, 1927-07-20

Hill W iCtOhot Y ~ "
mind that brought him away from
the city. Certainly WEAKNESS had
a part in it, and nostalgia for the
great open spaces, and a feeling
thai some of the bigness of the
mountains would be his. if he could
only get out into the sun and the
wind and the high mountain air.
The following article, written after
some two weeks in the West. may
give Westerners an idea of the way
one dude at least feels about the
Buffalo Bill Country.
All you who are city-bound. who
are oppressed by the smell of gas
oline and the sight of brick and
mortar rising tier on tier, come
with me up Hardpan Canyon. 1t
is now seven in the morning. The
rising bell has rung. The break
fast bell has echoed it half an hour
later. Flapjacks, bacon and coffee
have been consumed at the long
Observation-Disclosures table in the
ranch kitchen. And the sun has
just risen in the direction of Table
Mountain. On the porch outside
the kitchen door, a whole family
of tiger tabby cats are crowded for
warmth on a gunnysack, and Beans,
the permanently-waved black Span
Tel pup is .rarin' to go Pick your
Alpen stock from inside the rail
ing and let's take the left hand
trail. This skirts the foothills be-
tween clumps of sagebrush, with
cottonwoods, an underbrush of
wild roses, and here and there a
grassy meadow bordering the creek.
The canyon is noisy with the sound
of water. In the trail are fresh
deer tracks, and, following them,
the petal-shaped footprint of the
coyote. Bean whiffs, and turns
tail. Well, let him go With him
along, one is all too liable to i'm
agine that every bush conceals a
mountain lion.
The trail follows rounded clay
hills, dull gray IN color and treach-
erous with soap holes, sand hills
w~ind-carved bluffs, the color of
yellow ochre,-and comes out onto
a projection, level with the higher
t%ableland, on which there are storm
gnarled pines and holes filled with
rain water. Listen to the wind,
feel its snow-cooled breath against
your cheek,-and you will regard
the world as well lost. OF all
places big with that generosity of
Nature which lays a cooling hand
on fevered brows and says, "Why
all this fret and furry" to people
keyed up to city living, there is no
other place like the Buffalo Bill
country near Cody. Here on the
South Fork of the Shoshone, in a
valley ~sprinkled with dude ranches,
is mountain scenery warranted to
bring peace to the heart. Benches
and shelves rise one above another.
Table-lands alternate with peaks
and ridges. And behind these are
the towering ranges covered with
snow. Canyons, arroyas and draws
as well as river bottoms, offer var
iety; and the landscape is further
enhanced by cloud shadows and as
the sun rises and sets by an ever
changing play of light and shade.
Urged by that perennial mountain
hunger that assails every city dwell
Ter who has known the mountains
in his childhood. I came from New
York to the Double L Bar Ranch
at Ishawooa, Wyoming, early in
May. On May 5th, l wrote in my
diary: This moment will not last,
this divine moment just before
spring when the West presents an
unbroken beige expanse as far as
eye a see. The hills beige, the
mesas beige, the plateaus beige.
along the river beds and creeks
beige cottonwoods like ghosts OF
trees. 1t is as If an artist had
washed in a beige background
against which to pick out the reds,
blacks and yellows of the rocks,
h purple of the shadows. the
indigo of timber and in the far
distance that blue, unbelievable,
bluer than cerulean or ultra marine, |
that marks the far-off mountains.
1 noticed this a week or two ago.
in he Dakota Bad Lands where
burned-out Ignite beds lend the
buckskin mountains a rosy glow.
and until day before yesterday il
was true of the landscape here on
the South Fork. But then snow
fell. the sun came out. and beyond
the wood pile today 1 see the faint
beginnings of the green flood that
viii put leaves where there are
tassels, weeds. where there is bare
soil and deeper patches of green
where the plowman. his face turn
ed Westward, is today furrowing
the sod" Since then, following
Natures memorable calendar, there
Is not a detail but which has
changed. The beige is now green,
along the creek are rusty rose