Over the Uintah Railway and Stage to Vernal

Over the Uintah Railway and Stage to Vernal. BY EDWARD H. ANDERSON. One of the fascinating routes to the Uintah Basin is by way of the D. & R. G., two hundred and seventy-two miles to Mack, Colorado, over the Uintah Railway some fifty miles to Dragon, thence sixty-four miles by stage, over the White and Green rivers to Vernal and the Uintah valley. The enchantment of the desert, the irresistible mysteries of the cliffs,the charms of the Book Cliff range, the wonders of the interminable streaks of gilsonite, like MACK, COLORADO. bJack bands about the earth) and the stupendous vagaries of nature in the once great sea bottom—whose prolific wealth of monster saurians and other various fossils are scattered about in rich profusion—appeal strongly to the imagination of the traveler, and give new delight at every turn. Mack, twenty nr'les west of Grand Junction, is a veritable oasis in the desert of the valley of the Grand river. Here the little narrow-gauge Uintah railway connects with the Rio Grande, leading northward to Dragon, just over the Colorado lire, into Utah. Entering a canyon of the foothills of the Book Cliffs, it passes

680 IMPROVEMENT ERA. over a steadily ascending grade, through strikingly picturesque scenery, some twenty-eight miles to Atchee, at the base of the main range. There is unbroken stillness and profound loneliness all about. Only at Carbonera, a coal mine, are signs of life and human activity. At the base of the main range at Atchee are the round houses of the railway, and it is here that the train, with a special low-wheeled engine, begins its heavy climb to the summit. The summit lies some eight thousand feet above sea-level, and the elevation from Atchee to the pass is two thousand feet. The train passes over six miles of track in attaining the summit—one mile of five percent grade, and five miles of seven and one-half percent, the feat being performed by an engineering accomplishment unique in railroad enterprise. The road was built principally for hauling the great tonnage of gilsonite and other hydrocarbons from the mines in the Uintah basin. As one ascends the mountain side one may look down the valley to Atchee, one and one-half miles in a straight line, and see four tracks over which the train has laboriously wound in slow jerks six miles, sometimes over sixty-six degree curves on seven and one-half percent grades. DESERT FORMATIONS ON THE WAY FROM MACK TO BAXTER PASS.

OVER THE UINTAH RAILWAY. 681 As we climb upward, the eye may rest with perfect delight and wonderment upon the silent but gorgeous panorama of mountain slopes below, of valleys and deserts away beyond, and of snow-tipped mountain ranges in the horizon afar off. There are the Great Continental Divide and the Grand Mesa, to the east; one hundred and fifty miles to the southeast, the San Juan mountains of Colorado; and one hundred and sixty miles south, the La Sal mountains in Southern Utah, rising in majestic grandeur to hide the valleys that lead to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. The Book Cliffs, upon the summit of which at length we now stand, at the wonderful Baxter Pass, is a precipitous range extending some two hundred miles in an east and west course from the mountains of Colorado to the Wasatch and Uintah ranges of Utah, crossing the broad valleys of the Grande and Green rivers like a majestic rampart, and providing an unobstructed view on either side for hundreds of miles. North, over the summit, a new and beautiful panorama is unfolded; a little valley stretches out to the grand canyon of White river; one may gaze over the old Uncompahgre reservation i'-L'.*'iS^iiLajg fiSStt Jtffi'j££f, r- ■' ■ ' i n TBt8il#lifiiitriMillBSti -- *=. z^vrpr/^ ;'j' --. .f_ ; Ih BEGINNING THE CLIMB TO BAXTER PASS, UINTAH RY.

