The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-10-16
Tells OF FINE
TRIP TO HOME IN
GOLDEN WEST
MISS CLARA MOULTON, NOW A
| RESIDENT OF PASADENA, CAL.
WRITES TO LOCAL FRIEND.

where we get our last view oi Ledu-
vile in the distance. This as you know
is one Of the oldest and richest mines
in the west, the home of Little john
ny" one Of the richest gold mines in
| the world. This is truly the land
of gold and silver. Here we leave
! the Arkansas river and at Tennessee
Pass, which has an elevation of 10000
feet we cross the Continental Divide,
through a tunnel Tennessee Pass
is the highest place in the world
where railroad train goes; it used
to be quite an event when the train
reached here; passengers would get
out and stand on the platform; they
would announce the fact that we had
arrived at the highest point. now no
thing doing, you get there and begin
to go down. Many charcoal ovens
are seen around here. We pass
through short but picturesque Red
Cliff canyon. We pass through Gyp-
sum, which gets its name from the
! deposits of that substance nearby.
Red sandstone cropping out among
the hills gives a pleasing touch of
color. Through black lava beds, in
dicating that hereabouts was once an
active crater; where the Eagle river
joins the Grand river, the train enters
| the Canyon of the Grand river, which
we follow for 16 miles and which con-
tains an ever changing variety of
inspiring scenes. At enc point
the railroad and river occupy all the
available space. At Shoshone, an
elevation of over 5000 feet, still with
in the canyon, one can see the Shoe
shone Falls in the distance which is
wonderful fall of water. Here is
located the construction plant cf the
Central Colorado Power company.
When one sees these wonderful falls
and realizes these mountains are full
of such falls, and that there are many
/ beautiful lakes hid away among them
you cannot help but think that some
time a way will be found to bring
make that a rich place for wherever
there is a little water in the desert, or
where it has been IRRIGATED, one sees
wonderful crops. On the left side
of Grand river traversing Grand Val
1 ley we reach a large cattle shipping
station of the same name. | am
sorry but about this time it was time
to go to bed, fact which / regretted
very much as / was loath to miss
any of the beautiful and awe-inspiring
sights.
We only had one berth that night
and as we were going down the pass
nearly all night l contend they made
our berths up wrong end to as our
feet were higher than our heads. 1t
was some rough ride and / slept but
little, we saw a very hard electric
storm off in the mountains in the
night. it was grand, and one thing
was so far away that the thunder d.,
not brighten one. During the night
we crossed the Colorado desert, also
part of the Utah desert.
AS we enter the Utah desert the
train was again ascending to an ele-
walton Of over 5000 feet. 1t did not
seem to affect me going up but COM
ing down / appeared to have a hard
J cold and my head felt rather queer.
We cross the Green river which rush
es southwark to form with the Grand
river, which we just left, the Colora-
do river. After reaching Castle Gate,
which reaches an elevation of over
, 5000 feet, the train ascends the Cas-
tie or Price River Canyon, through
two giant rocks of sandstone which
hardly leave any space for the tracks.
trance to the Promised Land" We
further ascend the Wasatch noun
tsins up to Soldier Summit. AS we
go down we come to a place called
Thistle which was rightly named and
believe me it is no safe place to go
barefooted. The Wasatch mountains
are all around and seem to run nearly
4 through Utah and are a continuation
of the Rockies. We come to Provo;
"a the base of the mountains which is
ore Of the wealthiest Mormon towns
in Utah, here is located the Brigham
Young academy. There are many
large sugar beet factories through
here. To the left is Jordan river,
which we cross and recross, this river
connects Utah lake, which is a fresh
water lake, with the Great Salt lake.
until at Riverton we see the spires of
\ the Temple at Salt Lake City which
is 16 miles away. There are also
many smelters. along through here,
also large deposits of coal, when one
sees them you wonder why any of us
should go cold for want of fuel, when
God has so richly provided for the
world. The Utah valley is remark
able for its fertility and also because
its rivers do not flow to the ocean but
to salt lakes without any outlet, which
lose their superficial quantities in
summer through evaporation.
All the way or nearly so, one can
see the mountains in the distance,
many of them covered with snow the
year around, sometimes it is very
plain. All through Utah one secs
wonderful hills, / suppose they call
them, mines, they are all colors of
granite, copper and all of the richest
minerals of the world; they certainly
make beautiful picture when the sun
strikes them just right. All along
the river banks one would get quite a
fall If anything happened to the
train, there would not be much choice
4 which way the train tumbled, on one
side would be these huge rocks and
on the other about half mile or more
below the tracks were more rocks and
the river. 1t certainly took won
derful mind to conceive of building a
railroad like this. All along one
would see the beautiful sage. and /.
recalled to mind that story, "The
Riders of the Purple Sage" have you
ever read it? If not do so, it is a
4 n. Al n a n