The Oakley herald. [volume] (Oakley, Idaho) 1908-1961, 1919-12-05

Jack Lait wrote characteristic appreciation
of Zion canon for railroad administration book
let in which he said:
Zion canon is an epic, written by Mother Ma
ture in her most ecstatc humor, illustrated by
Creation in its most majestic manifestations, pub
lished by God Almighty 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 1t 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 I'M
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 (765O feeD,
fanked by the Towers of the Virgin. The guar
dian to the east is the East Temple $1,000
fanked by the Waterman (e,95O> and Bridge
mountain (6,65O). Then como the Streaked Wall
on the west side and the Brown Wall on the east
side, topped respectively by the Three Patriarchs
and the Mountain of the Sun. Extraordinary fea-
dor, the Great Organ and the Temple of Sinawava.
The visitor finally comes to a point where the
chnsm 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 In and out, thus cutting Off the blue above
Here Is revealed the secret of the Making of
Zion, is pointed out by DIR. G. X. Gilbert of the
United States geological survey. This chasm is
example of downward erosion by sand-bearinR
water, which acts like the marble saw. The cut
is not entirely vertical. because the current has
carried the cutting sand to 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 ccors are even more striking
The famous Vermllion Cliff of the Painted Desert
here combines with the White Cliff and we see a
thousand feet OF white superimposed on two
thousand feet of red. But this startling combina-
ton is but the beginning of verItable riot of
color. The Vermilion Clin rests on the Painted
Desert stratum-350 feet of a deeper red set off
by purple and mauve shales Below this Is hun.
dred feet of brown and gray conglomerate. The
GROWING touch Is the colorng OF the upper sum-
mits OF the White Cliff. Here there In places
several hundred feet of varcolored shales and
lmestones whose seepage Enthusiastically stains the
glistening white. In consequence OF the meeting
of these many colors Zion is as gorgeous as a
Gypsy scarf. and sunrise and sunset produce un-
believable effects.
For example. take the West Temple From a
e"unda'ion IL mingled RES ysu 'ws browns