Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1914-02-20
j. f. Anderson Writes of Paint
ed Desert of Great
Southwest.
WAS MEMBER OF STATE
EXPLORING EXPEDITION
Many Important Discoveries Made in
Marvellous Region Adjacent to
Grand Canyon.
(Richfeld Reaper.)

Sewer County is to be one of the re.
suits of the proposed extension OF
the railroad from Marysvale to the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado ir
northern Arizona. The opening of the
railroad will place SEWER County in
vital connection with one of the
grandest, toughest, widest, most
picturesque and natively richest re.
gions in all America.
Besides penetrating forested
country capable of yielding billions
OF feet of choice lumber, the road
will open for development untold
mineral wealth-yet untapped but
long known to be present.
Since the government has taken
In hand the matter of extending the
railroad southwark and since keen
rivalry is already being manifested
by capital in securing the timber con-
cessions, the contamination of the
enterprise can scarcely be doubted.
Last summer the Legislature sent
an exploring expedition into the re-
gion to be penetrated by the pro-
posed railroad. The writer was a
member of that expedition and is re-
minded of promise made last sum-
mer to the Reaper an account of the
work of the expedition would be
furnished for publication.
The expedition, led by Prof. Byron
Cumming of the University of Utah,
consisted of eight men. Indian horse
wranglers, burro drivers and guides
swelled the party at times to double
that number. The object of the ex-
petition was to explore the resources
OF the country, make a geological
and biological research, gather his
torical information and to investigate
the cliff dwellings, and ancient cul-
ture as well as the life and customs
of the wild tribes now living in that
little known region.
This mystic mid-region of our
great Southwest embracing parts of
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico
and California, is known as "The
Painted Desert Region" because of
its various colored cliffs and sands.
The natural phenomena of the painted
deserts utterly defy description either
by word or picture. The lofty mesas,
the gorgeous canyons, the sheer cliffs,
the sky scraping obelisks, the tubi-
dies, rivers the abysmal channels, the
labyrinthine chasms, the tortuous
chasms, the tortuous arroyo, the
broad spaces, the ever present desert
mirage, the ancient places of the
Cliff Dwellers and the prodigious nat
ural bridges are world famous won
ders little visited because of the diff
Guilty of travelling in such rough
country. The opening of the railroad
will bring through southern Utah
throngs of tourists from all over the
world to and from the wonderland of
the painted desert. The benefits of
such a traffic can hardly be over-esti-
mated.
To the tourist the wonderful nat
ural bridges of southeastern Utah
would be never ending attraction
There are four of these stupendous
arches, any one of which is larger
than the famous natural bridge of
Virginia, which was long thought to
be the largest in the world. Nome
zoshie, the largest of the Utah
bridges, which was discovered by
Prof. Cummings, could cover two of
the Virginia bridges and still have
room to spare. The Salt Lake Tenn
pie could be placed on wheels and
drawn under it without touching. The
arch rises in the air 308 feet and has
a span of 274 feet. 1t is located near
the junction of the San Juan river
with the Colorado, not far from the
Arizona border line. The three next
largest bridges are about a hundred
miles northeast of the Nonnezoshie,
by the shortest trail. There are nu-
merous smaller arches in the region,
but no others classed among the four
great wonders. The Indian names
for this trio are Owachomo, Kachina
and Sipapu, by which names they are
called in the government reports. OF
these the Sipapu is the most magnif-
icent, the Kachina the most massive
and the Owachomo the most pictur-
esque. Any one of them could easily
over span the tallest building in Sc
vier county.
The supporting columns of the Sip
apu bridge could stand, one in the
middle Of the Richfeld public square
and the other in the middle of the
next block to the south, its mighty
arch rising many feet above the Sc