Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-04-19
Geographic News
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society
IN THE WILDERNESS

I'm lIAE IICo
News of an Indian war in Utah
may come as something of a shock
to those who think there no longer
Is an American frontier" says a bull
letip from the Washington, d. c.,
headquarters OF the National Geo
graphic Society, which goes on to
describe the southeastern corner of
Utah, where renegade Ute Indians
have been resisting the authorities.
A County Larger than New Jersey
at Is logical enough that solitude
loving Indians, breaking with civil
Ization, should choose the ~desolate,
uninhabited portions of this almost
unknown region as a scene for their
adventure. The few men who have
traversed and written about the OUT
lying sections of San Juan county
which, incidentally Is larger than the
State of New Jersey-estimate that
probably only a few hundred white
men really know its remote sections,
even specifically.
This Is a part of the United
States which can perhaps be under
stood by outsiders only il they have
gazed off over the depths and crags
Of the Grand Canyon and tried to
imagine what lies beyond. San Juan
County does not lie Immediately
north Of the canyon; 1t Is in a broad
way a kindred land to that moated
region-set off from the beaten path,
largely a land Of rock and canyons
and ~desoiation.
THE. district Is marked out by It's
own canyons. To the west lies the
north-and-south gorge of the Colo
RADIO river, not yet the tremendous
cash that 1t becomes farther south
and west in Arizona, but still a huge
cleft in the earth that can be crossed
| only at a few widely separated
points. To the south lies the canyon
of the San Juan river, minor beside
the Grand Canyon, but q deep, diff
cult chasm for all that. To the north
the Grand river, important tributary
of the Colorado, runs in a deep chan
rel, making the third canyo boun-
Diary to this Isolated county. The
west line Of the State OF Colorado
marks the fourth boundary.
100 Miles from Railroad
THE northern portion Of San Juan
County is in reasonably easy reach of
a railroad. and there and in the cen
trail portion are two of the three
principal towns of this vast division.
Neither has a population Of 1000.
Not far from the southeastern orner
of the county and the state. a hum
dred miles from a railroad. is Bland
ing, around which the recent Ute up
rising took place.
The country south and west of
there Is a great expanse of red rock,
carved into innumerable canyons,
buttes and fantastic promontories.
Where there is soil. cedars and sage
brush grow. In some of the valleys
there is grass and water, but much
of the country is a rocky wilderness
In which there is little animal life.
Districts hundreds of square miles
in extent are wholly without settle
ments, and some of the canyons are
believed v to have been explored
by white men.
Ute and Navajo Indians ranged
over this country in the early days.
but even they found much of the
region inhospitable and had their
permanent headquarters in more
favored valley regions east and south
and west.
Natural Bridges Recently Found
I'm San Juan county are the most
famous of the natural bridges Of
Utah which have been made into
national monuments, and which de-
serve to be classed among the natur-
al wonders Of the world. The isola-
ton OF this portion Of Utah is m
phasized strongly by the fact that
the first inkling of the existence of
these great bridges did not reach
white men until 1895, and the first
of them were visited by whites as
late as 1908.
Because of the extreme difficulty
of reaching the bridges, relatively
few people have visited them even
yet"