Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-09-23
Daily Register County KY Saturday September g. 1922

70 more tndn three feet In diameter.
| Most of them are pentagOnal, where
as elsewhere, as in the Giants Cause
way, the general shape is hexagonal.
The Devils Postpile affords strange
deviation in this respect some of its
immense columns being eight-sided,
! many Seven-Sided, and the remainder
heXagons. In one extensive section
| they are straight as sawed timbers
and perpendicular. In another they
lean and are gracefully curved en-
! masse and the individual prisms
twisted and fluted in the making or
the cooling as sticks of pliabie candy
| might be shaped. At one point they
have the wavy appearance of flow
ing water. At the southern upper
end they project almost horizontally
and resemble gigantic railroad ties or
evenly corded wood on hillside. All
the columns sparkle like precious
stones in the glare Of the mountain
sun and the sight is bewildering.
They are black in the main, but col
Orful withal, some in varying shades
of green, blue and gray, few white
as alabaster
For many years the handsomest of
all the columns, tall and symmetrically
tapered, was separated from the
body and stood upright and alone,
proud, stalwart symbol Of independ-
ence, but it is there no more. Dur
ing my last visit to the postpile 1t
was struck by lightning and fell with
a reverberating crash, scared from end
to end. Happily, it was broken into
few sections.
Center OF Electrical Storms.
1t would be difficult to find local
ity where more sudden and violent
electrical storms come booming UP.
At midday, while the sun shone
brightly, a small cumulO-rimbus cloud
floated over the range from the west
and in less than as many minutes
three blue-white streaks darted earth
ward, and each Shfvered a tree. The
fourth and final bolt, with "a peal
that made the mountains themselves
tremb1e, took the column. No rain
drops battered, scarcely a shadow APP
peared on the grahd landscape The
lavatic formation, which has the me-
tallic ring Of iron and somewhat its
hardness may tend to draw electric
ity. At that altitude, eternally shut
in by tremendous granite ramparts,
the summer lightning season is brief,
the winter long and rigorous.
During the warm months the region
Is fragrant paradise of bloom and
birG-song, medley Of sweetest mel
ody. The whole is a forest of pine,
tamarack, fir and other sturdy trees,
which cover even the postpile where
the basalt is not actually bare. Wild
flowers carpet the meadows and
shaded places and sway. breast high in
the balmy air-thousands upon thou
sands of kinds, many Of which grow
here only. Few are more interesting
than the squaws carpet or mahala
mat, a rich evergreen trailer that lit
orally covers the, ground with its foil
age and feathery clusters of violet
blossoms and later bears odd scarlet
fruit. The botanist who does not go
to the high Sierras misses more than
he ever can realize.
At the very upper edge Of the crum-
bling cliff, where a "cornice" has
formed, their roots fastened in the
columnar jointing, number OF
gnarled, torn, dwarfed cedars are
hanging for dear life, even as dying
humans cling to hepe, the while their
precarious support is tumbling away.
This carries with 1t sufficient soil and
pumice to afford foothOld in the
talus below for lustrous quaking
aspens, which spring up rapidly and
shine as the breezes stir their leaves.
meadowsweet locally known as
"postpile tea" and used by knowing
mountaineers TO make palatable, re-
freShing Beverage, also thrives amid
the wreckage of the scintillant pillars.
Above. where moisture comes from the
lines of cleavage, delicate rock ferns |
and dainty MOSES give touch of soft
ness to relieve the harsh glister Of I'M |
yielding surfaces.
: u lUF Where Trails Meet ajs4.-. 4
The Devils Postpile is at the juno
ton of important trails leading afar
in various directions u Close by, thesf
government has aslog cabin that some
times shelters stornn-boHrid tourists! !
AT times 1t is ocedpied by trappers, /
who bring out thousands of dollars
worth of furs Big game and Wild life
abound i!s y 't" st-es4s -s-tEN 7at
Down stream two miles, and a part |
of the national monument, is Rainbow
Fall, q gem unique and worthy of its
name In that 1t literally is the birth
place of rainbows. The San Joaquin
filings itself like delicate curtain of
lace and silver more than 100 feet
over ledge of black basalt-a con-
tinuation of the postpile, though with
out the columns-into an abysmal box
canyon When the SUMS rays reach /
into the fairy box. rainbows arch the
mists that flood the chasm-rainbows
so clear that color photographs regis
ter them distinctly The setting of
this fall, in the bosom of the virgin
forest and between exalted heights, Is
a masterpiece Of nature, exquisite,
sublime. There is not another else
where to match it. The picture lives
in memory without fading as time