682 IMPROVEMENT ERA. to Raven ridge and Blue mountain, and across the reservation to the lake-bespangled Uintahs in the northwest, one hundred and fifty miles away. There are grandeurs everywhere—marvelous combinations of colors, pronounced lights and shadows, the scent of pines and aspens carried by the playing breezes, the blue sky above, and silence eternal in the atmosphere. As we descend along the crest of the range there are beautiful trees, springs of pure water, cozy nooks for the camper, mountain sunshine, a land of romance with untrodden wilderness all about—game lurking in the nearby fastnesses of the everlasting hills —bear, mountain lions, wclves, deer and smaller animals. Then there are curious hills and wonderful canyons. At length the engine whistles for Dragon—a town in box canyon. The fine railroad hotel, built of concrete, lies close up to the huge rock of one side of the box—steam-heated, gas-lighted and equipped with baths, books and magazines—modern, live civilization in dead environment. In and about the place a great variety of fossils are scattered in rich profusion. A well-preserved, petMORO CASTLE, UINTAH RY.—SIXTY PER CENT CURVE, SEVEN AND A HALF PER CENT GRADE.

OVER THE UINTAH RAILWAY. 683 rifled turtle,dug that day from the debris of ages while the workmen were fixing a road, was brought to the hotel; and it was related BAXTER PASS, UINTAH RY., ELEVATION 8660 FEET. A LAKE SCENE IN THE UINTAHS. that only a few miles away, resting in a great rift of rock, lie the vertebra of an immense snake or lizard fully sixty feet in length— perhaps some monster of the ancient deep.

684 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Early connections are made next morning for Vernal and other points, by stage or automobile, over modern, winding, wellmade roads. The whole trip offers sights and experiences that are new and thrilling at every turn. Canyon walls rise hundreds of feet, with colors in yellow, gray, brown, red and vermillion, the great masses ruthlessly riven, grotesque and terrible, like the troubled dreams of Dore. Crossing the old wooden bridge over the White river at Ignatio, the road skirts the banks of the river for WHITE RIVER. On the road between Dragon and Vernal. HAIR PIN CURVE, UINTAH RY. some distance to Valhalla. It was perhaps named so from the fact that in this realm indeed is the hall of the slain. The forces of nature have here sported with broken mountain sides, and played toy with their tops. Obelisks, temples, towering pinnacles, amphitheatres, rocks set on edge, rise in confounded confusion—the home of owls and ravens. Four miles from White river at Bonanza, and the traveler gazes down from the upper level of the Green river basin. Here one may take roads east to Rangely, Colorado, northwest to Ouray and Fort Duchesne, and northwesterly to Vernal and the Ashley valley. The road to the latter place is no less full of interest than the country already traversed, One stands overlooking the immense Uintah basin, with a surface area of eight thousand four hundred square miles from the summit of the Wasatch, on the west, to the Utah-Colorado line on the east, one hundred and fifty miles; from the mighty Uintahs on the north, to the Book Cliffs on the south, an average distance of perhaps seventy or eighty miles. The Green river, the sole rem-

OVER THE UINTAH RAILWAY. 685 nant of the ancient sea, rolls over its hidden bed with all its age, fossils and mystery. The White river, and the Duchesne with its scores of splendid streams that drain the reservation, join the Green, which in turn empties its waters into the world-renowned Colorado, to continue its way through the Grand Canyon of Arizona, past the Needles,and into the great Pacific ocean, an arm of which once doubtless enveloped the whole wild and the mcandrew's lake,uintah ry. wondrous district. Five million acres of land in the Uintah valley, with an average elevation of from five to six thousand feet above sea level, rich in mineral, oil products, coal and agricultural territory, with an abundance of grass, wood and water, lie before the astonished gaze of the visitor. He imagines himself the center of a circle whose horizon is bounded all about by mountain tops, upon whose sunny slopes, and in whose glens, gullies, platteaus and valleys will one day move a world of happy people in a hundred thrifty towns. In Vernal and nearby settlements are located about eight thousand prosperous people, and looking from there west to the Wasatch, over the great basin, including the south slope of the Uintahs where, too, are now growing towns, the beholder wonders why so many people born in Utah hunt the West over for desirable land and homes, when right at the door is this remarkable Uintah basin. A Chinese student, disheartened, threw down his books in despair, when, seeing a woman rubbing a crowbar on a stone, he inquired the reason, and was told she wanted a needle, and thought she would rub down the crowbar till she got it small enough! Provoked by this example to "try again," he took to his studies, and became one of the foremost scholars of the empire.