Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1916-08-18
STANLEY BASIN
The Switzerland of America
(By CLARENCE r. EDDY, .sThe
Poet PrOspectOr," in the New
West MagaZine.1

Poet PrOspectOr," in the New
West Magazine.)
Having traversed the beautiful
Central Idaho mountain regions in
the golden zenith of summer, l hope
to herewith furnish some facts on
these scenes-of wealth and beauty
familiar to but few.
Passing the old, historic placer
fields of the Boise Basin and cross
,ng the sylvan valley of the upper
Payette, we traversed the beautiful
Bear Valley and the Stanley Basin
country, thru tens of thousands of
1cres of tenantless but rich. beauti-
ful, wild meadow lands, watered by
nyriads of crystal mountain streams
ind gemmed by mountain lakes.
The mountains about and above
these lakes and meadows are dense-
~ clothed with forests or tower into
BALD tremendous crags and peaks,
attaining attitudes of about $4,000
feet above the level of the sea. Here
Is an almost unknown mountain en-
pire, rich in several resources that
should and will yet afford homes and
livelihood for thousands.
It is a singular fact that these rich
lands lie vacant and unsurveyed, one
Of the few remnants of the open
frontier now to be found in America.
The elevation it is true is about 5000
feet, and there is snow from Novem-
Der until May, but dense fields of
timothy and other grasses could be
crown and, added to the excellent
hummer ranges, would make excel
lent stockraising there an industry
.nsuring fortune.
Bear Valley for fifteen miles in
length and one to five miles in
width is of black beaver dam soil,
clothed in summer with rich wild
yerdure, flecked with flowers. white
and purple, blue and golden, pink
and scarlet, fair in the summer sun
shine that flashes and glints upon the
winding streams. There in the wa
ters by the meadows trout and sal
mon sport undisturbed, or nearly so
except when some occasional passer-
by, ignoring the enactments of the
Idaho legislature, takes more than
20 pounds with the line and pole"
or paralyzes them with dynamite.
In the lower end of Bear Valley is
tract of clear, rich land about five
miles square, level as a floor and
walled by forests. A great mountain
playing miles of almost uniform
growth of dark green pines, SO
countless in number that they are
strikingly impressive of the Infinite.
The tremendous, towering. mist
wreathed SUBMITS of the Sawtooth
mountains look over from the south
east like animate sentinels of the
Supernal.
Ascending a few miles further to
the summit of the divide between
Bear Valley and Stanley Basin one
looks southwark into the very teeth
of this sublimely terrible mass of til
tanic erags and peaks-The Saw
tooth-solemn memorial of one of
earth's most awful cataclysms. Calm
i now and robed beneath with mighty
forests, they are solemnly beautiful
the Alps of Idaho. the Switzerland OF
the New World. Gold of the dusk and
dawn make glorious their SUBMITS
When the light of day has vanished
| from the valley and the robin chirps
from the tree tops his last good night
heavy crimson still hoods the high
er erags, fading softly to the silver
of the moon or stars. Then the great
owls fit from their daylight haunts
and go hooting down the wooded
/ dells. The coyote sounds his last
ghoulish cry from some hillside copse
and save for these and the voice oil
winds or cataracts the night and 81.
lenee reign supreme. All is Sc
strangely still that you seem to hear
the music of the spheres, the ma.
chinery of the universe moving upor
its axle. The earth rolling eastward
drops a dark horizon rim gently
II n Il n. -. -
moon beaming softly on its path
way thru the dome Of stars.
And this is Stanley Basin, United
States of America, whose citizens e
to foreign chimes in quest of gran
deur. because the older world hal
had its artists and poets to paint OF
pen scenes not 50 peerles as these.
Descending into Stanley Basin b,
way OF Cape Horn creek, and pas
the hot springs. one traverses to tn,