The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-09-22
HISTORY OF THE ROAD ACROSS
THE SNAKE RIVER LAVA BEDS

In your old geography there was
a yellow strip marked. Great Snake
River Lava Beds" or Great Snake
River Desert" 1t was a terror to
the overland travellers. but the trip
acros sit by the state highway is only
an after-supper step now In an auto.
History of the Road Across
When. the last suffering lava
flows broke out and cooled. like fruit
juice thru pie crust, when sage
brush and grass covered the face Of
the plain, when now water ran down
the slopes and accumulated In the
basins, when wild life grazed upon
the green and ambled off across the
slope to get a drink at the ponds, it
stalked in single. file down to the
waters edge, and then mosied off to
the hilltops to fight flies and mosqui-
toes where the breezes helped the
most. When one pond dried up they
steered the other way to larger one,
and still tramped the trails from
hilltops to, basins, and as one basin
after another dried up, the animals
trailed across country via all the
water holes both wet and dry, the
angles in the cross country trails be-
ing at the highest and at the lowest
places on the undulating plain. ~
Then came man upon the scene,
with his appetite and arrowhead of
obsidian. He was hungry for meat,
and he followed the crowd. He slew
q curious and innocent calfysgot his
arrowhead back, and fed upon the
flesh. Thru youth, manhood and old
age he trod the crooked trails and
when enemies .overcame him. he
chose the desert trails because they
spelled hardship and that meant
greater safety from the conqueror.
He crossed the desert by the longest
and crookedest way, the farthest be-
tween drinks. sa
Came now the white trapper and
the trails, swapped for pelts
and loaded them on q caravan OF
pided ponies and broke the trail
palmer with his traffic. He packed
Indian goods back over the trail, the
prospector discovered precious metal
and wagons came to carry heavier &
burdens. They too, took the trail
the long way across; the way with
many angles-the way with least
water and comfort; the way that led
over all the hills and into all the
basins where angles were born to
rex the desert navigator. Stages fol-
owed, and freight teams with ours
ng mule-kinners, and some threw
tut rock to have wheel. Others
brew out a litter of rocks because
hey were stuck and had to dig out.
Tor sixty years the toll went on, and
When genius had developed barrel
loop intosa bike and then into the
lorseless carriage with pneumatic
Tres. the rocks had to be thrown out,
nd commercial clubs and prohibi-
ionists bated with fluid secreted in
he ,commisary, toiled across the
lains, over hills and thru sage brush
ales, picking up and heaving rocks,
rying to get as hungry and as dry as
ossible SO they could appease the
ff1nity between demand and supply
hen red circle coffee was served in
n tomato cans along with fried
licken and rich ice cream at the
ryest angle Of the driest of all the
esert roads.
Thus thru hunger and death, the
$ Of calfy pelts, the agony of thirst,
lie race for gold, the craze for
iced, the pride in tires, the love Of
'hing on the other side, did this
ate highway become what 1t is to-
" across the desert plains, beck
ling to tourists to come this way.
Come to the Blackfoot fair and
me via the desert road or by rail,
It come.