The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-12-05

Jack Lait wrote a characteristic appreciation
of Zion canon for a railroad administration book
let, in which he said:
Zion canon is an epic, written by Mother Ma
ture in her most ecstatic humOr, illustrated by
Creation in its most majestic manifestations, pub
lished by God Almighty as an inspiration to all
mankind. Zion canon is the most beautiful spot
on this continent. l think l have seen all the
famed shOw-places that the evolution of the
earths formation has made. And of them all
Zion to me stands first, stands alone"
Zion has the double charm of form and color,
and it is hard to say which is the more appealing.
The entrance to the canon is spacious and i'm
pressive. The course up the Rio Virgin is tor
tuous and the variation of view and of formation
of the lofty walls is great. At the end Of six Or
seven miles of canon the wall narrows. to the
stream. What there is beyond is practically un-
known. Thus from the plateau above the visi-
tor may look down thousands of vertical feet into
the painted canon with its river. From the river
bank he may look up thousands of feet with a
changing view at every turn Of the canon.
The entrance to the canon is most Impressive.
To the west rises the West Temple (7,65O feet),
fanked by the Towers of the Virgin. The guar
dian to the east Is the East Temple $4,000,
fanked by the Waterman (6,35O), and Bridge
mountain (6,650). Then come the Streaked Wall
on the west side and the Brown Wall on the east
side, topped respectively by the Three Patriarchs
oA' N"> H"e''eN ~ t"S o0h 80 avn llu lCd-
lures of the wall formation include Ell Goberna-
dor, the Great Organ and the Temple of Sinawava.
The visitor finally comes to a point where the
chasm is more than 1000 feet deep and the walls
so nearly touch that he looks up to see no sky.
The walls are practically vertical and parallel and
warp i'm and out, thus cutting off the blue above.
Here is revealed the secret Of the Making OF
Zion, as is pointed out by DR.. G. X. Gilbert of the
United States geological survey. This chasm is
an example of downward erosion by sand-bearing
water, which acts like the marble saw. The cut
is not entirely vertical, because the current has
carried the cutting sand to one side or the other,
and the cut undulates both in it's vertical and
horizontal sections.
The forms along the canon walls are extraor-
binary. And the colors are even more striking.
The famous Vermilion Cliff of the Painted Desert
here combines with the White Cliff and we see a
thousand feet of white stperimpOsed on two
thousand feet of red. But this startling combina-
ton is but the beginning of a veritable riot Of
color. The VermiliOn Cliff rests on the Painted
Desert stratum-35O feet of q deeper red set off
by purple and mauve shales. Below this Is q hun
dred feet of brown and gray c~onglomerate. The
crowning touch Is the coloring of the upper sum-
mits of the White Cliff. Here there are In places
several hundred feet Of varicolored shales and
limestones whose seepage Enthusiastically stains the
p~listening white. In consequence Of the meeting
Of these many colors Zion Is as gorgeous as a
Gypsy scarf, and sunrise and sunset produce I'M
believable effects.
For example, take the West Temple. From a
foundation Of mingled reds. FELLOWS, browns.