Lake Bonneville; in those
days the water flowed northward
through Bear River Canyon, the re-
verse of its present flow When the
barrier of that great lake broke it was
at a pointS between McCammon and
Pocatello; and from that place
through Port Neuf Canyon there was
evidentaly then a commotion; the
evidences of it are as plain to a geo.
logist as printed page. The great
prism shaped columns of lava are
frequently showing how they have
been rolled over and over against
their fellows; and the amount of lava
rocks and stones in the earth on the
west side of Pocatello between the
railroad and the Port Neuf river, is
immense; digging a cellar hole is not
just picking out rocks with dirt ce-
mented between by alkali; and when
out man could not put them all back
into the same place; in those early
days that was a common sight.
Below McCammon is Cache Val
ley and in depression is Swan Lake
Often in the early SOS from the mar.
row gauge line, | have seen great
black and white wild swans on its
surface and seen the great birds
brought aboard the train.
The Short Line had recently beer
built, standard gauge, and the Utah
and Northern between Pocatello anc
Butte had been remade from narrow
to standard; but below Pocatello tc
McCammon there were three rails for
the narrow-gauge trains from Odgent
the changes had left the railroad with
large number of narrow-gauge en-.
gines on their hands. Mr., Hickey
the Master Mechanic, invited me tc
see his Kitchen garden" as he cal
led it; and just north of the round
house was spur track on which there
were parts of p narrow gauge, loco