The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-06-19

1872 by the Langton exploring part,
from Montana.
The Craters country was visited
and talked Of as early as 1861 and
many times 1t has been the subject
OF special articles in local newspapers
but not until the development of the
automobile and auto roads and the
stream of tourist travel did It re-
ceive the attention Of the public
and the backing of commercial bodies
to bring 1t to the attention of legis-
lators. This was brought about by
its being re-discovered in 1921, by
r. w. Limbert of Boise, who went
bear hunting for two weeks In the
region and came out with the start
ling information that this youngest
of all American lava flows contained
| variety of scenery so unique that
it is no less wonderful than the
Yellowstone park though contrast
| ing from 1t in the extreme. He pre-
pared an article for publication in
the National Geographic, SO valuable
and so different that they held up its
publication nearly three years while
they were checking up to see IL it
was true. 1t was accompanied by
an array Of photographs that would
seem to confirm the manuscript, and
these are shown with the article in
the March 1924 number. Since that
time the story has been reprinted in
editions running into the millions
In various leading magazines and a
mass of country press.
This region has been in eruption
at some time since the discovery of
America, and students of geology
find reasons for varying opinions as
to just how recently there were &C
tive spots. The time of the Revolu-
tionary war, the days of Franklin
and Washington and earlier are
given among the predictions of
latest flows or shots. Some sage
brush has been found, dead but in
a good state of preservation, with
clots of lava on it that was thrown
out as Stag and was cooling but still |
flexible when it lodged on the brush.
Pine and cedar trees are evidence
that seem to have grown after GER
tain eruptiOns but were heated and |
as if this killing heat might have
been only a generation or two back.
The old lava flows lying thru the
AOh6 I'll VI LILO fdliCy udy U0 ulll-
lion years old, but this crater dis
trict looks new and fresh in COM
parisOn, and was evidently in action
on different occasions, as shown by
the growth of trees and vegetation,
old deposits buried under newer and
fresher deposits and the gullies, can
yons and rills melted in the old by
the rushing of very hot and highly
Ijnnjd HnWc II In nj
show very plainly as a flood having
swept across the old deposits, and
in some places the flood carried the
old rocks with it, leaving them in
Jams at narrow places, some large
some small, some the size of box
cars and infinitely heavier.
One mark of lava to be found
is the seamy, ribbed,
nushy appearance due to its having
cooled and hardened while moving
slowly. That it was in tremulous
mass is shown in places by it's move
nents in different directions accord
ng to the tremors of the hour and I
he mass or detail of its movement
t is found woven into all the wierd
iguEes that taffy could possibly be |
wound or thrown or sputtered into,
including the most elaborate figures
IS if artists had been working in
wax just cooling. When the sur
ace was cooling, the mass of the
'ool or sea was affected by tremors
hat threw millions of folds large
nd small that cooled in the act
large areas like city blocks or rows
t blocks are marked of by avenues
rod or two in width, reaching
mooth and level for few hundred
r a thousand feet, sometimes
traight, sometimes curved and end
ng abruptly or in angles cross-sec-
Toned by monuments or fences of
inders almost as sharp as a loaf y
4 needles. These avenues are
mooth in the general surface but are
ough in detail as would be q street /
aved with coarse gravel, but each
Individual rock being coated with
warty, horny surface. Such belts
7ill doubtless be made into roads
y merely covering them few inches
eep with the loose cinder or soil i
hat happens to be easiest obtained,
nd enables autoists to ride into
lany portions of the lava field. The
nows of winter seeping thru the
ocks in spring and summer supply A
lany water holes, and some of these
hord water all summer, very cold
nd clear. Y