, 1925-01-07

recently in the Automobile section
The article and pictures of the can
front page of the special edition. ant
road projects ever undertaken by tn
The building of the Wind River
Canyon highway. five miles south of
Tbermopolis Hot Springs, Wyoming.
has united two great empires of the
west. Until the construction of that
highway the northwestern and east
sern and southern parts of Wyoming
separated by natural barriers
M lch prevented all kinds Of We
kular traffic except light passenger
$~cOnveyances, the latter being pos
sible during only 100 days of the
year.
Big Horn Basin, in the north
western part of Wyoming, is an en-
pire of itself. comprising approx
imately 10000 square miles. 1t is
separated from the eastern part of
the state by the Big Horn range of
the Rocky mountains, and on the
south the Owl Creek range pokes
its peaks to the heights of 5000
feet.
Until the building of the Wind
River canyon highway Birdseye Pass,
an old state route over Owl Creek
rnnge, furnished a rough and pre-
cipitous way for light vehicles dur
ing the three summer months of
the year. Snow made it impossible
at other times. Wind River canyon
highway will be serviceable all the
year.
The north mouth of the Wind
RIVER canyon is five miles south of
Tnermopolis. The road through this
box canyo is eleven miles long.
N~inety-four per cent of the grading
is through granite-diorite-so hard
that specially-made tools were re-
GU ed for drilling the three tun-
IS, aggregate length, 1872 feet.
of the road upwards of $780,
1t is a federal aid project.
Begun in %
FORK was commenced in June,
1922. The first cars passed thru
the canyon January %, 1924. The
highway was thrown open to traffic
April l, 1924. The road is of a
maximum 6 per cent grade, twenty
fee wide, three-foot bitches in cuts
an a maximum curvature of 200
fec radius. The tunnels are Is
ia wide and fourteen feet high.
: is much heavy grading. AT
tvk places there are seventy-foot
GU through solid granite. At the
souchern end two miles of the high.
way cost approximately 500, 0O0
a mile. That part of the road IL
100 per cent diorite and red granite.
one rock extends 1000 feet high.
Twenty years ago prospectore
were swinging into Wind River can
yon from its high stone banks,
sliding down hand over hand on
ropes. Traces of gold were found
in h rocks and panned from the
streams. sight of it convinced
fospectors that there was
Seeking Gold
The traveller who goes through
Wind River canyon on the new hi
way will have the privilege OF SEE.
ing an occasional @prospector for
gold spending his life in search and
u~nconvinced that only traces are to
be found.
Wind river becomes Big Horn riv-
er as it flows north and passes out
of the canyon. At the southern en-
trance there is room only for the
river, but the highway and Denver
Billings line of the Burlington rail
Dad bore their way through on
each side of the river with tunnels,
three tunnels for the highway and
four for the railroad. Fol- the FIRST
five miles the southern end Of the
canyon is so narrow that consider
able engineering skill was required
to locate the highway. Solid roc1
walls rise up to a distance of 1000
feetA above the bed of the river.
Eli are occasionally seen in flight
the top. Elk and peal are
Through Rock
1t is an interesting automobile
experience to dash out of the tun-
nels of solid rock onto a granite
shelf hundreds of feet above the
roaring river, hanging there by the
eyebrows, then over a smooth
highway with plenty of room for
protection and without a dangerous
spot in the whole distance. With
10000 feet of mountain piled on
top of one, in a narrow canyon that
echoes back every sound like a liv-
ing thing, there is real thrill in the