The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-10-30

S9fSVO "a Va
along marked trails in the park to
the main attractions in safety and
fair degree of comfort see it all.
1t is up to the settlers, the towns
and villages nearest the region, to
make the old roads passable for cars
travelling at good speed, so people
may approach the region. 1t is to
the interest of all local people to de-
vote some time to exploration and
opening up roads and trails into the
region and marking water holes. AS
such work is done they will be in a
position to ask for and receive gov
eminent appropriations to make
good roads and esta blish entrances
from every side The government
will not do these things until the
need for it is proven. At present,
the park to park highway. SIMPSONS
trail H, is the only well known and
passable road by which to approach
the park, and it touches at the
northwest entrance. There is no
service of any kind there, no hotel
nor camp service, but just some
signs pointing to trails, craters and
water, and some of the time, a guide
at the entrance. 1t is a wild, dan
gerous regions, infested by bears
and coyotes, and IS as typical of
death and despair as anything in
America.
A party going into it from Black
foot travels one hundred miles to the
entrance, and circles half way
around it. Fifteen miles of the dis
lance has been a section of car sui
eide to pass over-the road abound
ing with biting rocks, and choking
dust in summer, and of mud and
slush in winter when there was not
snow This section is being made
into a boulevard for the 1925 travel,
and parties are booking for trips
over it to the Craters. Many peo-
pie would go out during the fall and !
spring to explore the eastern side If !,
the people of Aberdeen, Sterling and
Springfield would take the lead by |
making sure that the roads are
cleared suitably for car travel.
Minidoka is in somewhat similar
situation, and there is reason for
all these communities to bend their
energies to opening up their own
sides of the park or region to be
added to the park, because, the more
travel that can be directed to it, the
more publicity will be given to at
tract the mass of tourist travel
which now ignores it. Travel into
the Yellowstone runs as high as a
car a minute in the summer season,
with weather barring people out
two-thirds Of the year.
The new park is in an altitude of
rom 5000 to 1000 feet and can be
Visited for more than half of the /
rear in certainty, with other months
subject to local weather conditions,
presenting several weeks
If ideal weather in winter when it
,ould be seen.
Some of the main features of the
lew park are its extinct volcanoes
eaving craters, the largest of which
S thousand feet across the rim and
I've hundred feet deep. The deep
st one seems to be without bottom,
having been sounded for 400 feet,
md lighted with a torch for 140
eet. The cones built up about the
raters vary in height up to six hum
lred feet above the base, and are
rom a few rods in diameter at the
'ase to a mile or so. fhe cone it.
elf is of lava in its various phases,
nd some of them are built all about
With fine cinders blown out like
inder and sparks are blown from
orge, the gas in the earth giving
orce to throw them out. In some
tages of the discharge of lava and
inder, great masses of molten lava
yere shot out by force of gas or
team, thrown high in the heavens
nd are now strewn about the cone
nd the plains. These are known
s bombs and cones and have a wide
ange of classification according to
ow they were created and shot out.
One of the principal features of
he park, one that is so large it
hallenges the understanding of the
isitor and leaves him bewildered
Dr. while, is the river of lava. This
5ream had it's source in a great
pring (of Laval about five hundred
set across, and flowed away from
le foot of the mountains in a river
lat spread out a quarter of a mile
ide for the first mile or so, and
len widened as it flowed out upon
lie plains until it formed a lagoon
IN miles across. The spring had
s source in what is known as the
fg Northern Crater, elevation
$50 feet, situated near the en-
ance of the park. Natures geo.
gical record indicates that it over
owed at intervals enough to deposit
often lava in ring around the