The states-graphic. (Brownsville, Tenn.) 1???-1984, 1917-03-23

brook far down I'm its narrows was
known as the kicking Horse"
So the railroad ran up the rayine
and the Picket Wire was left still yir~
gin to the assaults of man. But the
day came when ii was deSpolled OF its
hitherto long standing. unrayished In
nocence. Shouts of men. cracking OF
whips trampling of horses, groaning
of wheels, wordless but vocal protests
of beasts of burden mingled with the
ringing Of axes. the decorations Of dy-
Mantle. The whistle of engines and
the roar OF steam filled the valley. I'M
der the direction of engineers, huge
mound OF earth arose across its mar
rowest part, nearest a shoulder, or
spur, OF the mesa reaching westward.
No more should the silver Picket Wire
flow unyexed on its way to the sea. II
was to be damned.
All that the huge, hot inferno OF
baked plain, where sage brush and
buffalo grass alone grow, needed TO
make 1t burgeon with wheat and corn
was water. The little Picket Wire,
which had meandered and sparkled
ana Chartered on at its own sweet will
was now TO be held until 1t filled a
great lakelike reservoir in the hills
back of the Few earth dam. Then
through skillfully located irrigation
bitches the water was to be given to
the millions of hungry little wheatlets
and cornlets which would clamor for a
drink. The fierce sun was no songer to
work its unthwarted will In burning
up the prairie.
With the promise of water on the
plain beyond, Coronado sprang into
newer and more vigorous life. In the
language Of the West it Doomed" The
railroad had been a forlorn branch
running up into the mountains and
ending nowhere. Its first builders had
been daunted by difficulties and lack
of money, but as soon as the great dam
was projected, which would open sew
eral hundred thousand acres for cult
walton and serve as an inspiration ir
its practical results to other similar
attempts, people came swarming int
the country buying up the land. thu
price for acreage steadily mounting
The railroad accordingly found i
worth while to take up the long-aban
doned construction work of mounting
the range and crossing it. Men sud
denly observed that it was the short
est distance between two carolina
points, and one of the great transc0n
,incntal railways bought 1t and begal
improving it to replace its origina
rather unsatisfactory line.
The long wooden trestle whicl
crossed the broad, sandy depression i
front of the town, the bed Of, the an
cient river through which the Picke
Wire and further down its affluent, tn
Kicking Horse, flowed humbly AM
modestly, was being replaced by
great viaduct of steel. Far up ~
gorge past the other side of the Span
ish Mesa another higher trestle had a.
ready been replaced by a splendl'
steel arch. A siding had been bull
near the rayine, a path made toNth
foot of the mesa, and arrangemepS
We're being made to run q local t.
I am from the tnsVn whef III VIZ
pleted to give the people an olfa0l
tunity to ride up the gorge and sci q
great pile of rock, on which enteipris
was already planning the desecratio
of summer hotel, the blasphemy Q
an amusement park!
Up the valley Of the Picket Wire on
morning in early fall came youn
man roughly dressed like the averag