The Coconino sun., 1920-08-20

being constructed westward from Isleta, and "bobtail" trains ran out to Winslow, then the front. John Mass was general passenger and freight agent for the company; Mass came out to the front in the summer of that year, and wandering about in the near vicinity of Winslow he made most wonderful discovery, discovery which no doubt caused his enrollment into the Royal Geographical society; he too discovered "river," and named it Clear creek. Unfortunately for Mir. Mass and his "river," the same was known back in the 40s as the Big Dry Fork of the Little Colorado; in 1851 Captain Sitgreaves camped at Sunset crossing, short distance below the mouth of the Big Dry, and mentions it as the Big Dry Fork.
 Also Whipple in 1853 and Beal in 1855, and in 1863 it was on our maps the same. Nevertheless, Mass return ed to Albuquerque and there wrote an elaborate account of his "great dis covery" for the Albuquerque Journal. It may be unethical even libelous and sacrilegious, or gall, as disposed by MT. Mass. Yet I have spoken truly, and the same can be easily verified. l could give some interesting data of this Big Dry Fork, it's source, depth of canyon, it's walls, Big Horn sheep, carbolic acid gas and what befell two soldiers, the mysterious disappearance of the water, etc., etc, but cannot put everything in one short letter.
 Maps of the country in 1863 show the next canyon to the east of the Big Dry was known as the Little Dry Fork, and the next was known as Chevlon's Fork; this fork enters the Little Colorado near the Mormon vil- lage of Woodruff, and is now known as Showlow; Woodruff" Butte, near Woodruff, was known as Chevlon's butte. This butte is 900 feet high, so my aneroid indicated; at this time I was with a party of government en- gineers, and before Woodruff was heard of in the land. Therefore, 1 must say, our Mormon friends are very much addicted to this sort of thing. To return to our "muttons.' While encamped at Jaycox Tank the lieutenant directed Mir. Summers, top ographer for the expedition, to make typographical reconnaissance of Canyon Diablo. This canyon heads in the eastern slope of Lookout moun- tain, runs eastward few miles then breaks through the Malapais mesa; here it deepens and swings around to the north. I led MT. Summers and party around the southern elbow of the canyon and along the eastern rim until we had passed beyond the zone of pinon pines and last of the scrub cedars into an open country. A few miles below the last of the cedars, 1 saw a small hill about a mile to the eastward and went to it; ascending to the top to my surprise it was not a hill but tremendous hole in the ground. As my party were continuing along the rim of the canyon, had no time to make an examination, but decided to make an estimate of it's diameter by firing my needlegun across the hole. Aiming at the opposite rim, ri. fle in horizontal position, the ball raised dust little beyond the cen ter of the flat bottom of the hole; my second shot at an angle of about 45 degrees elevation, the ball struck the opposite side, about three-fourths of the distance above the bottom of the hole; knowing my gun l decided the distance across, from rim to rim, to be about one mile and quarter, per haps little more, and so reported to MT. Summers. Mir. Summers made some memoranda and and said: "As you made the discovery l shall name the hole for you and call it Franklin's Hole," and so it appears upon the rec ords of the Wheeler expedition Of 1873. In reply to a question by MT. Summers, I gave it as my opinion the hole had been made by blowout of hot water, steam or gas. Its location is about 27 miles westward from Winslow; about one mile east of Can yon Diablo, and perhaps 31 miles east of Flagstaff. All of the foregoing can be relied upon as facts. and-"The Mormon Church Will Prevail"
 Yours truly,
 A. F. BANTA,